26/01/2026 General News
"The letter, regarding the death of Prince John, pulls back the curtain and provides a candour rarely found in Royal correspondence. It is remarkable that fate has brought this insightful document to public auction, providing us with a unique opportunity to engage with the former King of England as a private individual rather than a constitutional figure."
- Ben Sewill, Auctioneer
During the 1997 Auction of Casa Windsor, following the death of Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed, Al Fayed instructed Christies to conduct a nine-day auction to sell the contents of the estate. One item was an unassuming cardboard box containing personal correspondence from the Duke of Windsor, the previous owner of the estate. Originally this correspondence stirred intrigue due to the light it shed on the relationship shared between Edward and the recipient, Freda Dudley Ward whose relationship had fuelled many mid-century rumours.
However, upon purchase the owner discovered something far more revealing than their relationship. One letter that lay within reflected the future King’s opinion on his own brother’s death, providing insight into the Duke of Windsor equal to that of a personal diary. The subject of his letter is Prince John, his younger brother who died at the age of 13 in 1919. During the later years of his short life, Prince John was a non-public facing member of the royal family residing in Sandringham Estate. This tragic story resurfaced in 2003 when the BBC released a television series titled ‘The lost Prince’. A light was shed on his ongoing epilepsy and the reaction of those around him.
This letter provides an unparalleled insight into Edward’s mind, his writing appears to lack sympathy, claiming that “[Prince John] became more of an animal than anything else” and that “no-one has ever seen him except the family & then only once or twice a year & his death is the greatest relief imaginable”. A full transcript can be read online at the Duke’s Fine Art Auctioneers website. After spending several decades in America, the return to auction presents the British public with a rare opportunity to have in their possession an insightful and truly unique artifact of British history from the King who abdicated. Set to go to auction with an estimate of £3,000 - £5,000 on the 29th of January.
The letter reads:
'20th January, Headquarters R.A. F., Spa
I’m in a fever, beloved one, as I arrived here about 4:00 P.M. to find a wire from H.M. to say that my youngest brother [John] had died & that I wasn’t to go to Paris; I wired back to say that I was returning to England at once for a few days which I thought was a good move & should have arrived in London tomorrow, Tuesday evening . . . So of course I didn’t finish this letter last night as I had great & wonderful hopes of seeing TOI tomorrow evening if the goddess of fortune had been kind to us . . .
I’m so miserable darling as I’ve just got another wire from H.M. telling me not to return to England, though not to go to Paris & just to carry on visiting DIVS!! Isn’t it all to heartbreaking & of course my little brother’s death plunges me into mourning; don’t think me very cold-hearted, sweetheart, but I’ve told you all about that little brother, darling, & how he was an epileptic & might have gone West any day!!
He's been practically shut up for the last 2 years anyhow, so no-one has ever seen him except the family & then only once or twice a year & his death is the greatest relief imaginable & what we've always silently prayed for; but to be plunged into mourning for this is the limit just as the war is over which cuts parties etc. right out!! [...]
Now I've got to resume trekking from DIV to DIV without this precious glimpse or even Paris or any form of respite & I'm so stale that I've become a completer dud than ever [...].
My family should return to London first week in February which will be all right for MOI & what does all the mourning in the world matter to TOI et MOI? I'm terribly sorry for my sister, who was going to a lot of parties in February, though somehow I don't think this mourning will last very long, as I think the funeral was today; it looks to me as if as little as possible was being made of it all & I only hope so. No-one would be more cut up if any of my other 3 brothers were to die than I should be, but this poor boy had become more of an animal than anything else & was only a brother in the flesh & nothing else!! [...]
H.M.'s wire this morning was just about the biggest disappointment of your E's life except when he (or somebody at Windsor Castle) asked TOI to dinner there the last night of my August leave!! [...]
I.S.Y.C.T.N.N.O.M.A.E.A.A.O.Y. & Bless TOI for ever & ever'