Profile of Windsors - King George V

Title: King George V
Full Name: George Frederick Ernest Albert
Father: Edward VII
Mother: Alexandra of Denmark

Born: June 3, 1865 at Marlborough House, London
Relation to Elizabeth II: Grandfather
Ascended to the throne: May 6, 1910 aged 44 years
Crowned: June 22, 1911 at Westminster Abbey
Married: Mary, the daughter of the Francis of Teck, on July 6, 1893
Children: Five sons including Edward VIII and George VI, and one daughter
Died: January 20, 1936 at Sandringham, Norfolk, aged 70 years, 7 months, and 16 days
Buried at: Windsor

George V was the second son of Edward VII. His mother was Alexandra of Denmark, sister of Empress Marie of Russia. He joined the Royal Navy aged 12 and served until 1892 when he became heir to the throne on the death of his elder brother Albert, Duke of Clarence, who died of pneumonia.

In 1893, he married Princess Victoria Mary of Teck (known as ‘May’ to her family) who had previously been engaged to his brother. They became Duke and Duchess of York and lived on the Sandringham Estate, in Norfolk. The marriage was a success and George unlike his father never took a mistress. They had 6 children Edward, Albert, Mary, Henry, George and John. The youngest Prince John suffered from epilepsy and died aged 13.

He became King George V on the death of his father Edward VII in 1910, and Mary became Queen consort. They toured India in 1911 as Emperor and Empress of India. During World War I he made several visits to the front, and Mary visited wounded serviceman in hospital. She was staunch supporter of her husband during difficult times that included not only the war with Germany, but also the Russian revolution and murder of George’s cousin Princess Alix who was Tsarina Alexandra wife of Tsar Nicholas II, civil unrest including the General Strike in England, the rise of socialism, and Irish and Indian nationalism. George V has been criticised for not rescuing the Russian Royal family but at the time there was serious concern that it would incite a similar revolution in the UK. He sent a ship in 1922 to rescue the Greek Royal family including 1 year old Prince Philip now the Duke of Edinburgh.

In 1917 with anti-German sentiment running high, he changed the family name from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (popularly known as Brunswick or Hanover) to Windsor, and he relinquished all German titles and family connections. George V enjoyed stamp collecting and although considered dull by biographers he became by his Silver Jubilee in 1935 a much loved King. In 1932 he started the tradition of the Royal Christmas broadcast which has continued ever since. His relationship deteriorated with this eldest son Edward (later Edward VIII) when he failed to settle down and had affairs with married women, but he was fond of his second son Albert (“Bertie” later George VI) and his granddaughter Elizabeth (later Elizabeth II) whom he called ‘Lilibet’. She called him ‘Grandpa England’. He died of pleurisy in January 1936.

King George V's Signature

Quotes:

‘After I am dead, the boy will ruin himself in twelve months’ – George V (about his son Edward who became Edward VIII)

‘Try living on their wages before you judge them’ – George V (taking exception to the suggestion that workers involved in the General Strike were revolutionaries)

‘I cannot understand it, after all I am only a very ordinary sort of fellow’ – George V (on adulation from cheering crowds at his Silver Jubilee)

Timeline

1910	George V becomes King and Emperor of India on the death of his father, Edward VII.
1911	Parliament Act ensures the sovereignty of the House of Commons.
1911	National Insurance Act provides sickness and unemployment benefits.
1912	The luxury passenger ship S.S. Titanic sinks on her maiden voyage, drowning more than 1,500 people.
1913	Suffragette Emily Wilding Davison throws herself under the Kings horse at the Epsom Derby
1914	Anglican Church in Wales is disestablished.
1914	The heir to the Austro-Hungarian empire is assassinated. Outbreak of World War I.
1914	Battles of Mons, the Marne, and Ypres.
1915	Second Battle of Ypres. Allied Gallipoli expedition fails to remove Turkey from the war.
1916	Battle of the Somme. Naval Battle of Jutland between British and German fleets.
1916	Easter Rising in Dublin in support of Irish independence.
1916	David Lloyd George replaces Asquith as Prime Minister.
1917	Battle of Passchendale.
1917	Russian Revolution. Czar Nicholas II and his wife Alexandra (both cousins of George V) and their royal family are shot in Ekaterinburg.
1918	Kaiser Wilhelm II (cousin of George V) abdicates as Germany faces defeat in World War I.
1918	The end of World War I. Armistice signed on 11 November.
1918	Reform Act gives votes to women over 30.
1918	General Election produces landslide victory for Sinn Fein MPs in Ireland, who refuse to take their seats in Westminster and form their own DalI parliament in Dublin.
1919	Lady Astor becomes the first woman MP to take her seat in the House of Commons
1919	Third Afghan War. Afghanistan gains independence from Britain
1919	A flu-pandemic (known as Spanish Flu) rages around the world killing over 50 million people.
1919	-1921 Ireland partitioned into the Free State and the province of Northern Ireland.
1920	Marconi opens first radio broadcasting station in Britain
1920	A flu epidemic rages around the world killing more than 20 million people.
1922	The British Broadcasting Company starts radio transmissions
1923	Prince Albert (later George VI) marries Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon
1924	Ramsay MacDonald becomes Prime Minister of the first Labour Government
1926	General Strike fails to reverse wage cuts and imposition of longer hours.
1926	John Logie Baird demonstrates world's first television in London
1927	British Broadcasting Corporation founded by Royal Charter
1928	All women over the age of 21 get the vote.
1928	George V falls seriously ill with blood poisoning of the lung.
1928	Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin
1929	Beginning of the Great Depression which lasted almost 10 years
1931	The Statute of Westminster recognizes independence of. the dominions.
1931	Great Depression leads to the formation of a national government of all three political parties under the leadership of Ramsay MacDonald.
1932	George V makes the first annual Christmas broadcast on radio.
1935	George V celebrates his Silver Jubilee.
1935	Robert Watson-Watt demonstrates Radar
1935	Stanley Baldwin replaces Ramsay MacDonald asprime minister
1936	George V dies at Sandringham.