Most notable, though not a legal point, was his advocacy for the Royal Family to adopt Prince Philip's surname of Mountbatten in lieu of Windsor, in order that any royal children born after Queen Elizabeth II's accession in 1952 would not bear their mother’s pre-marriage surname, which he termed "the Badge of Bastardy".
Edward Iwi was born on 28 November 1904[1][2] to a Jewish family in London and educated at John Bright Grammar School, Llandudno, north Wales.
[4] He sent a confidential letter to Herbert Morrison, Home Secretary in Winston Churchill's wartime government, suggesting that the then Princess Elizabeth be made "Duke of Cymru" to create a focus of loyalty for the people of north Wales, who were considered not entirely wedded to the British cause.
[1] In 1947 Iwi chaired a pressure group that collected 50,000 signatures on a petition to be presented to Parliament pleading for women to be able to sit in the House of Lords.
In September 1959 Edward Iwi wrote to the then Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan and to Buckingham Palace, about the name of the Royal Family.
Sir George Coldstream, Lord Kilmuir's private secretary, advised 10 Downing Street: The trouble with Iwi is that he usually puts his finger on an awkward question ... You will no doubt recall that Iwi has on several occasions proved right and on at least one of these occasions he could have caused the government great embarrassment – I refer to the unfortunate mistake by which Princess Arthur of Connaught was named as a Counsellor of State in 1944.
Moreover even if you were right about this, I could not think that the surname Windsor could be other than a distinction or that there is anything ignominious in bearing the name of a great house derived through a female ancestor.But Iwi was not easily put off.
(Here he may have had in mind a sermon latterly given by Thomas Bloomer, Bishop of Carlisle which, while not mentioning Iwi by name, seemed to give support to his cause.
Rab Butler reported to Macmillan that at his first audience with the Queen in his capacity as acting prime minister, she had advised him that she had "absolutely set her heart" on a change to the royal surname.
On 8 February, the Queen made a new declaration saying that she had adopted "Mountbatten-Windsor" as the name for all her descendants who did not enjoy the style of Royal Highness.