EVIIIELOPE

You're wondering perhaps why I've given my pushing the envelope blog such a curious title. Let me explain the thinking behind EVIIIELOPE. I wanted the content to be literally philatelic, about stamps and envelopes and pillar boxes, but I also wanted it to be slightly metaphorical. 

Cue mention in the news this week about Charles III being diagnosed with cancer merely months into his second year on the throne. That made me reflect on the short reign of Edward VIII which  lasted less than a single year, from January to December 1936. 

In that brief span, pillar boxes bearing Edward's cypher EviiiR were cast and installed; and stamps bearing his head were issued in various denominations in the UK and throughout the commonwealth. Envelopes posted with those stamps were pushed into pillar boxes and ultimately through citizens' letter boxes over a period of months while Edward himself wrestled with the idea of trying to push the envelope of accepted behaviour for an English king.     

a rare sighting of an Edward VIII pillar box (in Lancaster)

Those of you who know your 20th century English history will recollect that young Edward, when he was Prince of Wales, was a bit of a ladies man, in the tradition of his grandfather, Edward VII. He had a string of female friends (mistresses in effect) and he was introduced by one of these, Lady Furness, to Wallis Simpson some time in 1931. Wallis, an American national, was already on her second marriage to British shipping broker Ernest Simpson when she met the Prince. It is generally accepted that she and Edward had become lovers by 1934, much to the disapproval of Edward's father, George V. There is even strong evidence that Edward and Wallis's activities were tracked by the Metropolitan Police on the orders of the State.

When Edward became King in 1936, he made it known that he wished to marry Wallis and make her his Queen Consort as soon as her divorce from Simpson permitted. He was determined to exercise the same droit de seigneur that his namesake eighth (good old Henry) had done some four hundred years earlier. But his attempt to push the envelope of British constitutional and social conventions met with resistance far stiffer than Henry VIII  had faced. The Government opposed Edward's wish and the Church of England (of which he was titular head) reminded him that it did not permit divorced people to remarry in church if their ex-spouses were still alive. The constitutional crisis came to a head in December 1936 when Edward decided to abdicate, to give up the throne rather than give up Wallis Simpson. His younger brother succeeded him as George VI and Edward, taking the title of Duke of Windsor, married Wallis the following year. They remained married until his death in 1972. 

Records indicate that 271 Edward VIII post boxes were made, of which 161 were pillar boxes like the one shown above, and the balance was wall boxes (typically at sub-post offices). The majority of the latter disappeared when their buildings were knocked down. It is thought that about 130 Edward Vlll pillar boxes are still in use. (Apparently there is a website listing them all. I've avoided it.)

As for the stamps, a set of four definitives was  issued in the UK in September 1936 to mark Edward's accession. The Post Office invited designs and the series (halfpenny green, penny red, penny-halfpenny brown and twopence-halfpenny blue) was based partly on a design submitted by a seventeen year old schoolboy (one Hubert Brown) and partly on a recent photogravure portrait of Edward by Hugh Cecil. The Post Office was reluctant to acknowledge Hubert Brown's involvement, beyond sending him a letter that stated: "you will see that the design which has been selected bears some features in common with that which you suggested. " In the ordinary course of events more Edward VIII stamps would have followed, including pictorials, but his abdication within three month of the stamps being issued stopped those projects dead.

a letter with Edward VIII definitive stamps (posted in September 1936)

For a new poem this week, I'm pushing the envelope myself in that I've fired up the imaginarium to concoct an epistolatory poem agreeing to an elopement. It seemed fitting, with Valentine's Day fast approaching. Let me know if you think it works.

Love Letter To Gilbert Densley

My dearest darling Gilbert,

how my heart aches to be with you again.

I've done little else but think over

what you proposed last Tuesday,

have cried myself to sleep most nights

and wish I had a friend to confide 

my racing thoughts to, 

but to share our secret would undo us

as you said. Every fibre of my being

tells me I cannot live without you and so

the answer is yes, yes, a hundred times.

That you are willing to leave your wife

for love of me is all that I could ask

or hope for. I know what people will say

and it will look like we are running away

but I want you so much. You are my fate

and other considerations matter little.

So I have sold my diamond ring

though I have not told Bernard yet 

for obvious reasons.

Meet me at the top of  Christmas Steps 

at eight on Saturday. I will bring just a bag

of clothes and what money I have. I will leave

notes for Bernard and for Mum and Dad.

This is scary but exciting. I suppose 

we will go by bus to Clevedon or Weston

to begin our new life, in lodgings at first

and taking any kind of work. 

I do not care as long as we are together.

I am giddy and delirious at the prospect 

and I promise that I will make you so happy.

With all my passionate love for ever,

your Evie. S.W.A.L.K.

Thanks for reading my post, S;-)