KING’S FRIEND.

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 301, 4 December 1936, Page 5

KING’S FRIEND.

Story Of Mrs. Ernest Simpson Before her first marriage Mrs Simpson was Bessie Wallis Warfield. She was born in Baltimore, U.S.A. c An uncle was for many years president of the Seaboard Airline Railway in the United States .She is also distantly related to a former Governor Warfield, of Maryland. Mrs Simpson is 42 years of age. She is slim and dark, and has a reputation of wearing smart, but simplydesigned clothes, and for being one of the, best-groomed women in London. It is also said that the King once described her as having the most beautiful voice in the world. She speaks with a soft southern American drawl, and is celebrated for her wit and hep conversational vivacity". She is also an expert ballroom dancer, and is fond of gardening, with house decoration as a minor hobby.

First and Second Marriages. When she was 22 Wallis Warfield married Lieutenant Winfield Spencer, of the United States Navy, the wedding being a. fashionable one. The Spencers were, moved ’to Pasadena, but in 1927 Mrs Spencer returned to Baltimore and obtained a divorce on the grounds of incompatibility. On July 27, 1928, she 'marricqi Ernest Simpson, a Canadian broker, who resided in London. The marriage took place at a Chelsea registry office. Mr Simpson, a former Officer of the, Coldstream Guards, introduced his wife 'to London society, where her popularity was said to be immediate apd widespread in the more Bohemian circles. “She had a glib, quick, tongue,” remarks one writer, ’’an ability to absorb opinions from books and people and make them her own —a 'tireless vitality.” Mrs Simpson is reported to have met the then Prince of Wales through Lady Furness, sister of Mrs Gloria Vanderbilt, and in the summer of 1935 she was present when the then Prince of Wales entertained a few of his friends on the "Duke of Westminster’s yacht, the Cutty Sark. Together with Mrs Simpson’s aunt, Mrs Buchanan Merryman, of Washington, they visited Biarritz, Cannes, Kiizbuhel, in Austria, and other Continental resorts. “The Prince,” correspondents reported, “asked her at Cannes to act as hostess for a cocktail party he was giving for a number of diplomats and noblemen. The Prince, when they journeyed separ- | alely, met Mrs Simpson's train and saw to her luggage. He galvanised the smart society of the Continent by choosing a costume that blended with hers. I

Incidents on Contiitenl One incident given prominence in the American Press occurred at Cannes whun the Prince inspected the British destroyer. 11.M.5. Wishart, and was accompanied by Mrs Simpson. .At Budapest Mrs Simpson interested Continental fashion writers by wearing a dinner coat of coloured spun glass, and' when She danced with the Prince she wore a single enormous diamond sparkling in her hair. Since the King’s accession to the Throne, the spate of gossip in American newspapers has continued without remission. It was reported that Mr and Mrs Simpson were present on the balcony of Friary Court, St.

James, to hear the proclamation of succession to the Throne; that their home in London was often frequented by the King; that their presence in the Royal Box at the opera had become a commonplace; that Mrs Simpson had at her disposal the second car and chauffeur belonging to the Palace. She and her husband were included in the small formal dinner His Majesty gave for Colonel and Mrs Lindbergh—with the Prime Minister and Mrs Stanley Baldwin besides Lord and Lady Mountbatten, the Secretary of State for War (Mr Duff Cooper) and Lady Diana Cooper. May Marry in April. Mrs Simpson secured he>r divorce on October 27. The decree becomes absolute on April 27. The King’s Coronation is on May 12. Her petition was based on the charge of her husband’s adultery with a woman at 'the Hotel de Paris, in Bray, a summer playground for London society on the Thames River near Maidenhead. The -woman’s name was not revealed, nor was respondent present or represented.