Busting a myth … did Dame Emily Smyth have an affair with the Prince of Wales (later Edward VII)?
Research: FAM volunteer.
This myth has been widely reported but is it true? Here’s what we know.
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The Prince of Wales (later Edward VII) was born in 1841. Emily was born in 1835.
The Prince of Wales visited Bristol several times between 1856 and 1901 when he became king. Bristol was a significant railway terminus in those days, and he often visited enroute to other destinations. His visits were widely reported in the press.
In early 1856 Emily married George Oldham Edwards, a man more than 20 years her senior. George Oldham Edwards was a banker and they lived at Redland Court. In 1856, the year of his marriage to Emily, he was Sheriff of Bristol – an important local dignitary.
In October 1856 the 15 year old Prince of Wales and his tutor visited Bristol on a tour of the West country. He was reported to have attended a service at Bristol Cathedral.
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Did the Prince meet Emily on this occasion?
Did her beauty make a lasting impression on him?
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Emily was greatly admired. She was described by Anton Bantock:
“Her sapphire eyes, alabaster complexion, finely chiselled profile and hair like spun gold led her being called the loveliest woman in the west of England”.
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Dame Emily Smyth by James Sant. ©Bristol Culture, photography by Public Catalogue Foundation/Dan Brown.
In 1883, after a period of ill-health, George Oldham Edwards died aged 75, and Emily became a widow aged 48. She married Greville Smyth, a cousin, on April 24th 1884 in London. Greville had admired Emily for many years and it was said that Emily’s daughter, Esme, was Greville’s biological daughter. After their marriage Greville and Emily embarked on an extended honeymoon not returning to Ashton Court until July 1885.
The Prince of Wales’s extramarital affairs were common knowledge. Bertie, as he was known, was charismatic but more importantly discrete. The husbands of his mistresses were expected to turn a blind eye.
Most of the anecdotes about Emily come from the period of her marriage to Greville when she lived at Ashton Court.
Miss Fitzway (Esme’s companion) and Miss Hilder (Esme’s maid) said of Emily:
“She was very fond of the gentlemen and loved gaiety in every form. She knew she was beautiful and insisted on being accorded the foremost place at all grand receptions and public functions.”
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Emily’s personal maid, Miss Watson, recalled that Emily gave herself up to a life of enjoyment with scarcely a thought for her servants’ feelings.
In aristocratic circles liaisons or affairs typically took place at country houses during weekend house parties.
One such house party took place in 1884. The Prince of Wales visited Sir Philip and Lady Miles at Leigh Court from Monday 28th of January to Friday the 1st of February. During his visit he spent 2 or 3 days shooting on both the Leigh Court and Ashton Court Estates in the neighbourhood of Tickenham. One evening a ball was given in honour of the Prince’s visit with over 200 guests invited, another evening was a grand concert in aid of the Bristol medical charities.
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King Edward VII as the Prince of Wales c.1880. Image: ©Edward Gooch Collection/Getty Images
Were Emily and Greville on the list of attendees?
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Lady Miles, the former Frances Roche, was a renowned society beauty nicknamed the “Venus de Miles” in reference to the classical sculpture the Venus de Milo. She attracted many admirers.
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Was it a case of mistaken identity? Two renowned local beauties of a similar age got mixed up by the gossips … .
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The Trowbridge chronical reported almost 2 years later in December 1885:
“ … the Prince of Wales is to be the guest of Sr Philip and Lady Miles, at Leigh Court, Somersetshire. One day will be devoted to shooting the home covers, which are being kept for the occasion; and the Prince is to have a day’s sport with Sir Greville Smyth at Ashton Court, where the bags are very much larger than those at Leigh. This will be the Prince’s second visit to Leigh Court, as he stayed there for a couple of days just two years ago.”
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Was this the occasion when the Prince renewed his acquaintance with Lady Emily?
The shooting visits were recorded in photographs.
Sir Greville Smyth with the Prince of Wales Tickenham c.1884. ©Unknown/photography Jamie Carstairs.
Sir Greville Smyth hosting the Prince of Wales at a shoot in Tickenham Woods c. 1884. ©Unknown/ photography Jamie Carstairs.
After 1885 there were no more reported visits to Leigh Court and Sir Philip died in 1888.
Any visits to renew the Prince’s acquaintance with Emily would have to be discrete particularly after her marriage to Greville. From 1860 to 1893 the train station at Flax Bourton was just a stone’s throw from Long Ashton and the southern end of the Ashton Court Estate. It would have been possible for the Prince to visit without attracting a huge amount of attention.
A local rumour concerns Keeper’s Cottage. Only recently a visitor at an open day mentioned that a house, possible Keepers Cottage, was much more sumptuously fitted out than its outward appearance used to suggest, and that the work was done to accommodate the Prince of Wales.
Certainly when the property was sold in 1947 it was described as “A very desirable detached house at present the Keeper’s Cottage.” It was and is discretely tucked away in a secluded spot in Ashton Hill Plantation, away from prying eyes.
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The story lives on to this day – but is it true?
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In 1901 the Prince of Wales became King Edward VII; Greville died and Emily became a widow again.
Edward VII’s final visit to Bristol took place in July 1908 when he visited with Queen Alexandra to open the Royal Edward Dock at Avonmouth. They travelled to Avonmouth onboard the Royal Yacht Victoria and Albert. Newspaper reports of the time reported that after the opening ceremony the royal couple left to make some private visits.
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This ties in quite neatly with a Bristol Evening Post article of June 1986 which concerns a Backwell farmer and a 1909 Daimler 15hp car. The farmer claimed that the car had been used by King Edward VII to visit Dame Emily Smyth. The reporter checked the previous ownership of the car but it had not been in either Royal or state ownership and that the number plate was an old Somerset registration. The answer, of course, could be that it was the car that was used to transport the royal couple on their private visits.
One final piece in the puzzle concerns a bed and the recollections of Daisybelle White (Esme’s kennelmaid).
Daisybelle said that Miss Fitzway (Esme’s companion) and Miss Hilder (Esme’s maid) were not the type of people to repeat malicious gossip. Daisybelle reported that during Esme’s lifetime nothing was said about her mother’s private life. Daisybelle maintained that the stories that circulated were based on facts. When the house contents were being sold Miss Hilder took Daisybelle upstairs to look at Emily’s bed which had been reassembled for the sale.
“It was a monstrous affair of shiny brass, about eight feet square; seven pillows across the top and a huge mattress. ‘The Prince used to lie in the middle, and three ladies used to quarrel as to who should lie beside him’”.
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Truth or fiction? You decide!