Her Lotus Year: Wallis at the American Lido, Peking, 1925

Here’s Wallis (nearest camera) in the summer of 1925 swimming at the lido in the American Legation in Peking. The man sitting beside her is Eddie Mills, an American living in Peking and working for the Salt Gabelle (China’s salt tax agency). Mills had helped Wallis with her luggage on Tianjin Station in December 1924 when she heading to Peking. They remained friends.

Her Lotus Year: China, the Roaring Twenties and the Making of Wallis Simpson is available everywhere in hardback, e-book and audiobook now…