Bahamas

Allegiance

Role in WW2

The Duke of Windsor, the former King Edward VIII, was installed as Governor of the Bahamas in August 1940. It is widely believed that the Duke and Duchess sympathised with fascism before and during the war, and were moved to the Bahamas to minimise their opportunities to act on those feelings.[5] The Duke was praised for his efforts to combat poverty on the islands, although he was as contemptuous of the Bahamians as he was of most non-white peoples of the Empire.[6] He was also praised for his resolution of civil unrest over low wages in Nassau in June 1942, when there was a "full-scale riot"[7], even though he blamed the trouble on "mischief makers – communists" and "men of Central European Jewish descent, who had secured jobs as a pretext for obtaining a deferment of draft".[8] The Duke resigned the post on 16 March 1945.[9] In April 1942 the United Kingdom asked Canada to provide military support in Nassau, in part to protect the Duke. No. 33 company of the Veterans Guard of Canada arrived in June. They were relieved in 1943 by a company of The Pictou Highlanders. The Canadian garrison left Nassau in 1946 [10]