Jardine, Rev. Robert Anderson

[British Royalty][Walter Winchell] TLS from Officiant of the Wedding for Duke of Windsor and Wallis Simpson plus Ephemera

Hollywood, California: 1942. [British Royalty][Walter Winchell] TLS from Officiant of the Wedding for Duke of Windsor and Wallis Simpson plus Ephemera

Letters on fragile tissue paper with moderate edge wear and staple holes. Photo and book order form also have staple holes. Good condition.

The Reverand Robert Anderson Jardine is best known for performing the marriage ceremony for the Duke of Windsor and his fiancée Wallis Simpson. Jardine's performance of the marriage rites cost him his career in England.

Typed letter signed to Walter Winchell regarding not getting rich from the Duke of Windsor for performing the wedding ceremony and their not being able to help him get a job in Nassua. To raise funds, Anderson intends to sell the Prayer Book he used in performing the ceremony. He later joined the California Highway Patrol. Anderson signed the somewhat pitiful letter with "The man without a Country, a Home or a Church", September 14, 1942.

Set also includes a carbon copy prospectus, typed and signed listing an offer to sell for $5,000 the Wedding Service Book Jardine used in performing the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. Plus a photograph of Jardine signed and inscribed by R. Anderson Jardine to Walter Winchell with an order coupon for Jardine's book "At Long Last".

More on Jardine from a Wikipedia page devoted to him: "The Reverend Robert Anderson Jardine (1878–1950), who published a memoir as R. Anderson Jardine, was an ordained priest of the Church of England and vicar of a parish in Darlington in the north of England. He is best known for performing the religious marriage ceremony of the Duke of Windsor and his fiancée Wallis Simpson, who thus became the Duchess of Windsor, in June 1937, after the legal French civil marriage ceremony had been performed by the Mayor of Monts.[1] This marriage of the former king to a twice-divorced woman with two living ex-husbands – contrary to the teachings of the Church of England – was seen as scandalous by conservative-minded Britons, though others in Britain and elsewhere saw it as the culmination of a great love story. Jardine's offer to carry out the wedding, as a sacrament of the church which opposed it, cost him his career in England."

Walter Winchell was a newspaper gossip columnist and radio news commentator and likely the most influential journalist from the 1930's to the early 1960's. A word of praise or criticism from Winchell could make or break careers. Winchell built an extensive network of informants (both public and private) who provided Winchell with tidbits or information, hoping Winchell would run with their story for their benefit.

For the collector of Royaliana. Item #2316

Price: $150.00