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Auction: 22103 - Orders, Decorations and Medals VII - e-Auction
Lot: 794

The mounted 'Edward VIII' R.V.M. group of six miniature dress medals worn by Valet H. J. Crisp, Valet to King Edward VIII

Defence Medal 1939-45; Royal Victorian Medal, silver, G.VI.R. [sic]; Jubilee 1935; Coronation 1937; Coronation 1953; Royal Household Faithful Service Medal, G.VI.R., the suspension dated '1919-1939' and with additional Thirty Years Bar, mounted court-style as worn, good very fine (6)

The full-size awards of Crisp sold in these rooms in October 2010 (Hammer Price £8,200) and further papers from his archive in our 30 June 2022 Auction of Historical Documents, Postal History & Autographs.

It can be no surprise that given the scarcity and outrage at the Abdication of King Edward VIII, that no manufacturer produced the Royal Victorian Medal in miniature with his portrait.

(Horace) Jack Crisp received his Royal Household Faithful Service Medal on 10 October 1939, having previously been Valet to H.R.H. the Prince of Wales from 1915-35 and then Valet to H.M. King Edward VIII during the one year of his reign prior to the Abdication. During the latter part of this service Crisp variously acted as Butler and Valet, having inherited the former post from the admirable Mr Finch, who was compelled to pack his bags soon after the arrival of Mrs. Wallis Simpson, with whom he had been unable to agree over such matters as cocktails and flower arrangements.

As it transpired, Mr. Finch was by no means the only victim of the ambitious Mrs. Simpson, the Prince's staff fleeing in droves from his London residence and Fort Belvedere the moment she looked like becoming part of the furniture. For the likes of Jack Crisp, gone were the idyllic days when the young Prince cut a dashing figure about town, all the while displaying popular concern for his less fortunate countrymen - he would recall how Edward never wasted time in getting ready for official functions, estimating that 'he could undress, take a bath, and be on his way downstairs in tails and Garter Star within three minutes.' But now that Mrs. Simpson was on the scene he and fellow staff felt bound to put up a united front of protest, her behaviour being beyond redemption. Whether an exaggeration or not, Crisp would later claim that she once went around Fort Belvedere breaking the tip off every pencil in sight, thereby forcing the servants to sharpen each and every one of them again.

Indeed Crisp is widely quoted in many publications dealing with the Windsor's story, having been for so many years on the Prince's staff and accordingly a primary source of inside information, not least during the lead up to the Abdication. Sad and bitter days they must have been, his master seemingly hellbent on a sad course of self-destruction, so much so that Crisp, like Finch before him, eventually opted to leave his employ. On the eve of his departure into exile, Edward asked his Valet to join him. Crisp declined. Kinder historians might attribute his decision to family ties in England, or even the strident Mrs. Simpson, but Crisp later remarked, 'He gave up his job, I gave up mine.'

Re-employed as a Page of the Presence by King George VI, and afterwards a Page of the Chambers, Jack Crisp finished his career as a Steward to H.M.Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, at Clarence House.

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Sold for
£230

Starting price
£210