Earl Winfield Spencer

Earl Winfield Spencer Jr. (September 20, 1888 – May 29, 1950) was a U.S. Navy pilot who served as the first commanding officer of Naval Air Station San Diego. He was the first husband of Wallis Simpson, who later married Edward VIII. Early life and military career Known as Win, he was born in Kinsley, Kansas, son of Earl Winfield Spencer Sr., a socially prominent Chicago stockbroker, and the former Agnes Lucy Hughes of Jersey. He graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1910 and in 1917 was sent to San Diego with instructions to set up a permanent naval air station, which was to be used for training exercises, and he became its first commanding officer. Personal life Spencer was married five times. Four of his wives were: Bessie Wallis Warfield (1896–1986), only child of Teackle Wallis Warfield, member of a prominent Maryland family; they married in Baltimore on November 8, 1916. Spencer was alleged to be abusive and an alcoholic. After several separations, the Spencers divorced in December 1927. After a second marriage, to Ernest Aldrich Simpson, and a subsequent divorce, Wallis Spencer married the former King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom and became the Duchess of Windsor. Mariam J. Maze (1895–1997) the former wife of Albert Cressey Maze (1891–1943). She was the former Miriam Ham, daughter of George and Katie Anastasia (née Eagels) Ham of Portland, Oregon. They married in September 1928 and were divorced in 1936, the same year Spencer was made a Knight of the Order of the Crown of Italy by Benito Mussolini. By this marriage he had one stepson, Robert Claude Maze Sr., Major, USMC (killed in action, 1945). Mariam Spencer married, in 1939, as her third husband, Arthur William Radford, Vice Admiral, USN, future Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.