Introduction
It is probable that at the start of 1937 the memory of village life still most vivid in the minds of Effingham’s residents was of the celebration they had held nearly two years previously, in May 1935, of the Silver Jubilee anniversary of King George V’s coronation. The King, however, had been in poor health ever since a riding mishap in 1915, this followed by years of respiratory problems together with a bout of severe septicaemia. In his last years he had had to depend for the exercise of many of his duties upon his first-born child Edward, Prince of Wales. He died just before midnight on January 20th 1936, having been discreetly euthanised with lethal injections administered by his chief physician.
Edward, being first in line, immediately became King. He had not married but had instead been embroiled for many years in affairs with various married women, one of whom introduced him in the early 1930s to the American Mrs Wallis (née Spencer) Simpson, now in her second marriage after an earlier divorce. By late 1936, less than a year into his reign, Edward had decided to marry Wallis – once she had divorced her present husband – and continue as King, but the opposition and constitutional impediments to this intention proved insurmountable, leading Edward to abdicate in the December.
Almost immediately the throne passed to his younger brother Albert (“Bertie”) whose regnal name was chosen to be King George VI. His Coronation was scheduled for May 12th 1937.