Detective work

This is one of those little discoveries that I love about family history.
 
I remember being told as a child that one of our forebears served as a body guard to a Royal Personage. I no longer remembered, if I had ever known, which forebear and which Royal Personage. Then I found this record of one of my great uncles sailing to Canada in September 1923.
 
The Passenger Declaration tells us that Great Uncle Alfred was a police officer and that the purpose of his trip was a ‘visit’ - not very informative. But then the record tells us that his passage was paid by ‘HRH the Duke of Cornwall’ and this is crossed out and replaced by ‘Lord Renfrew’.
 
‘Duke of Cornwall’ is a title born by the eldest son of the reigning monarch. ‘Lord Renfrew’ is also a title of the heir to the throne. So it seems that Great Uncle Alfred the police officer was travelling with the Prince of Wales who became Edward VIII. I think we have found the body guard and the Royal Personage.
 
Why though is the Prince of Wales travelling under an alias? Well, there were reports in the English media that the Prince was going to spend a private holiday on his ranch in Canada and would not be undertaking any public duties. He would be travelling under a pseudonym and his  luggage was labelled ‘Lord Renfrew’. (If he really wanted to remain anonymous you would think he might have chosen a more ordinary name, like 'Mr Jones'.)
 
The Passenger Declaration gives us the address of the ranch: Great Grandfather Alfred is ‘destined’ to ‘HRH Duke of Cornwall at Beddingfield Farm, Alberta’. This is then corrected to ‘Lord Renfrew’s farm (E P Ranch), High River’. (‘E P’ apparently for Edward,Prince.)
 
I even found a video clip of the Prince arriving in Quebec, closely followed by two large men in what looks like police uniform. One of them could well be Great Uncle Alfred.