Alexander Hardinge, 2nd Baron Hardinge of Penshurst

Major The Right Honourable The Lord Hardinge of Penshurst GCB GCVO MC PC
File:Alexander Henry Louis Hardinge, 2nd Baron Hardinge of Penshurst.jpg Hardinge in 1916
Private Secretary to the Sovereign
In office 1936–1943
Monarch	Edward VIII (1936-1936); George VI (1936-1943)
Preceded by	Sir Clive Wigram
Succeeded by	Sir Alan Lascelles
Personal details
Born	(1894-05-17)May 17, 1894
Died
Nationality	British

Major Alexander Henry Louis Hardinge, 2nd Baron Hardinge of Penshurst GCB GCVO MC PC (17 May 1894 - 29 May 1960) was Private Secretary to the Sovereign during the Abdication Crisis of Edward VIII and during most of the Second World War.

Background and earlier life

Hardinge was born in 1894, the son of The Hon. Charles Hardinge (who was created Baron Hardinge of Penshurst in 1910 and served as Viceroy of India from 1910 to 1916). He was commissioned into the Grenadier Guards and fought in the First World War, alongside his brother, rising to the rank of Lieutenant and winning the Military Cross. In 1920, he became Assistant Private Secretary to George V and was promoted Captain. On 8 February 1921, he married Helen Gascoyne-Cecil (a daughter of Lord Edward Gascoyne-Cecil and his wife, Violet) and they had three children. In 1929 he was promoted Major.

Hardinge served as Assistant Private Secretary up until King George V's death in 1936.

Private Secretary to King Edward VIII and King George VI

He was promoted to Private Secretary upon the accession of Edward VIII that same year, contributing to some delicate negotiations between Edward and the British Government in the run up to Edward's abdication in December 1936; he continued in this role under George VI until his early retirement in 1943. Significantly, as Brandi McCarry's commentary has pointed out, Hardinge's ultimate loyalty lay towards the King in Parliament rather than personally to a monarch in conflict with the Government; this was particularly reflected in Hardinge's warning letter to King Edward received on November 13, 1936, which showed evidence of prior consultation with Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, who, with his Cabinet, had serious misgivings about the suitability of Mrs Wallis Simpson as the possible spouse of the monarch. The precise nature of this loyalty was thus reflected in his official style of Private Secretary to the Sovereign (understood against the Sovereign's place in the British Constitution).

Later life

In 1936 he also retired from the Army. Hardinge's elder brother, Edward, had died from wounds received in action in 1914 and so Hardinge succeeded as Baron Hardinge of Penshurst, on the demise of his father a year later, in 1944.

Death and legacy

Hardinge died in 1960 and his title was inherited by his son, George.

His wife Helen wrote his biography Loyal to Three Kings, William Kimber, London 1967.

External links

• Hardinge of Penshurst, Baron (UK, 1910), genealogy
• Hardinge, Charles, first Baron Hardinge of Penshurst (1858–1944), diplomatist and viceroy of India

Court offices
Preceded by The Earl of Cromer	Assistant Private Secretary to the Sovereign 1920–1936	Succeeded by Sir Godfrey Thomas
Preceded by Sir Clive Wigram	Private Secretary to the Sovereign 1936–1943	Succeeded by Sir Alan Lascelles
Peerage of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Charles Hardinge	Baron Hardinge of Penshurst 1944–1960	Succeeded by George Hardinge