WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN - LADY ROSEMARY LEVESON - GOWER

Lady Rosemary Leveson-Gower, daughter of the 4th Duke of Sutherland, was the only woman (so far as is known) to whom Edward VIII proposed marriage - other than Wallis Simpson. In 1917,  at the age of 23, Edward proposed to Rosemary, but the marriage (on family rather than personal grounds) was vetoed by his parents, George V and Queen Mary.

Rosemary Sutherland Leveson Gower.
A sketch by John Singer Sargent, dated 1919

Rosemary Sutherland-Leveson-Gower.
Unknown photographer, prob 1920s

After the royal veto, Rosemary "let it be known" that she had never wished to marry the Prince of Wales, as Edward then was, and then moved rather rapidly in the romance stakes, marrying William Ward, Viscount Ednam, 10th Royal Hussars (later 3rd Earl Dudley), on 8th March 1919.

Rosemary Leveson-Gower.
Cover Girl for "The Sketch", 19th February 1919.
Her then fiance, Viscount Ednam inset.

The marriage produced three sons in fairly rapid succession (and a daughter, sadly stillborn). Nevertheless, it seems not to have been the happiest of unions, for William is commonly believed to have fathered a daughter, born in 1923, by Venetia Stanley, and Rosemary maintained her friendship with both Edward (godfather to her eldest son) and the Conservative MP (and discreet roue), Duff Cooper.

On 21st July 1930, aged only 37, Rosemary died tragically in an aviation accident ("the Meopham Air Disaster"). The details of the accident are still hard to read : see WIKI HERE and WIKI HERE.

Fatal Flight - Lady Rosemary Leveson - Gower (second from right) at Le Touquet airfield
 on the morning of 21st July 1930, standing in front of the Junkers aircraft
 that was the centre of the  Meopham Air Disaster.
Fellow passenger, the Marquess of Dufferin and Ava (previously Lord Frederick Blackwood), on left.

In 1936, when Edward VIII (as he then was) was intent upon marrying Wallis Simpson - notwithstanding all family and constitutional objections - it may be that Queen Mary had cause to regret her earlier veto of Rosemary Leveson-Gower. Certainly, history would have taken a very different turn had there been a "Queen Rosemary" rather than a "Queen Wallis"...and our own Very British Civil War might never have come into being.

Add Edit:

(1). For Rosemary's mother, Millicent Leveson Gower, 4th Duchess of Sutherland ("Meddlesome Millie") and her magnificent portrait by John Singer Sargent, see HERE.

(2). For Venetia Stanley, see HERE. For more on Venetia, HH Asquith, Viscount Ednam and Judith Montagu, see HERE. Venetia died in 1948.

(3). For Rosemary's husband, Viscount Ednam and thereafter 3rd Earl Dudley, subsequently well known (in very different ways) to such disparate characters as Mandy Rice-Davies and Peter Tatchell, see HERE. The 3rd Earl died in 1969.

Another photograph from Le Touquet, 21st July 1930.

Later the same day. G-AAZK downed at Meopham.