MI5 tapped phones of King Edward VIII and his brother amid abdication crisis, a new book claims

By
Daily Mail Reporter

Last updated at 1:12 PM on 7th January 2012

Tapped: King Edward VIII (left) with his brother the Duke of York. MI5 tapped their phones during the abdication crisis.

Tapped: King Edward VIII (left) with his brother the Duke of York. MI5 tapped their phones during the abdication crisis

MI5 agents tapped the phones of King Edward VIII and his brother the Duke of York at the height of the abdication crisis that changed the course of British history, according to a newly published book.

The claim appears in a biography of Tommy Robertson, who pioneered Britain’s wartime counter-intelligence operations.

Edward VIII’s infatuation with American divorcee and socialite Wallis Simpson sparked a constitutional crisis.

She had divorced her first husband and was seeking a divorce from her second. In addition she was suspected by many in the Government of having Nazi sympathies. Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin said the Government would resign en masse if the marriage went ahead.

After 11 turbulent months, on 11 December 1936, Edward said in a broadcast to the nation and the Empire: “I have found it impossible to carry the heavy burden of responsibility and to discharge my duties as king as I would wish to do without the help and support of the woman I love.” The pair were married in a chateau in France.

Instead the crown passed to his shy, stammering brother Albert, known as “Bertie”, who became King George VI and the father of the Queen. He forbade royal family members to attend his brother’s wedding.

During the months of turbulence leading up to the abdication, Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin called in Sir Vernon Kell, the head of MI5.

According to author Geoffrey Elliott, Robertson tapped into the royal brothers’ conversation from a telephone junction box at the edge of Green Park near 145 Piccadilly, the Duke of York’s home. 

Robertson’s brother, Major General Ian
Robertson, sent Elliott a four-page note in which he said his brother
had told him that under cover of darkness he had slipped into Green Park
and listened into the brothers’ conversation via a GPO telephone
junction box in the bushes.

Tommy Robertson’s daughter, Mrs Belinda
McEvoy, told the Daily Express yesterday: “I didn’t know the business
about him being in the bushes in Green Park but I remember him telling
me: ‘I was the only person to know he [the king] was going to abdicate.”

Historic: How the Daily Mail reported news of Edward VIII's abdication on 11 December 1936.

Historic: How the Daily Mail reported news of Edward VIII’s abdication on 11 December 1936

However Philip Ziegler, author of a
major biography of Edward VIII, disputed the claim. “From what I know it
seems unlikely,” he told the Express.

But
he added: “Of course, if they [MI5] had information I imagine in would
have been filtered back to the Prime Minister, who would know better
than to inquire how they got it.”


Unrest: Demonstrators protest against the abdication of King Edward VIII, whose proposed marriage to US socialite and divorcee Wallis Simpson was resisted by Parliament

Unrest: Demonstrators protest against the abdication of King Edward VIII, whose proposed marriage to US socialite and divorcee Wallis Simpson was resisted by Parliament

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Tapping is a simple exercise, access to the DDF or lawful intercept

For MI5 to tap the Telephones of the royals in them days couldn’t have been difficult. Theirs, was the only Phone connected to the Telephone Exchange……operated by a guy called Bill Smith, who was always asleep…..

No surprise there then. Frankly Wallis Simpson did us a favour. We got a vastly superior King. I think it was far more likely that it was Queen Mary the Queen Mother who vetoed the wedding invitations.

Wolfram Sievers, UK, 07/1/2012 15:54—————–Couldn’t it have been Edward VII wanted to be on the side of his family the House of Saxe-Coburg and having a personal interest of being anti Russian. Watching the BBC’s King George V and Queen Mary it suggested an element of euthanasia about the Kings death. So it is ok for Royalty, but we have to go to Switzerland!

Re comment of Wolfram Sievers. He thinks that Edward V11 was still alive in WW1, wehen in fact he had been dead for at least 3/4 years. It was George V on the throne at WW1. This fellow clearly does not know much about English history.

As with many formerly secret matters, the facts are slowly coming out into the public gaze. Edward VIII may not have been a great mind (none of the Windsor’s has managed a more than mediocre intellect right up to the present day; George VI was almost subnormal). However, Edward VII, having seen the carnage of the Western Front in WW1, was determined to avoid a second pointless and damaging war against Germany. Powerful vested interests (shall we say?…) in the City of London, banking, the mass media, wanted war and wanted to get into power people who would promote or support such a war. They achieved that objective: George VI as low-IQ king unable to think properly, Churchill as out and out warmonger. The result was ruin for the UK, Germany and much of Europe; another result is the world the have to live with today.

I hope the security services still monitor our public figures as most of them are liabilities to themselves. I want MI5 to know what the Royals and politicians are up to if that involved national security. For that matter throw in union leaders and anyone else thinking of rocking the boat so that 99.9% of the population can sleep safe in the knowledge that they believe we are the strongest democracy on earth..others however know different and we all know what happens to those who REALLY rock the boat.

Always a dodgey business that especially with a military that will always be loyal to the crown

I’m sure if they had the technology they would have done it. Charles and Diana’s phones were tapped. The people who really run the country probably do it all the time!

i think you would have to be a bit daft if one belived that the security services DO NOT keep an eye on not only the royals but the politicoes as well, the security service is about trust no one suspect every one. and that goes for the yanks as well, thay do the same.

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