Edward VIII Abdication speech

On 11 December 1936 the former King Edward VIII spoke to a stunned nation and announced that he had abdicated the throne in favour of his brother, so as to be free to marry the woman he loved - Mrs Wallis Simpson. The historic broadcast and climax of the constitutional crisis was heard by the whole country, most of whom had been unaware of the royal love affair only a week earlier.

Edward had made the first ever royal broadcast, and so knew the power of radio to reach people in their homes. As the crisis developed he was keen to put his side of the story to the country. However the speech he wrote, in which he argued the case for a morganatic marriage - that he could marry Wallis without her ever becoming Queen - was vetoed by the Cabinet. When Edward did eventually broadcast, George VI was the new King, and Edward was preparing to go into exile.

Edward VIII's Abdication speech, 11 December 1936.

The Abdication speech survives today as it was recorded by BBC engineers in defiance of orders. For many years archivists denied its existence, but today it is recognised as one of the most important broadcasts of the twentieth century.

Harman Grisewood who later went on to mastermind the BBC‘s first classical music station, the Third Programme, was working as a radio announcer in 1936. He was in Broadcasting House in London, when he received instructions from Sir John Reith, the then BBC Director-General, that the abdication of HRH King Edward VIII was about to be announced at 22.01 live from Windsor Castle.

The abdication speech, read live by the outgoing monarch, was introduced by Reith himself, and interrupted a repeat edition of the popular Comic Opera programme.

Harman Grisewood speaking to Frank Gillard, founder of the BBC Oral History Collection, 1994

News that the speech would be made on the evening of Friday 11th December percolated through the BBC bureaucracy, with programmes being dropped and re-scheduled, and booked artists cancelled. The transmission time of the speech was announced at 21.00, and the evenings programmes ended early. This Programmes as Broadcast document (PASB) shows how the actual days schedule looked.