British Conservative politician (1880-1959) who served in various cabinet posts throughout the 1920s and 1930s, including First Lord of the Admiralty during the reign of Edward VIII. ALS signed "Sam," one page both sides, 7 x 9, December 10, 1936. Handwritten letter to newspaper publisher and politician Lord Beaverbrook ("Dear Max"), written on the day that King Edward VIII signed the Instrument of Abdication. In full: "I have not telephoned or come round today or yesterday as I was, on your advice, sitting back in the final acts of this tragic farce. It was clear to me yesterday that the denouement was inevitable. I tried my best to the end to make renunciation possible, but the King would not move an inch. To what depths can folly descend! In any case I am glad and grateful that another crisis brought us together again. It is almost a year to a day since my resignation. The first friendly word from outside came from you. I never forget these things nor shall I forget our talks of the last fortnight, and your manifest wish to help me in my career. If you are still in England next week, I will come round to Stornoway House." In very good to fine condition, with staple holes and paperclip impressions, mounting remnants to the top edge, and splitting to the end of the central horizontal fold.
In November 1936, Edward VIII sought out Hoare to ask for independent advice and counsel on his constitutional problems. Initially the King attempted to convert him into a champion of his cause, hoping that Hoare would speak up in defense of his right to marry when the matter came up for formal discussion in the Cabinet. In Edward's memoirs, A King's Story (1951), he recounts this first meeting: 'I failed to win him as an advocate. He was sympathetic; but he also was acutely conscious of the political realities. Mr. Baldwin, he warned me, was in command of the situation: the senior Ministers were solidly with him on this issue. If I were to press my marriage project on the Cabinet I should meet a stone wall of opposition. I saw Mr. Duff Cooper at the Palace later the same day…He was as encouraging and optimistic as Sam Hoare had been pessimistic and discouraging.'
King Edward VIII then recalls his second meeting Hoare, which took place at the end of November: 'At this juncture, the scene shifted momentarily to Stornoway House where Max Beaverbrook, ever since his return from America, had worked feverishly to rally support for me in whatever quarters it might be found…Mr. Baldwin was aware of what Max Beaverbrook was up to; and no doubt hoping to check the forces beginning to rally round my cause, he despatched Sir Samuel Hoare on Sunday, the 29th, to explain the attitude of the Government towards the King. The message which the First Lord of the Admiralty bore was ominous indeed. It was that the Ministers stood with Mr. Baldwin-'…no breach exists: there is no light or leaning in the King's direction.' Then the First Lord fired his second salvo. 'The publicity,' he said, 'is about to break.' Many Ministers, he added, were restless and dissatisfied over the failure of the Press to publish facts of a crisis already the talk of the rest of the world. He stressed Mr. Baldwin's desire that the Press, like the Cabinet, should form an unbroken front against the proposed marriage. It was an undisguised invitation for Max Beaverbrook to change sides. His answer was: 'I have already taken the King's shilling, I am a King's man.''
In early December the King learned of an earlier meeting between Beaverbrook and Hoare, on which he comments: 'So the day had not been all debits as far as I was concerned. From Stornoway House Max Beaverbrook, sensing the favourable upsurge in public opinion, had steadily hammered away on the theme of delay. I must not allow myself, he urged, to be harried and hurried into precipitous action. He had seen Sir Samuel Hoare again, and in conversation with him had formed the impression that many Ministers were troubled by the turn the crisis had taken, and would welcome a withdrawal of my request for advice on the morganatic marriage proposal. But I was wearied to the point of exhaustion.'
Finally, on the morning of December 10, 1936, King Edward VIII signed the Instrument of Abdication at Fort Belvedere, declaring his 'irrevocable determination to renounce the throne for myself and for my descendants.'
