AN AUTOGRAPH LETTER FROM EDWARD VIII WHEN PRINCE OF WALES

signed ('David') and addressed to his mistress Mrs Freda Dudley Ward, reading "Darling, darling sweetheart, my family have just left and I'm scribbling this little note before we sail!! Bless you for your sweet little letter which I've just opened and read and all the divine marvellous things you say to your little boy darling. God! I'm miserable beloved one waiting till we sail at 6.00. It will be better once we shove off and get out to sea. I wanted to give Bertie [his brother, later King George VI] a tiny note for you angel but never got a chance to write a word; I've asked him to ring you up when he gets back to London and perhaps you will see him a moment so that he can give you my love and news of me!! My very own darling precious beloved little Fredie I did feel such a brute coming round this morning after all you said and when I knew you didn't want me to. But sweetheart I just couldn't keep away; pleath [sic] try to forgive me and not be too angwy [sic] and I feel happier having seen your darling sacred little self since last night when I was in such rotten form and so foul to you angel!! God!! how I love you love you darling darling sweetheart madly and desparately [sic] and I'm merely living for my return to YOU; this trip will only be an existence tho' I'm going to work so so hard darling to try to make it a success and I shall be so busy that I think the time will go quickly!! I'll write a little bit every day and post letters whenever I can do to 1, Cumberland Terrace and you'll always write to St James' Palace wont [sic] you baby mine? No time for more as last orderly leaves ship with letters at 5.00 and I do so want you to get this to-morrow morning!! Au revoir petite chérie adorée à moi and bless you bless you for ever for all your marvellous divine sweetness to your v.v. [very very] own devoted petit amoureux, your David', with a cramped PS written vertically underneath the signature across the page at head of the first page, 'You [I] will be thinking of you every second Fredie darling darling till we meet again. How I love you love you for having cried so much sweetheart it was divine of you to feel like that and God I feel like howling just now", four pages, light creasing, 8vo, HMS Renown, 5 August 1919, with original mailing envelope addressed in the Prince's hand, mounted for display, overall size 36.5 x 70cm; with a copy of Trethewey (Rachel) Before Wallis: Edward VIII's Other Women, The History Press, 2018. (2)