Edward Iwi

Edward Frank Iwi (28 November 19046 June 1966) was an English lawyer who was best known as an amateur constitutional expert. Many of his opinions, while initially dismissed by the establishment, proved to be correct and caused official policy to be changed. Most notable, though not a legal point, was his advocacy for the Royal Family to adopt Prince Philip's surname of Mountbatten in lieu of Windsor, in order that any royal children born after Queen Elizabeth II's accession in 1952 would not bear their mother’s pre-marriage surname, which he termed "the Badge of Bastardy".
==Biography==
Edward Iwi was born on 28 November 1904Author and Book Info. Retrieved 17 April 2014 to a Jewish family in London and educated at John Bright Grammar School, Llandudno, north Wales. In 1913 his widowed mother married Morris Wartski. 
Iwi was admitted as a solicitor in 1927, and served as a Law Society examiner from 1938 to 1962.The Palgrave Dictionary of Anglo-Jewish History, p. 462. Retrieved 17 April 2014
He was an indefatigable writer to the Editor of The Times, usually on anomalies in the law that had been overlooked.
In 1937 Iwi called for the creation of a Commonwealth Court, which would replace the judicial functions of the House of Lords and become the court of final appeal in UK cases rather than the Privy Council. During World War II he was calling for each Dominion to create its own Judicial Committee.David B Swinfen, Imperial Appeal: The Debate on the Appeal to the Privy Council 1833–1986, pp. 180, 184, 191. Retrieved 17 April 2014
In 1938 he was a co-author of The Courts of Justice: Volume 1 of Stephen's Commentaries on the laws of England.. Retrieved 17 April 2014
He sent a confidential letter to Herbert Morrison, Home Secretary in Winston Churchill's wartime government, suggesting that the then Princess Elizabeth be made "Duke of Cymru" to create a focus of loyalty for the people of north Wales, who were considered not entirely wedded to the British cause. He also suggested the Princess be appointed Constable of Caernarfon Castle.BBC News, 8 March 2005, "Royal plans to beat nationalism". Retrieved 17 April 2014 Iwi pointed to a nationalist movement in north Wales that showed signs of emulating or even joining the Irish republican movement. Indeed, some of the more extreme members were already calling for Wales to be given dominion status.Tweedie, Neil (10 March 2005). "Wartime plan to use Princess to woo Welsh", The Telegraph. Retrieved 17 April 2014 Iwi's suggestions came to nothing.
After World War II, Iwi helped with legal issues surrounding Jewish children who were in the custody of non-Jewish carers, and helped to return these children to the Jewish fold.
In 1947 Iwi chaired a pressure group that collected 50,000 signatures on a petition to be presented to Parliament pleading for women to be able to sit in the House of Lords. This petition was never presented, because in 1949, for the first time, the House of Lords voted in favour of a motion to admit female hereditary peers (although they did not finally gain the right until 1963),
 "Women in the House of Lords"
 Retrieved 4 Aug 2019
 but he did participate in another petition that was presented to the House of Lords on 2 March 1948.. Retrieved 17 April 1948
In the 1950s he called for Britain to adopt a new approach to the Commonwealth, to abandon her role as matriarch in favour of a sisterly role.
In 1956 he published a selection of essays titled Laws and Flaws: Lapses of the Legislators.Foreign Affairs, July 1957. Retrieved 17 April 2014
==Royal surname==
On 9 April 1952, two months after Princess Elizabeth became Queen Elizabeth II, she had declared that the royal family would continue to be known as the "House and Family of Windsor", as it had been under her father King George VI. This declaration was made on the urging of the then prime minister, Winston Churchill, who had long regarded the Duke of Edinburgh's uncle, Lord Mountbatten, as a dangerous and subversive rival who had sacrificed India, and did not want to see that name become the royal family's name.
In 1959 the Queen announced she was pregnant (with Prince Andrew) and was due to give birth in February 1960. This would be the first child born to the Queen since her 1952 declaration. In September 1959 Edward Iwi wrote to the then Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan and to Buckingham Palace, about the name of the Royal Family. Iwi set out his concern as follows:
There was strong reaction to Iwi's letter. The Lord Chancellor Lord Kilmuir told Macmillan: "This is in very bad taste. Iwi must be silenced... he might go quietly."
Sir George Coldstream, Lord Kilmuir's private secretary, advised 10 Downing Street: 
Accordingly, Macmillan attempted to rebuff Iwi:
But Iwi was not easily put off. He responded to Macmillan on 17 November 1959:
(Here he may have had in mind a sermon latterly given by Thomas Bloomer, Bishop of Carlisle which, while not mentioning Iwi by name, seemed to give support to his cause.)
There were further exchanges between Macmillan and Iwi, with no resolution, until January 1960, when the Prime Minister was on an official visit to South Africa. Rab Butler reported to Macmillan that at his first audience with the Queen in his capacity as acting prime minister, she had advised him that she had "absolutely set her heart" on a change to the royal surname. On 8 February, the Queen made a new declaration saying that she had adopted "Mountbatten-Windsor" as the name for all her descendants who did not enjoy the style of Royal Highness.Travis, Alan (18 February 1999). "Queen feared 'slur' on family", The Guardian. Retrieved 17 April 2014 Iwi was vindicated. Prince Andrew was born 11 days later, on 19 February 1960.
On 18 March, The Law Journal contained an article by Iwi entitled "Mountbatten-Windsor", explaining something of the history of the royal family's surname and why it had been appropriate for the Queen to have made the declaration she had latterly made.The Law Journal, vol. cx, 18 March 1960. Retrieved 17 April 2014
==Private life==
In 1929 Iwi was engaged to Esther Sacker.The Times, 29 November 1929. Retrieved 17 April 2014 Esther Iwi was appointed a Justice of the Peace in 1949.rootsweb. Retrieved 17 April 2014 In 1951 she resigned as a magistrate at her own request,Hansard, House of Commons, 4 June 1951 vol 488 cc677-679. Retrieved 20 March 2016.The Jewish Chronicle, 15 June 1952 (see copy) and became involved in a dispute with the Lord Chancellor, which reached Parliament.
In 1955 he retired as a Member of the Council of the Anglo-Jewish Association.82nd Annual Report of the Anglo-Jewish Association 1953–54. Retrieved 17 April 2014 He was again elected, and retired in 1962.90th Annual Report of the Anglo-Jewish Association 1961–62. Retrieved 17 April 2014
Edward Iwi died in an accident in Venice, Italy on 6 June 1966, aged 61.
==See also==
* History of Plaid Cymru
==References==
Category:1900s births
Category:1960s deaths
Category:English legal writers
Category:English Jews
Category:Constitution of the United Kingdom
Category:English constitutionalists
Category:British royal family
Edward
Category:Accidental deaths in Italy
Category:20th-century English historians
Category:20th-century English lawyers
Category:People educated at Ysgol John Bright