During the hunting season Burrough Court was always full of guests who hunted with the Quorn. The house took on the atmosphere of a club. The guests had their own private jokes that no one else could understand and all the conversation was about horseflesh. After breakfast on a Sunday morning, Duke took all his guests down to the mock-Tudor stables to watch his grooms parade his thoroughbreds. Guests entered the stableyard through an archway with a clock tower to find dozens of loose boxes and a tack room displaying silver cups and trophies. There was a special boot room next to the butler’s pantry where shoes and riding boots were kept. Lord Furness was obsessed with tidiness and always had to look immaculate. A boot boy spent all day polishing and cleaning his shoes, and the laces had to be ironed before Duke would wear them.49 His horses also had to look as smart as their owner; each one had four blankets and sheets in the Furness colours of plum and gold, which were washed and ironed after every use. Not a strand of straw from the horses’ bedding was permitted to ruin the pristine appearance of the freshly painted white chalk in front of the stable doors.50
Thelma found this preoccupation with everything equestrian dull because she did not enjoy riding. More to her taste was organising the hunt ball at Burrough. Everything had to be perfect for the Furnesses’ special night. The ballroom was decorated in the Furness racing colours and every few feet bales of straw dyed black, white and red were held together with exotic flowers from Burrough’s greenhouses. All the men came dressed in their pink coats while the women wore full evening dress and jewels. To add to the sophistication of the evening, Thelma hired Harris’s band from the Embassy Club to play for her guests.51 The ball went brilliantly. The new Lady Furness passed her first test with flying colours, proving herself to be the perfect hostess.
In March 1929 Thelma’s happiness seemed complete when she gave birth to a boy named William Anthony (known as ‘Tony’). Although she was now a mother, Thelma’s routine changed little. She was part of a generation of society women whose children were taken care of by nannies. Excessive preoccupation with your children was thought to be a bourgeois characteristic.52 Later, when Thelma was on the defensive about her lack of a maternal instinct, she blamed English nannies for totally taking over the care of a baby as soon as a mother handed her child over to them. She claimed that she spent as much time with her son as his nanny would allow.53 Her niece, Gloria, partly corroborated her story. She recalled that Tony’s nurse was ‘awful’; she insisted on wearing a hat all the time and hated it when Thelma came into the nursery. Gloria nicknamed her ‘Old Witch Nurse’. 54 Freda Dudley Ward was unusual in being such an involved mother; Thelma was more typical with her arm’s-length approach to childrearing.
Lady Furness and most of her circle of women lacked meaningful occupation. No longer were hours taken up with letter writing as the telephone by the bedside was the new means of communication with friends. Yet, instead of spending their spare time with their children, their days were spent in a round of social engagements. They usually dined out most evenings, lunched out every day and went to the country for house parties at weekends.55 Their purpose was primarily decorative rather than practical. However, Thelma soon found herself redundant even in this limited role. According to her memoirs, only a few months after she gave birth Duke’s eye began to stray. One evening, they were at the Embassy Club when a glamorous American called Peggy Hopkins Joyce walked in. Thelma had known Peggy in her past. Mrs Hopkins Joyce was known as ‘the queen of alimony’; she had been married to five millionaires and it is said that the term ‘gold-digger’ was invented to describe her. It was claimed that she refused to let one of her husbands into the bedroom until he had signed her a cheque for $500,000. She later hit him over the head with a champagne bottle but excused herself by saying that he seemed to like it. Like Thelma, she had dated Charlie Chaplin.56 For some inexplicable reason, Thelma bet Duke £10 that he could not get Mrs Hopkins Joyce to dance with him. Duke won the bet, and after his dance with Peggy they started having an affair. Shortly after they met, Duke went to stay at his new mistress’s villa in Monte Carlo. Apparently, Peggy was not his only lover; there were also rumours that Lord Furness was having an affair with a young widow.57
Thelma claimed that if Duke had remained a faithful husband she would have been a faithful wife. She was deeply hurt by his infidelity and she felt very alone in a strange country.58 According to her memoir, it was in the summer of 1929, shortly after she discovered Lord Furness was having an affair, that she met the Prince of Wales again at an agricultural show in Leicestershire. As she saw a young man pinning a blue ribbon on one of the prize cows, she realised it was the prince, with whom she had so enjoyed dancing three years before. When he saw her he immediately came over and congratulated her on the birth of her son. He then asked if she planned to come up to London during the summer. When she said that she came to London regularly, he asked her to meet him for dinner the following week. Disillusioned with her husband and attracted to the prince, she accepted eagerly.59
A woman friend of the prince claimed that she was told a different story by Thelma about how the affair began. Lady Furness had been at a house party one weekend and met Edward. By chance, they were both on the same train coming back to London. To her surprise, the prince’s equerry knocked on the door of her train compartment and asked her to join the heir to the throne because it was such a long journey and he was bored.60 Newspaper and magazine accounts also suggest that Thelma’s story in her memoir may not be totally accurate. They show that although she claimed not to have seen the prince for several years after their first meeting, they were at some of the same events and even danced together before the summer of 1929. In December 1926 The Tatler described a party at Craven Lodge where the Prince of Wales and the Duke of York were guests. It had been given by Mrs Jackie de Pret, who arranged for the Café de Paris band to be brought down from London to play. The prince danced the Charleston ‘strenuously without ceasing’. The gossip columnist recorded that his partners included Lady Furness, Joey Legh’s wife Sarah and Freda’s youger sister Vera.61 The prince and Thelma were also both at the Melton Hunt Ball in January 1928 but the prince in ‘hunting pink’ had plenty of other distractions that evening as Freda, Rosemary Ednam and Audrey Dudley Coats were also at the dance.62
It seems strange that Thelma did not mention these earlier meetings in her memoir. It is highly unlikely that Thelma would have forgotten dancing the Charleston with Edward. It was a momentous event for any young woman to dance with the Prince of Wales, particularly for one as starstruck by the heir to the throne as Thelma clearly was. Perhaps she omitted it because it did not fit the fairy tale she was trying to create. Any subterfuge also had more pragmatic reasons. It was important for Lady Furness to establish with precision the date when her relationship with the prince began because her son Tony was born in 1929. According to Duke’s stepdaughter, Lord Furness doubted whether Tony was his child. He always referred to him as ‘the bastard’ and rarely saw him.63 There is no conclusive evidence either way about who fathered Thelma’s only child. It seems unlikely that he was the prince’s son. As an adult, Tony always denied it and it was said that he bore a striking resemblance to his paternal grandfather.64 However, by the time Thelma wrote her memoir, two decades later, it was essential to establish her son’s legitimacy as he had inherited the Furness title and much of the fortune. To allay any suspicions about Tony’s paternity, she had to minimise any reference to contact she had with the prince before her son’s birth. Ironically, by covering up meetings Thelma drew attention to the timing and cast doubt on her story: it makes it look as though she had something to hide.
Thelma showed no similar amnesia about her first date with the prince. In her memoir, Thelma recorded in detail the dinner that was to prove such a turning point in her life. They sat by the fire and drank cocktails at the prince’s home, York House, before going out to dine at the Hotel Splendide. Thelma found that Edward was easy to talk to. They discussed her eld
er sister, Consuelo, who was married to a diplomat, Benjamin Thaw. When the prince visited Buenos Aires, the American ambassador was away so the Thaws entertained the heir to the throne. Edward had got on very well with them and they became friends.65
The Hotel Splendide was famous for its food and its Viennese orchestra. During the evening, Thelma and the prince waltzed again. Thelma described the admiring looks the prince gave her as they danced. When they talked, it seemed as if they had always known each other. It felt natural and right for her to be with him. At the end of the evening, when the prince asked if he could call her again soon, she readily agreed.66 Lady Furness and Edward began to see each other regularly. Thelma said that he was just what she needed at this time. He was the opposite of Duke, and his gentleness and shyness appealed to her.67 They were seen at the newly redecorated Café de Paris which, when it reopened in 1929, had been painted red, green and gold. In keeping with the new fashion, short dresses were replaced with svelte long evening gowns. Thelma led the trend by wearing glamorous, figure-skimming dresses with her distinctive necklace of large black pearls.68
As the months went by, Thelma was seen more often than Freda in nightclubs dancing with the prince. However, Lady Furness’s relationship with Edward was always less deep than his bond with his established mistress. Attractive though Thelma was, she could never replace Freda, as she lacked the intelligence and integrity of her rival. Elsa Schiaparelli explained that although Thelma was very beautiful she was ‘heavy’ to talk to. She was friendly and always chattering, but she had no repartee.69 Edward’s attraction to Thelma was superficial and throughout their affair Freda was always there in the background. Thelma was light relief; their conversations were never profound, they just discussed trivialities and gossiped about people they knew.70 Unlike with Freda, he did not bare his soul to her or discuss his deepest beliefs. Thelma recognised that he was a complex personality, but she never came near to understanding him. He did not need her to, as Freda was still there, playing the role of mother confessor in his life. She no longer wanted to party all the time and according to her family it is unlikely that Freda was still in a sexual relationship with the prince, so Thelma conveniently acted as an attractive substitute.
In 1929 Edward found his first real home of his own. He persuaded his father to allow him to use Fort Belvedere, a castellated folly in Windsor Great Park above Virginia Water. Although when he took it on it was a run-down ruin, the prince could see the Fort’s potential. The Fort had been built in the eighteenth century but eighty years later the architect Sir Jeffry Wyatville enlarged the folly for George IV to include a tall tower and create the effect of a castle in a forest. Reflecting her superior position, it was Freda, not Thelma, who advised Edward on the redesign and decoration of his home. While he was away, she visited the Fort to oversee the work. New central heating and bathrooms were put in, built-in wardrobes were added, and a swimming pool and tennis court were created in the grounds. Freda’s understated good taste predominated throughout. Thelma’s influence on the design was more minimal; this was fortunate judging by the changes that she did make. She had one guest room decorated in shocking pink and she added Prince of Wales feathers to the top of the four-poster bed. Apparently, the prince was very amused by this display of vulgarity.71
In the early stages of their relationship Thelma had a dilemma. She wanted to spend as much time as possible with the prince, but she also had to keep up appearances and not flout their affair or she would antagonise her powerful husband. In public Thelma continued to play the loyal wife, attending balls, charity galas and garden parties with Duke. In private she shared her life with the heir to the throne. As always, her twin Gloria helped her. She came to England and rented a house called ‘Three Gables’ at Sunningdale, which was very close to the Fort. Gloria provided a safe place where Thelma and Edward could meet away from public view. Thelma’s older sister, Consuelo, also supported her sibling. Her husband, Benjamin Thaw, had been made diplomatic attaché to the Court of St James. The Thaws moved into a town house in Farm Street, thus providing another private place for the prince and his new girlfriend to meet.72
Inevitably, Thelma soon became the prince’s mistress. In 1930 Edward continued the East African safari he had cut short due to his father’s illness. The following month, Lord and Lady Furness were also in Kenya. As Thelma explained, her sophisticated husband took her relationship with the heir to the throne in his stride. Duke had sometimes joined the prince and Thelma at the Embassy Club and he even invited his rival to stay at Burrough Court. Sharing his wife with Edward while they were in Africa did not seem to bother him either. When the prince invited the Furnesses to join his safari, Duke turned down the invitation and allowed Thelma to go on her own.73
Safaris were full of adventure and the risk of danger, but the camps were as luxurious as money could make them. When they returned in the evenings hunters would drink sundowner cocktails or chilled champagne, then have a relaxing hot bath in a canvas tub. They would then sit down to dinner, often in their pyjamas and dressing gowns, on tables in the open air. As the night grew cooler a large campfire would be lit.74 Guests slept under mosquito nets in green canvas the size of a ship’s cabin. In her memoir, Thelma described in ecstatic terms her idyllic holiday with the prince. There were forty guests on the safari, but Thelma was only interested in Edward. Each morning he woke her up in her tent before he left for the bush in search of wild animals. As he filmed wildlife with his camera, she followed him with her Bell-Howell camera, recording his every move. The prince’s tent was next to hers and once all the other guests had gone to bed, the lovers would meet up and sit by the embers of the dying fire beneath the vast, star-studded African sky. She described East Africa as their ‘Eden’, and wrote in purple prose about their lovemaking.75 Like Freda before her, she lived for the moment, not sure when her affair with the Prince of Wales would end. She claimed that she never wanted or expected to become queen.76
When the ‘enchanted’ safari was over, Thelma was due to rejoin her husband.77 Edward decided that he would drive her in an open-top car the 40 miles across trackless country to meet their train. However, his romantic gesture went disastrously wrong. Halfway through the journey Edward suddenly became seriously ill; he slumped over the steering wheel and was breathing shallowly. Thelma was terrified that he might die. Somehow, he managed to continue driving, and they reached the train but by the time they arrived his temperature was 105 degrees. Doctors diagnosed him as suffering from malaria. Distraught though she was, Thelma had to leave him in Kenya while she returned to England with her husband.78
Unknown to Lady Furness, while she was waxing lyrical about her romance the prince was still writing love letters to Freda. At the start of the safari, he wrote to his long-term mistress calling her ‘My darling angel’, and sending ‘all my love darling from David’.79 There was none of the sense of the euphoria he had felt in the early days of his relationship with Freda at the start of his new affair. Evidently, he was doing some soul searching while he was away. He told Freda that he dreaded returning to his duties in England. He felt that he was getting too old for ‘stunting’ which he complained was ‘artificial nonsense’ and made him look a ‘fool’. He added: ‘How sad it is to get as old and cynical as I’ve gotten and as discontented.’ It seems that Thelma was unable to bolster his confidence and shake him out of his moods in the way Freda could. He told his trusted confidante that he felt ‘sunk’ and his ‘inferiority complex’ was worse than usual. He wanted to cry to her because he knew that she would understand.80 In another letter, he told Freda he wished that she was with him. He was excited about returning to her. He added: ‘I do love you so but you know that. All my love and blessings are yours, David.’81
Throughout his affair with Lady Furness, he continued to telephone Freda every morning and visit her most afternoons. There was no doubt that she still came first in his affections. When their old friend Sheila Milbanke (formerly Loughborough) invited t
he prince to the Derby Ball in 1930 he would only accept the invitation if Freda also attended.82 Like so many of his other flings, Freda knew about Edward’s relationship with Thelma and, to his disappointment, she was unconcerned. She even teased him about his American girlfriend’s romantic illusions.83 She could tell that Lady Furness was no permanent threat to her position. The prince also remained as involved as ever in Freda’s domestic life with her daughters. Angie would visit him on her own at St James’s Palace for tea or play golf with the prince.84
Although there was no prospect of exclusivitiy, back in England Thelma’s affair with the prince intensified. They saw each other all the time and Duke no longer joined them. It seems that Lord Furness minded more than his wife was willing to admit. In his diary, the gossip columnist and diplomat Sir Robert Bruce Lockhart wrote that Duke had been seen at Le Touquet, while Thelma was ‘going great guns’ with the prince at Bayonne. Mutual friends thought that he was miserable about his wife’s affair.85
The prince and Thelma spent weekends together and were seen at nightclubs and private parties as a couple.86 However, she remained second best, not his first choice. It was Freda’s decision, not the prince’s, that they saw less of each other. Friends believed that she could get Edward back if she wanted but, apparently, she did not want to.87 While Edward was involved with Thelma, Freda had many distractions in her life meaning there was less time available for his demands. Her daughters had grown into beautiful young women and they were beginning to have love affairs of their own. When they were sent to Munich to learn German Pempie fell in love with a much older man who was head of the opera. Freda often visited the girls in Germany. On her return to England, Pempie came out as a debutante. She was featured among ‘the bevy of beautiful buds’ photographed for The Queen Magazine.88 It was said that Freda looked too young to be chaperoning Pempie, and they seemed more like sisters than mother and daughter.89
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