Freda Dudley Ward
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Winifred May, Marquesa de Casa Maury (28 July 1894 – 16 March 1983), universally known by her first married name as Freda Dudley Ward, was an English socialite best known for being a mistress of the Prince of Wales, who later became King Edward VIII.
Born Winifred May Birkin, she was the elder daughter of Colonel Charles Wilfred Birkin, a British textile magnate, and his American wife, the former Claire Lloyd Howe. She was a longterm mistress of the Prince of Wales from 1918 to the mid-1920s, after which she remained his close confidante until 1934 and the beginning of his relationship with Wallis Simpson.[1]
Her great-niece is the actress Jane Birkin.
Freda Birkin was twice married:
- 1) The Right Honourable William Dudley Ward (married 9 July 1913 - divorced 1931)
- i) Penelope Ann Rachel, (1915 - 1982)
- ii) Claire Angela Louise (1916 - 1999)
- 2) Pedro Jose Isidro Manuel Ricardo Mones, Marques de Casa Maury (married 20 October 1937 - divorced 1954)
Though her first husband's family surname was Ward, the combination "Dudley Ward" eventually became their official surname, through common usage.
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ According to "Fractured Fairy Tale: An Archive of a Royal Romance," an article published in The New York Times on 8 June 2003 and written by Mitchell Owens, letters between Freda Dudley Ward and the Prince of Wales, as well as recollections of one of Dudley Ward's granddaughters, indicate that the sexual relationship between the pair ended by the mid 1920s.
