This photograph of the Prince
of Wales, the future King Edward VIII, appeared in The Tatler on 12 August
1914, the magazine's first war-related issue. Despite being several
inches below the required height, the Prince was granted a commission in the
Grenadier Guards at Warley Barracks in Brentwood soon after the outbreak of
war. The regiment was put on forty-eight hour standby and the Prince's
nervous but determined expression hints perhaps at the expectation that he would
be sent to the front at any moment. Certainly The Tatler printed the
picture as an example to all unmarried men who were wavering about volunteering
to serve.
In the event, before he could join his unit in France, he was told by his father, George V, that Lord Kitchener would not permit the future King of England to face the enemy in action, or to risk capture. 'What does it matter?' fumed the Prince, who argued that he had four brothers to take his place if anything were to happen to him.
Eventually, the Prince went to
France, where he served on the staff of Major-General Lord Cavan, with the
proviso that he should be kept well away from the fighting. On one
occasion, when he accompanied the divisional commander on an excursion to the
front during the Battle of Loos, he returned to his car to find his driver had
been killed by flying shrapnel.
Despite the fact the Prince did not take part in fighting, he was a popular figure throughout the war, playing a morale-boosting role during visits to France, Palestine and Italy. Portraits taken later in the war show a more mature and self-assured individual in marked contrast to the nervous-looking boy pictured in August 1914.
Luci Gosling
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