Colonial History of India

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http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,...29,00.html


Royal cover-up of illegitimate son revealed

Peter Day and Jon Ungoed-Thomas


SENIOR royal courtiers tried to cover up allegations that the great uncle of the Queen fathered an illegitimate son, newly released documents show.

They reveal that police conducted an extensive investigation into an affair between Margery Haddon, a married woman, and the Duke of Clarence, eldest son of the future Edward VII.

The liaison was said to have occurred during a royal tour of India in the 1880s, but when Haddon turned up in London to claim she had conceived the duke’s child, senior officials quietly arranged her passage back to India, where she had been born and raised.

Clothes were provided for her through a secret account and a “go-between” for the duke provided maintenance payments for the boy, Clarence Haddon. Embarrassing letters in the woman’s possession were believed to have been purchased by lawyers acting for the duke.

The allegations remained out of the public eye for years until Clarence Haddon turned up in London in the 1920s to stake publicly his claim to be an illegitimate member of the royal family. His claims were dismissed and, because he lacked documentary proof, he was seen as a crank.

However, his and his mother’s full story has come to light in documents made public by the National Archives in Kew, southwest London, after more than 70 years.

They show Margery Haddon’s claims were taken seriously enough for the Metropolitan police commissioner, head of Special Branch and one of most senior of the monarch’s officials — the keeper of the privy purse — to investigate.

The files, comprising hundreds of pages of police reports, royal correspondence and photographs, start with Margery Haddon’s claim that her affair with the Duke of Clarence began at a ball in India in 1889.

The daughter of a civil servant, she was a vivacious woman brought up in Calcutta, then the seat of colonial power in India. By the time she met the duke, she was married to a civil engineer, Henry Haddon.

The Duke of Clarence, nicknamed “Eddy”, was known as a womaniser and heavy drinker. Robert Lacey, the royal biographer, said: “He had a reputation as a somewhat debauched character and it’s interesting if there is evidence of a royal cover-up. There was always great anxiety among the royal family about protecting his reputation.”

After the ball, one of a number during the tour of India by the duke and his younger brother, the future King George V, Haddon claimed she and the duke became lovers. The following year she is said to have given birth to her son, Clarence Guy Gordon Haddon.

Two years later, in 1892, the Duke of Clarence died at the age of 28 during a flu epidemic, leaving the way clear for his younger brother to become king. By now, Margery Haddon had come to Britain but her life was starting to fall apart. She was divorcing her husband and had begun to drink heavily.

By 1914, after a number of failed marriages, she had descended into alcoholism and seemed almost deranged. That year she was arrested outside the gates of Buckingham Palace after shouting she was the mother of the Duke of Clarence’s illegitimate son.

Her claims were quickly reported to the royal family and prompted an inquiry by Patrick Quinn, the head of Special Branch. In July 1914, Quinn met Sir William Carington, keeper of the privy purse, to discuss the case.

The meeting at Buckingham Palace was a sombre one. Quinn’s written record of the discussions states: “(Carington) invited my opinion on the question of making a payment . . . He was afraid she might have some proof.”


There seems to have been some cause for alarm. The military aide said to have arranged the Duke of Clarence’s relationship with Margery Haddon in India, Lieutenant George Rogers, had been named in Haddon’s divorce proceedings.

The implication was that it was he who had fathered the illegitimate child. However, the files show his family told police a different story. In fact they said Rogers had acted as a “scapegoat” for the illicit royal relationship and his family provided maintenance payments for Clarence even though he was not his true father.

In a statement to police, a representative from Lewis and Lewis, a legal firm which had acted on behalf of the Duke of Clarence during the divorce proceedings, said: “Certainly there were some relations (between Haddon and the duke).” The unnamed representative denied, however, that there was any child from the union.

The documents reveal that the duke wrote a number of letters to Haddon. A Special Branch report in July 1914 stated: “There were grounds for thinking Lewis and Lewis obtained those letters from her upon payment.”

It was agreed by Scotland Yard and senior courtiers that Haddon should be removed from the country. A ticket was bought for her by the political adviser to the secretary of state for India, clothes were purchased for her through a Scotland Yard account and she was given £5 spending money.

On February 20, 1915, she departed for India. There is no record of her returning to England and she was never heard of again.

It was, however, not the end of the affair. Clarence Haddon, who had spent most of his early adult life working abroad, started a campaign in the 1920s to be recognised as the son of the Duke of Clarence.

He wrote a book, My Uncle King George V, which was published in America. In the early 1930s his campaign intensified and he wrote to George V to complain of the “underhand”, “dirty” and “unjust” treatment he had received.

“I will not rest until the whole world will see these royal methods in their true colours,” he wrote.

It was hoped he might be dealt with in a similar fashion to his mother. A trip to America was paid for him out of police funds but he returned to England to pursue his claims.

In January 1934 he was bound over for three years by Mr Justice Charles at a hearing at the Old Bailey, on the condition that he made no claim that he was the Duke of Clarence’s son. He breached the conditions and was jailed the following year for 12 months.

Haddon became an increasingly sad character because any evidence of his mother’s relationship with the duke had long disappeared. He died a broken man, his repeated claims dismissed by the authorities as “ridiculous”.

Lacey said that even if Haddon’s claim had been proved, it would have made no difference to the royal line. He said the royals had had a number of illegitimate children over the centuries, but although many had been given money it was never argued they had any right to the throne.

A Buckingham Palace spokeswoman said: “This is not something we would comment on.”