The controversial Wallis Simpson

My hometown of Ipswich, Suffolk, England was a prosperous settlement when William the Norman landed in 1066. Many famous names have been associated with the town during its long history – from Cardinal Wolsey and King Henry VIII to Lord Nelson and Charles Dickens.  A story in Dickens’ Pickwick Papers is set in the town’s Great White Horse Hotel.

Perhaps not as well known is the fact that Wallis Simpson’s divorce from her husband Ernest Aldrich Simpson was heard at the Suffolk Assizes in Ipswich in October, 1936. Mr. Justice Hawke granted a decree nisi to Mrs. Simpson. The proceedings lasted 25 minutes and there was no mention whatever of her relationship with King Edward VIII.

Wallis Simpson had moved from London to the peaceful seaside resort of Felixstowe, 11 miles from Ipswich, to establish residence before the case was heard. She stayed at a modest establishment known as Beach House.

In June 1937, the former king, who had visited Ipswich as Prince of Wales in 1921, married Mrs. Simpson.

I was far too young to remember this event but in later years it was often recalled that the controversial Mrs. Simpson, who became the Duchess of Windsor on her marriage to the former king, had attempted to avoid the press by having her divorce hearing held in Ipswich. Her manoeuvre did not work. Many journalists and photographers from Britain and abroad descended on Ipswich for the hearing although the British national press was surprisingly silent on the affair.