By far the most important collection of manuscripts relating to the life and reign of King Edward VIII is to be found in the Royal Archives at Windsor (RA). These include a substantial number of papers which the Duke of Windsor had with him in France at the time of his death and which the Duchess agreed should be deposited at Windsor because they concerned the affairs of the royal family (RA Duke of Windsor’s papers and RA Duke of Windsor’s papers Add Mss 1, 2 and 3). Certain papers of Lord Hardinge, Lord Monckton and Lord Wigram have also been deposited in the Royal Archives.
Many important papers on the subject are to be found in the Public Record Office, particularly in the PRO CAB, PREM, CO, FO and WO series, in PRO 954 33 (Lord Avon’s papers) and 30/69 (Ramsay MacDonald’s diary); in the India Office Library (IO MSS EUR E and F); and in the National Archives in Washington (in particular NA 841 001, 844 E and 033 4120).
There are many collections of letters, diaries and relevant papers deposited in public institutions, notably those of Earl Baldwin (Cambridge University Library), Lord Beaverbrook (House of Lords), Neville Chamberlain (University of Birmingham), Winston Churchill (Churchill College), Archbishop Randall Davidson (Lambeth Palace Library), Geoffrey Dawson (News International Record Office), Canon Alan Don (Lambeth Palace Library), Bryan Godfrey-Fausset (Churchill College), the Duc de Grantmesnil (Kenneth de Courcy) (Hoover Institution), the Earl of Halifax (Borthwick Institute), Lord Harvey of Tasburgh (British Library), Archbishop Cosmo Lang (Lambeth Palace Library), Alan Lascelles (Churchill College), Earl Lloyd-George (House of Lords), Lord Monckton (Bodleian Library), Harold Nicolson (Balliol College), Eric Phipps (Churchill College), Henry Pownall (Liddell Hart Centre), the Marquess and Marchioness of Reading (India Office Library), Martin Scanlon (Maxwell Air Force Base Archives), Lord Templewood (Cambridge University Library).
Among those collections of letters and diaries in private hands I have consulted those of John Aird, Leo Amery, Cecil Beaton, Maître Suzanne Blum, the Marquis de Breteuil, Lord Brownlow, Victor Cazalet, Lady Coke, Lady Diana Cooper, Duff Cooper (Lord Norwich), the Earl of Cromer, Lady Donaldson, Freda Dudley Ward, Thomas Dugdale (Lord Crathorne), William Fellowes, Lord Glenusk, Edward and Joan Grigg (Lord and Lady Altrincham), Lord Hardinge, Millicent Howard, R. D. P. H. Hutchinson, Charles Johnston, William Lambton, Piers Legh, Edward and Lady Alexandra Metcalfe, Earl Mountbatten of Burma, Bruce Ogilvy, Edward Peacock, Patrick Reilly, Lord Revelstoke, Kenneth Rose, Mrs Alfred Shaughnessy, Godfrey Thomas, Axel Wenner-Gren.
The Duke of Windsor’s memoirs covering his life up to the time of the abdication, A King’s Story (London, 1951), and the Duchess’s autobiography The Heart Has Its Reasons (London, 1956) are indispensable sources for any study of the life of Edward VIII. The Duke’s other published works are The Crown and the People (London, 1953) and A Family Album (London, 1960).
The most important biography of King Edward VIII is that of Lady Donaldson, Edward VIII (London, 1974). Michael Bloch’s contributions to the field are equally essential: The Duke of Windsor’s War (London, 1982); Operation Willi. The Plot to Kidnap the Duke of Windsor (London, 1984); his editing of two volumes of the Windsors’ correspondence, Wallis and Edward. The Intimate Correspondence, 1931–1937, of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor (London, 1986), The Secret File of the Duke of Windsor (London, 1988); and The Reign and Abdication of Edward VIII (London, 1990) which the author kindly let me read in typescript. J. Bryan III and Charles V. Murphy’s The Windsor Story (London, 1979) contains much information not to be found elsewhere. Lord Beaverbrook’s The Abdication of King Edward VIII, ed., A. J. P. Taylor (London, 1966) is unreliable but contains much of interest. Other books about the Duke and Duchess of Windsor are mentioned as necessary in the reference notes.
It would be superfluous to recapitulate all those other books which are cited in those notes, but it might be useful to mention a few of those which, for one reason or another, proved of particular value: Lord Birkenhead, Walter Monckton (London, 1969); Sarah Bradford, King George VI (London, 1989); The Crawford Papers, ed., John Vincent (Manchester, 1984); Documents on German Foreign Policy, Series C, Vols. IV and V and Series D Vols. VII, VIII and X; Journals and Letters of Reginald Viscount Esher, ed., Maurice V. Brett, Vols. 1, 2 and 3 (London, 1934–38); Martin Gilbert, Winston Churchill, Vols. 5, 6, 7 and 8 (London, 1976–88); John Gore, King George V. A Personal Memoir (London, 1958); Helen Hardinge, Loyal to Three Kings (London, 1967); Lloyd George. A Diary by Frances Stevenson, ed., A. J. P. Taylor (London, 1971); Keith Middlemas and John Barnes, Baldwin (London, 1969); Harold Nicolson, George V. His Life and Reign (London, 1952); James Pope-Hennessy, Queen Mary (London, 1959); Kenneth Rose, King George V (London, 1983); John W. Wheeler-Bennett, King George VI (London, 1958).