The Prince of Wales Eduardo, Duke of Windsor, who was born on June 23, 1894 in White Lodge, Richmond-Surrey (England), died in Paris on May 28, 1972, the eldest son of King George V, visited Spain in 1931. his death, he ascends the throne on January 20, 1936, he leaves it on December 11, abdicating in favor of his brother Alberto, who reigns as George VI. In his company is Prince George, Duke of Kent, since 1934. He was born on December 20, 1902 at York Cottage, Sandringham House, Norfolk and died in a plane crash on August 25, 1942.
The first visit to Spain by Prince Edward and his brother Jorge, is in 1927, to get to know our country and pay homage to King Alfonso XIII, in Madrid and Seville, visiting Granada, Córdoba, El Escorial and Aranjuez.
The second trip, will be in January 1931, said princes, travel through France to Spanish lands, passing through San Sebastián, Bilbao and Santander, where they take the Transatlantic ‘Oropesa’, which takes them to A Coruña, visiting Santiago and Vigo, where they re-embark and continue towards the lands of South America.
The third trip to Galicia takes place in September 1934 aboard the yacht ‘Rosaura’. On this occasion, Prince Eduardo will come to visit A Coruña, Santiago and Vigo, in the company of his beloved Wallis Simpson, leaving on the same yacht, heading to Huelva, Almería, Palma de Mallorca and Formentera, towards the French Blue Coast.
The fourth trip they will make, as Dukes of Windsor, from France to Madrid on June 24, 1940, from the capital of Spain, they move to Lisbon at the beginning of July and in that same month, they arrive in A Coruña, invited by the Count de Fenosa, Pedro Barrié de la Maza, this will be the last one he does to this city. Finally there will be two more trips to Spain by the Dukes of Windsor in August 1951 to San Sebastián and in 1959, that same city and Madrid.
The visit made by the English princes to Galicia in 1931 and which was later repeated separately in 1934 and 1940, set a historical precedent: Edward was proclaimed king in 1936 on the death of his father George V.
In his abdication, he was replaced by his brother Alberto, who ascended the throne as George VI, at the end of that year. While Prince George, 4th son of SS. British MM, accompanied Eduardo on his first trip in 1931. Later in 1934 he will repeat his tour, Prince Edward, this time, accompanied by his fiancée Wallis Simpson, whom he would marry. In the summer of 1940 they would return to A Coruña, like the Dukes of Windsor, invited by the Coruña financier Pedro Barrié de la Maza.
That princely adventure began in the month of January when they left English lands to enter France on their way to Spain by rail.
They pass by car through San Sebastián, the Prince of Wales and his brother Jorge. Two other cars preceded him, with their escort retinue and luggage. From the French border, they are accompanied by the civil Governor of that province and the English vice-consul. In the Hotel María Cristina of said city, breakfast had been prepared for the princes, without taking it when they arrived five hours late. They leave for Bilbao and have tea at the Hotel Carlton, in the company of their entourage and continue their journey to Santander, where the transatlantic “Oropesa” arrives, the princes arrive after eight at night, in which they access the ship, the one from Wales , Edward and the Duke of Kent, George.
Eduardo, speaks in Spanish before the journalists present and informs them of his delay, due to the derailment in Lamotte (France) being the reason for the delay. Adding that the accident had not been his train, but another passenger who preceded them. He had left the track, the machine and three wagons, without causing misfortune.
bumpy ride
And one of the cars of the entourage had collided with another car, without major damage, except for the scare, retiring to rest to the ‘Oropesa’, which was waiting in port for the princes, setting sail for A Coruña, around ten at night.
At mid-morning on the 19th, the English Consul in this square, Mr. Guyatt, received a radiogram from ‘Oropesa’, communicating.
The Prince will not arrive in La Coruña before two in the afternoon and that he agreed to lay the first stone of the monument in honor of Sir John Moore.
All will be received by the princes, after the presentations, the Mayor Pedro Lage Lodos, hands over to the Prince of Wales, a beautiful silver chest that contained earth from the place where the battle of Elviña took place, whose chest contained the following inscription: “The A Coruña City Council, to His Royal Highness, the Prince of Wales on the occasion of his visit to the city”.
Visiting the tomb of Sir John Moore, in the Garden of San Carlos, to then go to the top of Eirís, where the future monument of this English general would go.
Later the princes undertake a trip to Santiago and Vigo, where they take the ocean liner again that takes them to Argentina, the end of the journey.
