by The Laird o’Thistle
January 13 2011

The words of the title for this month’s column are, of course, from the famous bulletin issued by King George V’s physician, Lord Dawson of Penn, on January 20, 1936. Shortly afterward Dr. Dawson helped the King along a bit with a lethal dose of cocaine and morphine, a fact that only emerged fifty years later when the physician’s personal diary was examined, long after his own death.

This January 20 marks the 75th anniversary of the death of George V, who died at his beloved country home at Sandringham in the depths of a severe winter, just months after celebrating his Silver Jubilee. Queen Elizabeth II was just three months shy of her tenth birthday when her beloved “Grandpapa England” died. Of living members of the extended royal family, only the Queen’s cousin the Earl of Harewood (born 1923) now remains who can recall the events of January 1936. (The current Duke of Kent was only three and a half months old at the time.)

At the time of his death, George V was aged seventy (born June 3, 1865), and had struggled with his health ever since a serious injury suffered during a visit to troops in France during WWI. In late 1928 he had suffered a near fatal bout of septicemia, from which he never fully recovered. A heavy smoker (like the future George VI, and – later on – Princess Margaret), the King also struggled over the years with emphysema, bronchitis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and pleurisy. During the final months of his life, he had occasionally received oxygen. On January 15, 1936, he retired to his room at Sandringham for the last time, and the next day Dr. Dawson informed Queen Mary that he believed the King was dying. (Having just seen The King’s Speech I must say that Michael Gambon gives a most credible portrayal of George V in his final days, and Claire Bloom is excellent as Queen Mary.)

The King’s death came at 11:55 p.m. on January 20. Dr. Dawson’s diary records that he administered the lethal dose believing that the King truly would die within the next few hours. He did so in order to relieve the King’s suffering, the family’s suffering, and – most troublingly – to provide a dignified end that could be announced the next morning in The Times, rather than in the more sensationalist evening papers. (In later years Margot Asquith, widow of one of George V’s Prime Ministers, is said to have remarked that “The King told me that he would never have died if it had not been for that fool Dawson of Penn.” One wonders if she experienced a posthumous visitation? Or was the old lady misunderstood in the reporting of some comment actually made to her by George VI?) The royal family does not seem to have been complicit in the physician’s actions. Immediately after the King breathed his last the ever self-contained and dutiful Queen Mary turned to her eldest son, the new King Edward VIII, kissed his hand and said: “God save the King.” His siblings in the room followed suit. The King was dead. Long live the King.

History would quickly show George V to have been a true prophet, having said sometime before that the Prince of Wales would ruin himself within a year of ascending the throne. He lasted not quite eleven months.

Two famous vignettes have come down to us from the days that followed, and a third that should perhaps be as famous. As the procession bringing the late King’s coffin to Westminster Hall for the Lying in State arrived in New Palace Yard the jeweled orb atop the Imperial State Crown (still worn by Elizabeth II at the State Opening of Parliament) toppled off and rolled across the pavement. Both the new King and those who saw it happen took it as a sort of omen of foreboding, and it was later seen by many as foreshadowing the abdication.

George V’s lying in State was also marked by the first “Vigil of the Princes” when Edward VIII and his three brothers stood as the honor guard at their father’s coffin on the night before the funeral. Done in private, after the doors had been closed to the public viewing, the tribute inspired the painting by Frank Beresford that Queen Mary purchased and presented to Edward VIII. The painting was later bequeathed to Queen Elizabeth II. (The second “Vigil of the Princes” occurred in 2002, when the Prince of Wales, Prince Andrew, Prince Edward, and Viscount Linley stood guard at the coffin of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, with Prince William and Prince Harry also in attendance.)

The third, lesser known, vignette of George V’s funeral comes from Marion Crawford’s book, The Little Princesses. On the day of the King’s funeral, it was thought too much for the young Princess Elizabeth to participate in the solemn procession from Westminster Hall to Paddington Station, where the royal coffin would be transferred to the train that would take it to Windsor for burial. But her parents decided that “Crawfie” would bring young Lilibet to the station, where she would join the royal family for the remainder of the ceremonies.

Miss Crawford reported that the young princess got very solemn, and her lip quivered for a moment as the cortege entered the station, but that just then a young sailor from the group pulling the gun carriage fainted and was carefully borne up and carried along by his fellows with no break in the ranks. Elizabeth was fascinated by the distraction. An unanticipated problem arose moments later when Miss Crawford and the princess were unable to figure out which of the heavily veiled royal ladies on the platform was the Duchess of York. Seeing their dilemma the Duchess raised her hand and motioned to her daughter. Princess Elizabeth ran over and took her mother’s hand with, wrote Miss Crawford, “that look [of determination] on her small face that I knew so well.” We know that look still.

Queen Mary continued on for another seventeen years after her husband’s death, dying in March 1953, shortly before the June coronation of Elizabeth II. George V and Queen Mary are buried near the west door of St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle.

I offered my own appraisal of the reign of George V last April. What strikes me right now is that this 75th anniversary of the death of King George V marks the beginning of a cycle of significant times of remembrance for H.M. Queen Elizabeth II stretching out over the next fifteen months. Preceded only by George V’s Silver Jubilee (May 1935) this anniversary marks 75 years of H.M.’s active “public life” as a member of the British royal family… and all her memories of the same. Next December the Queen will mark the 75th anniversary of her parents’ accession to the throne. And in just over a year from now she will mark the 60th anniversary of the death of her beloved father, also at Sandringham, and her own accession to the throne. Sadly, for her, the upcoming Diamond Jubilee will also mark the 10th anniversaries of the deaths of her sister, Princess Margaret, and of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother.

It has long been the custom of Queen Elizabeth II to remain at Sandringham from Christmas until the anniversary of her father’s death, which she always remembers quietly with a private prayer service in the room where he died. Surely during this season she also, in some way, recalls her grandfather’s death in the same, much-beloved, old house. (I’ve been unable to ascertain if George V and George VI actually died in the same bedroom, but it is certainly possible.) Such occasions underscore the very personal and familial nature of monarchy and undoubtedly speak volumes about H.M.’s own extraordinary lifelong devotion to duty.

One last “prayer” – as opposed to “prophecy” – attributed to George V: “I pray to God my eldest son will never marry and have children, and that nothing will come between Bertie [George VI] and Lilibet and the throne.” Though Edward VIII did chose to marry… which proved his undoing… seventy-five years later the old King’s prayer is still being answered, daily. Whatever his undoubted failings as a parent, he was a canny man, King George.

Yours aye,

Ken Cuthbertson

P.S. What a delight it is to note the birth of the Queen’s first great-grandchild, a daughter of Peter and Autumn Phillips. And I’m similarly delighted with the announcement that the wedding of Zara Phillips and Mike Tindall will be married at Canongate Kirk in Edinburgh at the end of July. Princess Anne loves Scotland and was herself married for the second time at Crathie Kirk near Balmoral. It’s wonderful to see her daughter also choosing a Church of Scotland venue, with the reception undoubtedly to follow at the adjoining Palace of Holyroodhouse.