Edward VIII, his brother, and the woman who bedded them both: How pioneering pilot Beryl Markham had affairs with future King and Prince Henry – until her husband found racy letters, writes CHRISTOPHER WILSON
It was a true spectacle that gave the term brotherly love a whole new meaning.
In the center of attention was a tall, slender blonde, the daughter of an aristocratic horse breeder.
Next to 25-year-old Beryl Markham, who would later become the most famous female pilot of her time, stood two royal brothers.
David, Prince of Wales, and Henry, Duke of Gloucester, both went after her, but she couldn’t decide which one to choose, so she took them both.
It was the 1920s – the era of flappers, cocktails and wild behaviour. The place was Happy Valley, Kenya – the stronghold of dozens of British bluebloods who fancied a taste of all the freedoms that Africa had to offer.
The Prince of Wales (right), who would later reign briefly as King Edward VIII, is seen above in Africa with his brother Harry, the Duke of Gloucester, in 1928
Beryl Markham slept with both the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Gloucester when she joined them in Kenya in 1928. Above: The pilot stands on the wing of her plane
Freed from the restrictions of their homeland, they could drink into the early hours, hunt wild animals, take drugs and change wives.
One of the liveliest among them was Beryl, who had been married for barely a year to the baronet’s son, Mansfield Markham.
She was a true free spirit who had quickly become a world-famous name. She already had a second husband and had rarely considered conventional morals.
The British colony around Nairobi was delighted in early 1928 when they heard that the future king and his younger brother would visit them.
Officially, the pair were to tour British East Africa, as the country was then called, but they had set aside much of their free time to go on safari.
The expats made plans for their arrival with feverish excitement and fierce competition.
Who would receive the princes? Who would dance with them? And who would accompany them as they chased lions, tigers, and elephants?
It was the innate desire to surpass others that filled their days.
The Prince of Wales (right) seen with his younger brother Prince Henry (left), Duke of Gloucester, at Epsom for the Derby, 1927
The Prince of Wales with his brothers, Prince Henry (left) and Prince Albert, who would later reign as King George VI after his brother’s abdication.
The only thing no one said was who the princes would sleep with.
But there was plenty of competition there too, as Beryl was just one of many women out to grab a royal scalp if they could.
Freed from the prying lenses of photographers and newsreel cameramen, the Prince of Wales had brought along one of his favourite bedchamberlains on his trip to Africa: Audrey Coats, the recently divorced wife of a Guards officer.
But she was no match for the hungry women waiting on the quayside when his ship docked in Mombasa in September 1928.
The first to fall under the prince’s spell was the “strange” Glady, Lady Delamere, a vivacious 27-year-old married less than six months to her husband, thirty years her senior.
βShe never recovered from her success with the Prince of Wales,β wrote historian Errol Trzebinski.
But the first person to actually get him into bed was Beryl, and she did so within a week of his arrival.
βHer coolness and her conquests made her an object of enduring jealousy, but her approach was so different from the usual cunning attempts to gain advantage over others,β wrote Trzebinski, explaining how she was ahead of the competition.
But this first conquest was only the beginning of what the prince would later describe as the greatest sex safari of all time.
“His restless womanizing kept him constantly in the grip of one devastating love affair after another, not to mention many street affairs,” wrote his disapproving biographer Philip Ziegler.
A remote bungalow was made available to the Prince for these meetings, while his brother Harry, six years his junior at 28, stayed at the Muthaiga Club.
There the elite drank champagne and pink gin with breakfast, played cards, danced all night and usually woke up in the morning with someone else’s partner.
Harry went on safari β and Beryl came along too.
Although the couple largely kept their distance, they still found time to be together – to the point where Harry became so smitten with her that he asked her to move back to London with him.
And this while she had only just gotten married.
βThis brave lady could easily handle two or more affairs at the same time and that is exactly what happened,β recalls Bunny Allen, a veteran of Happy Valley.
As soon as she returned from the safari with the Duke, Beryl left for Uganda with the Prince of Wales.
Back in Nairobi, he was the guest of honour at a cocktail party at the government house, where, according to a witness, the governor’s wife Joan, Lady Grigg, also had an eye on him.
But he escaped early from the party, saying he wanted to go to bed early. An hour later, he was arrested by guards patrolling the grounds of the government building.
He was caught shining down a drainpipe to spend the rest of the night with Beryl.
The journey was over, but for Harry Gloucester, Beryl had become a fatal attraction.
Beryl Markham became the most famous female pilot of her time
Beryl Markham poses for a photographer at Abingdon Aerodrome, Berkshire, before her solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean, 1936
Beryl Markham waves as she arrives back in Britain – in Southampton – after her solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean
A crowd of autograph hunters storm Beryl Markham after her solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean
Beryl Markham is seen with a taped cut on her head that she sustained when her plane crashed in Nova Scotia after crossing the Atlantic Ocean
Beryl Markham’s plane after an emergency landing in Nova Scotia, 1936. Beryl survived the crash and her flight across the Atlantic Ocean was a success
Beryl Markham speaks to the world’s press after completing her flight across the Atlantic Ocean
She sailed for England and, as he had promised, he was waiting for her at the quay.
He put her up in a suite at the Grosvenor Hotel, conveniently located just off the back gates of Buckingham Palace, where they continued their affair β even though she was now six months pregnant.
Miraculously, she still found time to secretly have a date with Harry’s older brother at the Royal Aero Club.
Until one day her husband (yes, she still had him) discovered letters that Harry had sent to her.
A family feud ensued and Beryl’s brother-in-law Sir Charles Markham β who believed the impending baby was Harry’s β demanded that Buckingham Palace pay up if they wanted to avoid the scandal of a divorce.
Queen Mary angrily intervened and tried to convince the Markhams not to do it, but in the end the royal family paid.
Harry was the one who paid the bill, making annual payments to Beryl until her death in 1986.
Her baby was not his. If he had counted back the months from the moment he first arrived in Happy Valley in September 1928 and met Beryl, he would have known that.
But the Duke was completely infatuated with her and was either bad at mathematics or didn’t care.
Beryl became the first woman to fly solo non-stop across the Atlantic Ocean.
Her achievement in 1936 brought her wealth and fame.
The royal brothers continued: the prince became King Edward VIII in January 1936, before abdicating 11 months later so he could marry his most famous lover, American divorcee Wallis Simpson.
The Duke continued to hold a second-class royal office until his death in 1974.
Did they ever compare notes later in life about that wild safari they went on in their youth? The one where they both fell for the same girl? Sadly, we will never know.