ROYALTY – EDWARD (PRINCE OF WALES) Autograph letter signed ("Edward") to Lieutenant Colonel G.F. Trotter, commander of the 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards ("My dear Colonel"), beginning by recounting a lengthy and amusing anecdote whereby he and some friends took "...a joy ride in my car & we didn't say 'no' to this suggestion!!!! So we shoved off for Montreuil... to try & find the Blues & Alastair L-G but on reaching their H.Q were told he had ridden into Etaples & had gone on to Le Touquet for lunch...", after speeding after him the car got stuck in a sand dune ("...an internal smash, which meant taking down the engines!! Bloody bad luck really, still no time for lamentations..."), wishing the Colonel had been with them, and ending by complaining at leaving the Battalion ("...I needn't tell you how frightfully sick I am at thus being ignominiously pulled out of the Div. just as its going to Ypres. I feel the biggest shit the Lord ever created... I still feel it, & feel it most bitterly..."), and that until he rejoins them "...everything will be absolutely bloody...", 7 pages on 2 bifolia, light dust-staining, creased at folds, 8vo (178 x 135mm.), Hotel Folkestone, Boulogne-sur-Mer, 1 March 1916 'I FEEL THE BIGGEST SHIT THE LORD EVER CREATED... I STILL FEEL IT, & FEEL IT MOST BITTERLY...': THE PRINCE RELUCTANTLY LEAVES HIS BATTALION BEFORE THEIR DEPLOYMENT TO YPRES. This is a letter which reveals contrasting sides to the Prince of Wales, the fun-loving Prince and the serious soldier. The first part recounts with great amusement some light-hearted gallivanting whereby himself and his friends, Lady Rosemary Leveson-Gower, her sister-in-law Eileen Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, and the Hon. Diana Wyndham, stranded together in France whilst waiting for the boat home, enthusiastically take off for a "joy ride" in order to search out Lady Rosemary's brother Alistair. After getting the car stuck in a "sand drift" they ultimately make it to the Duchess of Westminster's hospital at Le Touquet where they find their quarry having lunch with the Duchess. Despite the jollity, they were all undertaking serious war work - Diana Wyndham was a war widow and volunteer ambulance driver and Lady Rosemary was working as a nurse in a military hospital founded by her mother, as was Eileen - so this escapade must have come as welcome relief. The Prince later proposed to Rosemary but their marriage was vetoed by George V. The tone changes in the second part of the letter where the Prince once again expresses his frustration at not being permitted to serve on the front line with his Battalion "just as it's going to Ypres". His feelings about being sidelined during the war are well documented throughout his correspondence at this time (see letters to Sir Henry Aubrey-Fletcher sold in these rooms March 2026). Provenance: Collection of Mary Hyde; private collection, UK.