Robert Anderson Jardine

The Reverend Robert Anderson Jardine (1878–1950), who published a memoir as R. Anderson Jardine, was an ordained priest of the Church of England and vicar of a parish in Darlington in the north of England. He is best known for performing the marriage ceremony of the Duke of Windsor and his fiancée Wallis Simpson, who thus became the Duchess of Windsor, in June 1937; this was a marriage that was seen as scandalous at the time. Jardine's offer to carry out the wedding, as a sacrament of a church which opposed it, cost him his career in England.
An unprecedented marriage.
Following his abdication from the thrones of all his kingdoms and dominions in December 1936, the Duke of Windsor left England immediately to start the process of marrying Wallis Simpson, "the woman he loved". This process awaited the conclusion of a legally-required six-month period to allow the completion of Simpson's divorce from her husband Ernest Simpson. Following the conclusion of this period, it was the former King's strong desire to be married to Wallis under the auspices of the Church of England, the church of which he had been Supreme Governor. However, it was Church law at the time to forbid the re-marriage of divorced partners.
The dilemma facing the Duke and his fiancée was heavily covered at the time in the British and European press. 
Uncharacteristic press attention for Darlington clergyman.
An obscure vicar from the North of England, the Rev. Robert Jardine, publicly volunteered to perform the ceremony. The North Road vicarage at Darlington became uncharacteristically the focus of press attention. Press supporters of the wedding called Jardine, whose working-class parish was dominated by heavy industry, the "poor man's pastor". The marriage was set for 3 June 1937 in the Château de Candé, Wallis's French home in exile.
Mr and Mrs Jardine, with their 19-year-old son, Donald, left Darlington on Monday 31 May, but Mrs Jardine and Donald stayed with relations in Letchworth, while Jardine crossed the Channel. 
Varied comments and reactions.
The Bishop of Durham, Dr Herbert Hensley Henson, warned Jardine by telegram that he was “without episcopal licence or consent to unite the Duke of Windsor and Mrs. Simpson.” The bishop did not have jurisdiction over Jardine's celebration of the sacraments while on the Continent, and under the immediate circumstances had no choice but to presume that the vicar had the permission of the Anglican bishop with jurisdiction.
J. A. Kensit, a leader of the Protestant Truth Society, to which Jardine belonged, commented “Mr Jardine is quite fearless in his advocacy of any cause which he judges right and would pursue his own line regardless of the consequences to himself." The Protestant Truth Society being at the time and subsequently by reputation a somewhat conservative group, its apparent support of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor's wedding officiant thus put its conservatism in a rather unusually nuanced light.
The wedding was boycotted by almost the entire British establishment, and a small number of guests and a single pool reporter witnessed the wedding, which was conducted by Jardine "in a strong voice". Following the brief ceremony, the couple departed for a honeymoon in Austria, and Jardine, apparently not fully grasping his own position following the ceremony which he had conducted, returned home to Darlington, unsuccessfully attempting to return to his duties in his parish. 
Enforced exile.
However, he was soon made aware that he had performed an act which the church could not accept. Pressure was brought to bear on his active Darlington parishoners. His vestry committee resigned, and he was encouraged to follow them. 
Having gained the gratitude of the Duke and Duchess, the Church of England minister found it too difficult to continue to work in England. Under pressure, he left England and emigrated to California.
Official downplaying of wedding ceremony.
The marriage ceremony of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor was not deemed to be a royal wedding. Letters patent, published just before the ceremony in the "London Gazette" as the "Depriving Act of 1937", explicitly stated that the title of Royal Highness, which conveyed precedence, would be enjoyed by the Duke but not by the Duchess. 
The Rev. Jardine’s self-defense.
The Rev. R. Anderson Jardine's avowed belief, quoted in the "New York Times", in the 'deeply' apparent piety of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor stood in stark contrast with official reaction to the Windsors' wedding. Jardine's viewpoint, then or subsequently, was not widely shared.
In 1943 Jardine published a memoir, "At Long Last", several years after the unusual event. His chosen publisher for the memoir was also somewhat unusual for the writings of Church of England clergymen. Murray and Gee, Inc., was a Hollywood, California publishing house which also issued works such as Frank Scully's "Rogues' Gallery" (an author later known for speculative works "Behind the Flying Saucers" and "In Armor Bright" about extra-terrestrials), in addition to other, less sensation-seeking, religious works. 
As a salable document, the memoir was somewhat eclipsed by the tumultuous events of World War Two, which had by the time of its publication engulfed both Jardine's country of origin and his country of exile.
Death.
By the time of his death in 1950, the Rev. R. Anderson Jardine's sudden and brief fame in 1937 in relation to the Duke and Duchess of Windsor had rapidly receded because of the events of the intervening years. However, by 1953 some of the issues remembered in connection with this aspect of Jardine's ministry had resurfaced upon emerging reports of the wish of The Queen's sister and Duke of Windsor's niece Princess Margaret to marry divorced equerry Group Captain Peter Townsend.