Head and shoulders portrait of Edward VIII, when Prince of Wales facing half to the right, in the service dress uniform of a Captain in the Grenadier Guards.

This portrait of the Prince of Wales is probably a study for the large panel that Salisbury was commissioned to paint for the Royal Exchange. The panel commemorates the visit of King George V and Queen Mary to the Battlefields in France in July 1917. In his autobiography Salisbury recalled that he was to use a hut that had been a temporary hospital as a studio and that the Prince 'sat very well and was very quiet, smoking either a cigarette, pipe, or cigar the whole time. We were quite near the fighting line, and the guns were going incessantly…When the King and Queen saw the portrait they liked it very much and the Queen said she would like to give it to the King as a Christmas present. They thought there was something a little wrong with one of the eyes, and asked me if, when the Prince was back on leave, I would go down to the palace and do a little to it, as the King and Queen would like to see him with the portrait.'

When the First World War broke out the Prince of Wales had reached the minimum age for active service and was keen to participate. He had joined the Grenadier Guards in June 1914, and although Edward was willing to serve on the front lines, Secretary of State for War, Lord Kitchener refused to allow it. Despite this, Edward witnessed trench warfare first-hand and attempted to visit the front line as often as he could, for which he was awarded the Military Cross in 1916.

The Royal Collection holds a study portrait of the Prince of Wales by Herbert Arnoud Olivier (1861-1952), dated 1915 (RCIN 405841).