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Latest comment: 1 year ago1 comment1 person in discussion
The statement of the Duke of York (future King George VI) proposing to Poppy Baring is questionable to me. This article cites the book "The People's King" by Susan Williams for this information. Williams' book then cites the book "Marina" by Sophia Watson; and Watson's book cites "Born Royal" by Richard Hough as the source of this story. The Hough book defines itself in the introduction by the author as a "dramatic biography" and where he allowed himself "generous license with dialogue". There is also quite a license with facts; much of this book is completely wrong with timeline and plot in reference to the courtships and marriage of King George VI, a subject I've done an incredible amount of research on. In fact, I would see this book as pretty much a work of historical fiction and not very reliable (though enjoyable). No well-researched, well-sourced book about George VI ever mentions Poppy Baring as someone Prince Albert was even interested in, unless it cites back to the Hough book and I cannot trace the source of the Poppy story beyond the Hough book. It is my belief that there is a confusion between his relationship with Sheila Loughborough (of which there is actual documentation in letters) and Poppy Baring, who was of the same social set. Even Chips Channon, with is antennae for gossip, did not seem aware of this relationship history, though he knew Poppy quite well. (It is, however, mentioned by the editor in footnotes of the most recent version of his published diaries. But without a named source, which is frustrating!) I can find no other reference of them together, except that newspaper clippings from 1921 do in fact state that the Duke of York did stay with the Barings during Cowes Week in 1921. But this does not prove that he proposed to her while he was there.
While the story of Poppy's involvement with his younger brother, Prince George, Duke of Kent is well-documented, there seems to be no evidence that she was ever engaged to Albert, Duke of York (King George VI). In the light that this "fact" is questionable at best, I think it out to be removed from the article. Deborah 1952 (talk) 20:28, 12 April 2025 (UTC)Reply
