William and Kate’s ‘forever home’ and its intimate links to shamed King Edward VIII and his ‘very difficult’ equerry… revealed in secret files

Given its age and status as a royal property, Forest Lodge was always going to have some skeletons in its closets.

And as historian Christopher Wilson revealed in the Daily Mail at the weekend, one of its past owners was a slaver who made his money from coffee and rum plantations in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

But now, as the Prince and Princess of Wales prepare to move into the eight-bed home in Windsor Great Park with their three children, formerly secret files seen by the Daily Mail have shed intriguing light on the property’s more recent history.

Documents stored in the National Archives show how the home’s current name was originally suggested by King Edward VIII, after a row involving his equerry, Sir John Aird, who was a tenant from 1937 until his death in 1973. 

Aird – described as a ‘hard bargainer’ and ‘very difficult’ by officials – had considered an alternative suggestion ‘distasteful’ and had wanted to keep the name of ‘Ranger’s Lodge’.

Edward even got involved in Aird’s negotiations over the rent – the equivalent of around £20,000 a year today – he was asked to pay, with one official noting: ‘The King is inclined to think that we are charging too much money to Sir John’. 

The links to the shamed Edward VIII – who departed royal life in disgrace in December 1936 when he abdicated so he could marry divorcee Wallis Simpson – do not end there.

The tenant at Forest Lodge before Aird – Windsor Great Park deputy ranger Sir Malcolm Murray – only moved in in 1929 after he was told to leave his previous grace and favour home, Fort Belvedere, so the then Prince of Wales could live there.

Prince William and the Princess of Wales are to move into Forest Lodge with their three children later this year 

Given its age and status as a royal property, Forest Lodge, in Windsor Great Park, was always going to have some skeletons in its closets

Sir John Aird (back) with King Edward VIII during his controversial European holiday with divorcee Wallis Simpson in 1936

Belvedere – also in Windsor Great Park – became Edward’s favourite home and was where he spent a lot of time alone with Wallis Simpson. 

He chose to sign his abdication papers there in 1936. 

But exchanges between officials at the Office of the Commissioner of Crown Lands and the Treasury show how Sir Malcolm was upset at being ordered to pay an interest rate of £25 per year on the cost of improvements that were necessary at Forest Lodge when he moved in.

His complaint led to a back and forth between officials, with one calling Forest Lodge ‘inconvenient and antiquated’.

Murray had, they said, moved into Forest Lodge ‘quite against his own wishes’ and so they could understand why the interest charge ‘rankles’.

Eventually, they agreed to drop the fee.

William and Kate and their three children, Prince George, 12, Princess Charlotte, 10, and Prince Louis, seven, are not likely to have any such bureaucratic struggles.

The family are set to move to Forest Lodge from their current home, the four-bed Adelaide Cottage, later this year. 

One of the folders of files about Forest Lodge that the Daily Mail examined at the National Archives. The title on the folder points to the fact that Forest Lodge had previously been named Ranger’s Lodge

The Georgian mansion dates back to the late 18th century and was acquired by the Crown in 1829.

Locals say it is a significant ‘step up’ from Adelaide cottage, where they have lived since 2022.

The three-storey home boasts elaborate plaster cornices and ceiling decoration, exquisite marble fireplaces and a half-barrel-vaulted ceiling.

Files show how, in 1937, the property was on a footprint of just over 30 acres of land. 

The Waleses are set to pay a market rent for Forest Lodge, although the fee will not be disclosed. 

The Daily Mail revealed on Sunday that the most recent tenants of Forest Lodge were society party fixer Alex Fitzgibbons, 53, and his glamorous Swedish-American wife Cristina Stenbeck.

It is understood that Mr Fitzgibbons – who is extremely well connected – decided to move out after hearing rumours that his home might be taken back by his landlords.

The files examined by the Daily Mail at the National Archives in Kew, West London, date back to 1929, when Sir Malcolm Murray was appointed deputy ranger of Windsor Great Park.

Also found at the archives were drawings of the property’s footprint, and even internal floor plans.  

After his gripe over the interest fee he was ordered to pay was sorted, Sir Malcolm lived at Forest Lodge – then known as Ranger’s Lodge and before that called Holly Grove – until 1937, when he retired from his post.

A letter that shows how Edward VIII thought his equerry was being charged too much rent to live at Forest Lodge. The official at the Office of Commissioner of Crown Lands told a counterpart at the Treasury that he had been rung up by the new Keeper of the Privy Purse, ‘who says that the King is inclined to think that we are charging too much money to Sir John!’

An official at the Office of Commissioner of Crown Lands noting to a Treasury counterpart that ‘it is very difficult to haggle too far with a friend of the King’, when Aird was negotiating over the rent he would have to pay to live at Forest Lodge

The property was then let to Aird at Edward VIII’s request. The royal had become the King in January 1936, after the death of his father George V.

Aird was a decorated soldier and baronet who had joined the Prince of Wales on his visit to Kenya in 1923. 

He also joined the future king on his tour of South America in 1931, where he noted Edward’s bedroom antics.

And Aird was the brains behind the ill-judged cruise Edward and Wallis embarked on in the summer of 1936.

The trip revealed the pair’s relationship to the British republic. 

Official files reveal that Aird negotiated an initial 21-year lease on Forest Lodge. 

He pushed for £325 per year rent, with rates added to provide an ‘inclusive figure’.

The new King’s influence loomed large over the negotiations.  

Forest Lodge pictured in December 1975, when it looked like Princess Anne may move into the property with her husband Captain Mark Phillips

In a letter to officials (above), Aird listed his objection to the proposed new name of Holly Grove, calling it ‘distasteful’

Aird wanted to keep the name ‘Ranger’s Lodge’, but in the end, after the King suggested ‘Forest Gate Lodge’, the name ‘Forest Lodge’ was settled on 

An official at the Office of the Commissioner of Crown Lands noted ‘Although this is contrary to our usual practice, it is very difficult to haggle too far with a friend of the King and I recommend agreeing to it in order to get the rent accepted.’

Despite the King’s subsequent belief that Aird was being charged too much, the deal was agreed. 

It later emerged that a valuer from the Inland Revenue believed the rent was actually £50 below what should have been charged. 

Aird did manage to ensure that only he would have the power to break the lease, at the end of the 7th and 14th years. 

After he had moved in, Aird demanded that the commissioners pay some of the cost of improvements to the property. 

The quoted contribution was £1,500, out of an overall cost of £4,870.

Eyebrows were then raised in August 1937 when one official said that nearly £3,000 of the stated cost was ‘entirely unexplained’. 

And although Aird wanted to keep the name Ranger’s Lodge, an official insisted it needed to be changed.

The extensive works carried out to renovate Forest Lodge when Aird moved in

In a letter to officials, Aird listed his objection to the proposed return to the name of Holly Grove, calling it ‘distasteful’.

An aide then noted of Aird: ‘He objects to the name “Holly Grove”. I have talked this over with the King, who thinks that a suitable name would be “Forest Gate Lodge”.

Another proposal was for the home to be called ‘Forest House’. In the end, before the end of 1937, Forest Lodge was settled on.  

Despite the fact Edward had abdicated in December 1936, Aird still moved into Forest Lodge.

The files show how he was anxious to ensure that no properties would be built near his new home. 

An official assured him that ‘we should never dream of spoiling our own market by building anything near an important house like Forest House which would have the effect of depreciating it for the future and would therefore deprive us of money.’

In March 1956, an official noted with displeasure that Aird had asked for consent of Queen Elizabeth II – on the throne since the death of her father in 1952 – to extend his lease on Forest Lodge, which was due to expire in 1958.

The Daily Mail’s reporting in November 1973 following the death of Sir John Aird. He shot himself in the head while in hospital

The Daily Mail’s coverage in December 1975, when it looked as though Princess Anne may move in to Forest Lodge 

The note, speaking of the reaction of the Queen’s then finance chief, read: ‘Lord Tyron recognized this approach to be “the fast one”, which it obviously is.’ 

And then in 1960, an official described Aird as having been ‘very difficult’ when he negotiated said lease. 

There was an even an extraordinary exchange over who should keep the fence surrounding Forest Lodge ‘rabbit-proof’.

The commissioners concluded: ‘Provided that it is made clear to Sir John Aird that we accept no legal liability to provide a rabbit-proof fence and that, if this is nevertheless provided, we would look to him to maintain the rabbit-proof element in the fence, I would be prepared to accept that we should, as a gesture, contribute not more than half the cost of putting the fence into a rabbit proof condition now.’

Aird would remain at Forest Lodge until November 1973, when he shot himself in his bed at the King Edward VII hospital, where he had received a serious cancer diagnosis after going there for investigations. 

Aird’s widow remained living at the home – then described as having 12 bedrooms –  until December 1975, when it was reported that Princess Anne was going to move in with her then-husband, Captain Mark Phillips.

However, the Queen instead gave Anne the much more palatial Gatcombe Park in Gloucestershire.

Instead, Forest Lodge was occupied by the 14th Lord Napier, who became Princess Margaret’s private secretary in 1975.