“Today 23 years ago dear Grandmama died. I wonder what she would have thought of a Labour government” – King George V.
King George V is an important monarch in the history of the
United Kingdom, he oversaw its largest territorial expanse but was also the
King who witnessed what would ultimately become the downfall of the British
Empire, the independence movement.
George Frederick Ernest Albert was born on 3 June 1865. He
was the second son of Prince Albert Edward, the eldest son of Queen Victoria,
and the man who would become Edward VII, his elder brother Prince Albert Victor
having been born in January the previous year, meaning that he was third in
line to the British throne. Since George was not expected to become king, he
followed his father’s wishes and joined the Royal Navy in September 1877, with
his father remarking that the Navy was the very best possible training for any
boy.
During his time with the Royal Navy, George, along with his
elder brother, who was affectionately known as Prince Eddy, was able to travel
the world and got to see Great Britain’s colonies and territorial possessions,
and in doing so, began to fathom the size of the empire that his brother would
one day inherit.
However, this was not to be, as tragedy struck the Royal family,
when, just a few weeks after his surprise proposal of marriage to Princess Mary
of Teck, George’s brother, Prince Eddy became ill with influenza during the
pandemic of 1889-92. He developed pneumonia and died on 14 January 1892.
This significantly changed the trajectory of George’s life
as he was now in the direct line of succession to the British throne behind his
father and was created Duke of York by Queen Victoria on 24 May 1892. He spent
a considerable amount of time comforting his brother’s former fiancée who was
known as May within the family, and the two grew surprisingly close.
Consequently, with the full support of the rest of the royal family, the couple
ended up marrying on 6 July 1893.
The happy couple travelled the world and after the death of
Queen Victoria on 22 January 1901, and the crowning of his father as Edward VII
on 9 August the following year, George became next in line to the throne and
immediately inherited the title of Duke of Cornwall. For a while, he was known
as the Duke of Cornwall and York but his father, the King created him Prince of
Wales and Earl of Chester on 9 November 1901 to begin the preparations for him
to one day become king himself.
During the early years of the 20th century, George toured
British-controlled India. It was while there that he saw how rampant
discrimination was against the local Indian people. He became a strong advocate
for ending this behaviour and championed the cause for ensuring that Indian
people had more involvement in governing their own country.
Unfortunately, George wasn’t able to continue in his duties
as Prince of Wales for very long as on 6 May 1910, his father, King Edward VII
died. At that point, George became king and was officially crowned as King
George V on 22 June 1911.
The early reign of King George V was mired in national
politics as the House of Commons sought to curtail the political power of the
unelected House of Lords which had rejected the ‘People’s Budget’ in 1909,
resulting in elections being held the following year to get the budget through.
King George V gave Royal assent to The Parliament Act on 18 August 1911 which
