A HANDWRITTEN love letter from the Prince of Wales to his mistress Freda Dudley Ward – who was married to Southampton MP William Dudley Ward at the time – is set to fetch about £400 at an auction today.

The prince begins the letter “My very own darling precious little Fredie” and signs off “Your very own devo”.

The letter was written at Buckingham Palace and it is dated May 28, 1919, when the prince and Mrs Dudley Ward were both 24.

It is one of more than 2,000 letters the prince wrote to Mrs Dudley Ward during their 16-year relationship.

Now the letter – and the envelope in which it was sent and which bears a red wax seal featuring the prince’s thumb print – is expected to sell for between £300 and £500 at Reeman Dansie Auctions in Colchester, Essex, today.

In the letter the prince thanks Mrs Dudley Ward for her letter and tells her how much he is looking forward to seeing her.

William Dudley Ward wed Freda Dudley Ward (nee Birkin) in 1913 when he was 35 and she was 18.

They were divorced in 1931.

Dudley Ward became the Liberal MP for Southampton in 1906 and held the seat until 1922. He was still Southampton’s MP when his wife, Freda, began her affair with the Prince of Wales, who later, briefly, became King Edward VIII and then the Duke of Windsor, when he abdicated to marry Wallace Simpson.

In 1908, two years after he became Southampton’s MP, William Dudley Ward won a bronze medal at the Olympic Games as a crew member of Sorais, which finished third in the 8 Metre Class.

He was a member of the Royal Yacht Squadron at Cowes.

William Dudley Ward was 69 when he died on November 11, 1946.

Freda Dudley Ward was 88 when she died on March 16, 1983.

One of Mrs Dudley Ward’s relatives was the actress and singer Jane Birkin, who in 1969 had a number one hit record, Je T’aime – Moi Non Plus, which was considered so controversial at the time that the record was banned in several countries, including Britain.