Letter from HRH Edward, Prince of Wales, to Lieutenant-Colonel Maxwell Earle DSO, Commanding Officer 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards, 22 September 1914

The letter records the future King Edward VIII's disappointment at not being allowed to embark to France with the regiment. The prince stated: 'I feel the firing line is the only thing that will satisfy me!'

The risk of capture is often cited as the reasoning for the decision to ban the prince from the front. Earle himself was wounded and captured on the Western Front in October 1914. He was interned in Switzerland and repatriated in 1917.