Alexander Hardinge, 2nd Baron Hardinge of Penshurst

Major The Right Honourable The Lord Hardinge of Penshurst GCB, GCVO, MC, PC
Hardinge in 1916
Private Secretary to the Sovereign
In office 1936–1943
Monarch	Edward VIII (1936–1936) George VI (1936–1943)
Preceded by	Sir Clive Wigram
Succeeded by	Sir Alan Lascelles
Personal details
Born	17 May 1894
Died	29 May 1960 (aged 66)
Nationality	British

Major Alexander Henry Louis Hardinge, 2nd Baron Hardinge of Penshurst GCB, GCVO, MC, PC (17 May 1894 – 29 May 1960) was Private Secretary to the Sovereign during the Abdication Crisis of Edward VIII and during most of the Second World War.

Background and earlier life

Hardinge was born in 1894, the son of The Hon. Charles Hardinge (who was created Baron Hardinge of Penshurst in 1910 and served as Viceroy of India from 1910 to 1916). He was commissioned into the Grenadier Guards and fought in the First World War, alongside his brother, rising to the rank of Lieutenant and winning the Military Cross. In 1920, he became Assistant Private Secretary to George V and was promoted Captain. On 8 February 1921, he married Helen Gascoyne-Cecil (a daughter of Lord Edward Gascoyne-Cecil and his wife, Violet) and they had three children. In 1929 he was promoted Major.

Hardinge served as Assistant Private Secretary up until King George V's death in 1936.

Private Secretary to King Edward VIII and King George VI

He was promoted to Private Secretary upon the accession of Edward VIII that same year, contributing to some delicate negotiations between David and the British Government in the run up to the king's abdication in December 1936; he continued in this role under George VI until his early retirement in 1943. Significantly, as Brandi McCarry's commentary has pointed out, Hardinge's ultimate loyalty lay towards the King in Parliament rather than personally to a monarch in conflict. This was particularly reflected in Hardinge's warning letter to King Edward received on November 13, 1936, which showed evidence of prior consultation with Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, who, with his Cabinet, had serious misgivings about the suitability of Mrs Wallis Simpson as the possible spouse of the monarch.^[1] The precise nature and extent of his loyalty was thus constitutional doing what he thought was right in his post as Private Secretary to the Sovereign.

Later life

In 1936 he also retired from the Army. Hardinge's elder brother, Edward, had died from wounds received in action in 1914 and so Hardinge succeeded as Baron Hardinge of Penshurst, on the demise of his father a year later, in 1944.

Death and legacy

Hardinge died in 1960 and his title was inherited by his son, George.

His wife Helen wrote his biography Loyal to Three Kings, William Kimber, London 1967.

References

1. Brandi McCarry Press, Politics and the Abdication of Edward VIII

External links

• Hardinge of Penshurst, Baron (UK, 1910), genealogy
• Hardinge, Charles, first Baron Hardinge of Penshurst (1858–1944), diplomatist and viceroy of India