What Would They Have Done ? Hereford City Council, November 1935

Hereford City Council (Mayor Philip Gwynne James) 9th November 1935

There is a useful convention amongst gamers of the "Very British Civil War" that "real life" people should not become characters in "the game". That does not stop speculation about the course that well-known individuals of the day, such as a Churchill or an Attlee, may have taken had they been presented with a constitutional crisis in the form of Edward VIII refusing to abdicate, accepting the resignation of Baldwin's Government, and then appointing Mosley as "the King's Prime Minister". The relevant question is always speculative: "What Would They Have Done?"

The same question, for the purposes of the Hereford1938 campaign, can be asked of those who were in local government at the time. Here is a particularly interesting photograph of Hereford City Council on Saturday, 9th November 1935, illustrating those local worthies who would have had difficult decisions to make in the event of a national Constitutional Crisis but a year later, in December 1936. 

1935's Mayor, Philip Gwynne Jones, sits in the centre of the photograph. To his left sits the Town Clerk, whom we know was the long serving Mr Feltham (Town Clerk, 1929 - 1960). The City Sword Bearer is in evidence, as are what appear to be mace or cup bearers (or "Liveried Men") in top hat and long-tailed uniform. Although, no doubt in a concession to "modernity", the City Councillors appear to have abandoned dress bicornes; and otherwise matters seems to have become slightly more "informal", relatively little has changed from a similar photograph of the City Council in 1915:

Although this photograph is labelled "1914-1915", the very large poster on the right (behind another "Liveried Man") calls upon the citizens of Hereford to "Remember the Lusitania", a liner which was torpedoed (with the loss of nearly 1,200 civilian lives) by the German U Boat, U-20, on 7th May 1915. A similar detail can be picked out from the 1935 photograph, taken only two days before Remembrance Day. Most of the Town Council wear "poppies" (probably the vast majority do, but in some cases they are hidden by their gowns), albeit it is clear that such "poppies" have not achieved the standardised design of today's Remembrance poppies. A number of medals are in evidence (particularly by the Sword Bearer), no doubt from the Great War.

As interesting, the faces staring out from the 1935 photograph are all (probably) deeply and immediately involved in a General Election Campaign (it is not known whether City Councillors at this point maintained the old tradition of standing on their own merits, or under a party label; whatever the case, no doubt the vast majority had a party affiliation). The following Thursday, 14th November 1935, the country went to the polls. The National Government, by now lead by Stanley Baldwin rather than Ramsay McDonald, enjoyed a substantial victory, gaining 429 seats in the House of Commons (Conservative, 387; National Liberal, 33; National Labour, 8; Nationalist 1) against a combined Opposition of 186 seats (Labour, 154; Liberal, 21; Independent Labour Party, 4; Nationalist, 2; Independent Nationalist, 2; Independent, 2; Communist, 1). The victory nevertheless masked, in part, a fall in turnout (down 5.3% to 71.1%), a fall in the number of Conservative seats (down 83 seats from 1931) and a swing to Clement Attlee's Labour Party (7.4%). It could not mask, however, the verdict on Ramsay McDonald's decision in 1931 to form a National Government at the expense of the non-Conservative parties - McDonald lost his own seat at Seaham (County Durham - losing by more than 20,000 votes to Emmanuel Shinwell), and the Leader of the National Liberals, Sir John Simon, only won his constituency (Spen Valley in the West Riding of Yorkshire) by a slender 642 votes. Both parties were effectively destroyed in the 1935 General Election (after a short interregnum, Ramsay McDonald's son, Malcolm, assumed leadership of National Labour upon his victory in the Ross & Cromarty by-election in 1936; the defeated candidates included the Unionist, Randolph Churchill, son of Winston) : the National Labour Committee was wound up just before the General Election of 1945, and the National Liberals "merged" with the Conservative Party, at least at constituency level, in May 1947 (the "Woolton-Teviot Agreement"). The "official" or "opposition" Liberals continued after 1935 under Sir Archibald Sinclair; its former leader, Sir Herbert Samuel, having lost his seat at Darwen (Lancashire), while Clement Attlee's Labour Party was confirmed (with a gain of 102 seats) as the Official Opposition.

All this, of course, was about a week in the future for our 1935 Town Council. How they reacted to the 1935 General Election news is unknown, just as how they would have reacted to the VBCW events of December 1936 and following. We do know, however, the names of the Mayors of Hereford during the VBCW period:

Mayors of Hereford during the period 1935-1945

1935 : Philip Gwynne James

1936 : Louise H. Luard

1937:  Frederick William Allcock

1938 : Harry Percy Barnsley

1939 : Harry Percy Barnsley

1940 : Harry Percy Barnsley

1941 : Harry Percy Barnsley

1942 : R.C. Monkley

1943 : R C. Monkley

1944 : T. Powell

1945 : C.G. Marchant

and can only wish them well in their future VBCW dealings with Lord de Braose, appointed "Governor of the Marches" in 1937 by an unrepentant Edward VIII, and particularly Captain Arrowsmith, the notoriously snarling leader of the BUF's Three Counties Legion.

Real Life Notes : notwithstanding a huge amount of (mostly ill-advised) re-organisation over the years since 1935, there remains today a Mayor and Council of Hereford, still operating from the same Town Hall -

January 2014 - The Mayor and Lady Mayoress wait on the inside steps of the Town Hall
for a distinguished visitor, surrounded by the Sword Bearer (who has by now acquired a
fetching busby in place of the former top hat) and  the"Liveried Men", mostly
 with the usual maces/cups (but now one with a halberd). This is the kind of
 uniform detail needed by the Hereford1938 VBCW modeller!

Greeting HRH Princess Anne on the steps of the Town Hall. The very same steps as the 1915 photograph, but a visit that may very well not have taken place had the VBCW actually occurred some seventy years earlier....

The Great Constitutional Crisis - and the Press

A notorious "gentlemen's agreement", brokered by Lord Beaverbrook, kept the news of the King's relationship with the twice married Wallis Simpson out of the British press until extremely late in the timeline, i.e. 3rd/4th December 1936. The Continental and American press had displayed no such reticence ("King Will Wed Wally!" predicted The New York Journal on the eve of the Simpson divorce in October 1936; "King's Moll Reno'd in Wolsey's home town!" read another American publication immediately after the event). A sermon on 3rd December 1936 by the Bishop of Bradford (aptly named Blunt) broke the dam of self-imposed censorship, and Fleet Street and the provincial press quickly took up their positions:

"The Times, The Daily Telegraph, The Sunday Times, The Observer, The Daily Herald (after some equivocation) and The Manchester Guardian all proclaimed for the 'constitutional solution' : that the King had either to renounce Mrs Simpson...or abdicate, as did the entire provincial press, with the exception of The Western Mail, and The Spectator. The Daily Mail (whose lead story was headlined "The People Want Their King"), the Daily Express, the Daily Mirror and, rather surprisingly, the non-conformist News Chronicle plumped for a morgantic marriage, as did the New Statesman, with a difficult to follow argument about Mrs Simpson not being Mrs Simpson at all, since her first husband was still alive, so did The Tablet and the Catholic Herald."
                                                          The Thirties-An Intimate History, Juliet Gardiner

The Great Constitutional Crisis - and the VBCW

A short timeline of events in 1936/1937 that reduced Great Britain to another Civil War, and form the (alternative) historical background to Herefordshire 1938:

20 January 1936: King George V dies and Edward succeeds him as King.

August 1936: Mrs Wallis Simpson joins the King and other guests for a summer cruise along the Yugoslav, Greek and Turkish coasts. Photographs of the King and Mrs Simpson together are widely published in the American and Continental press, with much speculation about their relationship. Wallis’ American husband, Ernest Simpson, had moved out of their matrimonial home in July.

October 1936: Wallis Simpson installed in a house in Regents Park rented for her by the King.

20 October 1936: The Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin, confronts the King for the first time over his relationship with Mrs Simpson. The Prime Minister asks the King to conduct the affair more discreetly and to persuade Mrs Simpson to put off her impending divorce proceedings against her husband, but to no avail.

27 October 1936: The Simpsons' divorce case is heard at Ipswich Assizes and a decree nisi is granted. Six months must pass before the divorce becomes absolute; Wallis will then be free to remarry.

16 November 1936: The King sends for his Prime Minister. He tells Baldwin that he wishes to marry Mrs Simpson. Baldwin says that whoever the King married would have to become Queen, and the British public would not accept Mrs Simpson as such. If the King wished to marry Mrs Simpson, he would have to abdicate. If the King wished to remain on the Throne and marry Mrs Simpson against the advice of his ministers, the Government would be forced to resign. A constitutional crisis is about to erupt.

VBCW : King Edward VIII and Prime Minister Baldwin

25 November 1936: The King sends for his Prime Minister again. He wishes to explore with Baldwin the idea of a morganatic marriage to Wallis Simpson, in which he could still be King but she would not be Queen, merely his consort. This would require new legislation in both Britain and the Dominions. Although Baldwin immediately tells the King a morganatic marriage would not be acceptable, the King requests the Prime Minister to further explore the proposal.

27 November 1936: Baldwin raises the issue of a morganatic marriage in the Cabinet, which rejects it outright. It is also then rejected by the governments of the Dominions. The leaders of the Opposition parties in the House of Commons similarly inform Baldwin that they cannot support the King’s marriage to Mrs Simpson, whether morganatic or otherwise.

2 December 1936: Another royal audience for the Prime Minister. Baldwin tells the King that none of his Governments, domestic or Imperial, are willing to agree to a morganatic marriage, and that the King now has three choices: to finish his relationship with Mrs Simpson, to abdicate, or to marry against the advice of his ministers and precipitate the resignation of his Government.

3 December 1936: The story breaks in the British press. Wallis Simpson leaves for France in order to escape the resulting furore. The King tells Baldwin he wants to broadcast an appeal to the nation, putting his problem to them. He hopes this might sway public opinion in favour of his marrying and remaining King. Baldwin states that such a broadcast would be constitutionally impossible.

7 December 1936: The King summons Baldwin to a further audience at Buckingham Palace. Buoyed up by the support of “The King’s Party” of politicians and aristocrats, the King calls Baldwin’s bluff. The King informs Baldwin that he sees no reason to give up his affections for Mrs Simpson or the Throne, and thus would do neither. The Prime Minister tenders his resignation, which is accepted. The remaining Ministers within the Government surrender their seals of office that evening.

10^th December 1936: After days of frantic political manoeuvring in which the Leader of the Opposition, the Labour Party’s Clement Attlee, and the Leader of the Liberal Party, Sir Archibald Sinclair, successively refuse the opportunity to form an alternative Government, the King turns to Winston Churchill. Churchill, an old adversary of Stanley Baldwin on the Conservative benches and a prominent member of “The King’s Party” in the preceding days, knows that he has the support of only about 40 members of his own party, and no hope of persuading Attlee or Sinclair to his side. Churchill recognises that any new Government will face inevitable and almost immediate defeat in the House of Commons, followed by a very difficult election campaign in which the Conservative Party will be at least badly divided, perhaps destroyed. The prospect of a Labour Government looms. With a heavy heart, Churchill tells the King that he cannot serve as his Prime Minister.

11^th December 1936: In a move of breathtaking political audacity, but reflecting secret negotiations that have been going on for some time, the King sends for Sir Oswald Mosley, a former Member of Parliament and (Labour) minister, now Leader of the British Union of Fascists. The King appoints Sir Oswald as his new Prime Minister, notwithstanding that he is no longer an elected Member of Parliament and that the BUF has no elected representatives in the House of Commons. The constitutional convention that the King’s First Minister is a member of the House of Commons is ignored; the Speaker of the House of Commons is arrested upon a trumped-up charge. Surrounded by senior BUF officers, Mosley stalks into the Chamber waving “the King’s Commission” and delivers a powerful speech, ranting against “the old gang” and supporting the King. Wallis Simpson returns from France and is installed in the King’s week-end retreat at Fort Belvedere.

12^th December 1936: Outraged by the King’s tactics and Mosley’s extremist politics, frustrated by the King’s refusal to dissolve Parliament and call an election, members of all sides in both the House of Commons and House of Lords walk out of Parliament behind Churchill and Attlee, sparking major protests against the King and Mosley across the country. The rump Parliament sits on, with those not taking their seats as a protest being recorded as merely absent, and the Mosleyite Government presiding over those representatives who were pro-monarchist or who felt it might still be possible to influence events through what remained of “the usual channels”. The country descends into serious disorder. The King subsequently makes a series of BBC broadcasts in an attempt to calm the public mood, including a famous “Christmas Message”, but these have only a temporary effect upon a populace watching their constitutional democracy, and the “traditional rights of Englishmen”, being destroyed.

VBCW. Churchill and Attlee walk out of Parliament in protest at the King's tactics. The pain of publicly opposing his Monarch is etched across Churchill's face.

February 1937: Faced with increasing civil unrest, the King grants approval for the raising of Auxiliary Constabularies, equipped and structured along military lines and financed by the War Office, who were “to assist and support the regular police authorities in disbanding militant organisations and restoring order”. Such an autocratic gesture is entirely counter-productive, sparking further protests even in previously quiet parts of the country.

12^th May 1937: Edward VIII’s Coronation Day. Shots are fired at Edward VIII’s closed car as it turns into Parliament Square on the way to Westminster Abbey. Pandemonium ensues. In a panic, the Metropolitan Police Auxiliary (made up predominantly of BUF members and known as ‘Mosley’s Legion’) begin firing randomly into the crowd. The Guards Regiments lining the route fire on the Auxiliary, and as the King’s car roars off to safety, Parliament Square becomes a battleground. Senior officers restore order only slowly.

13^th May 1937: Martial law is declared. Habeas corpus is suspended as Mosley rushes a “Defence of the Realm” Act through the rump Parliament. All major cities are brought under a curfew. On the basis of murky claims of an “Officer’s Plot” and that they had been the ones to open fire on their King, the Scots, Irish and Welsh Guards are disbanded. Baldwin is placed under house arrest. The Auxiliaries are given greater powers, and orders under the new “Defence Regulations” to hunt down and detain “enemies of the King”. The Archbishop of Canterbury abandons Lambeth Palace and flees to Canterbury Cathedral. As all the various factions within the opposition arm and fight back, Great Britain descends into its own “Very British Civil War”.

King Edward VIII and the Archbishop of Canterbury in less troubled times.

Notes: Passages in normal type reflect historical events. Passages in italics are based on the first VBCW Sourcebook, co-authored by Dr. Rob Jones, Steven Mortimore and Simon Douglas, and published by Solway Crafts and Miniatures. A little further “embroidery” has been added as appropriate, with only one change: the VBCW Sourcebook has Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson fleeing for their own safety to Madresfield Court, “a stately home near Worcester” in May 1937. As this would bring them uncomfortably close to Herefordshire at a very early stage of the VBCW, it has been thought that this was merely a “cover story” put about to confuse the King’s enemies. Being only too aware of the disastrous historical precedents set by Charles the First in an earlier Civil War (who left London and moved his court to Oxford), and buoyed up by the staunch support of Mosley and his Metropolitan Police Auxiliary, the King and Wallis actually remained in London at the start of the VBCW. On 3rd May 1937, Mrs Simpson's decree of divorce had been made absolute; exactly a month later, on 3rd June 1937, the King finally married Wallis in a "closed and gloomy" Westminster Abbey.