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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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George V
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(1865–1936)
King of Great Britain and Ireland from 1910; second son of Edward VII and Alexandra; married Mary of Teck (1893).
At the age of 12 he joined the training ship Britannia at *Dartmouth, beginning the modern link of the royal family with the navy. He was a naval commander in 1892 when his life was changed by the sudden death of his elder brother, Albert Victor, from pneumonia. Created duke of York that summer, George became engaged to his dead brother's fiancée Mary of Teck, known then as May but more familiar now as Queen Mary (1867–1953). A
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After his father died, in 1910, the new king and his queen began their reign with a spectacular visit to India for the coronation durbar of 1911 – the only occasion on which a British king-emperor visited the subcontinent. At home his reign was unsettled by a series of crises – *Asquith's clash with the House of Lords, then *Home Rule, *World War I, the *General Strike and the *Depression. In his final years he was shocked by the relationship between the prince of Wales and Mrs Simpson which led after his death to the *abdication crisis.
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The important development of the empire into the *Commonwealth of Nations occurred in his reign, with the Statute of Westminster (1931); and he was consciously addressing the entire Commonwealth in 1932 when he made the first of the traditional broadcasts by the monarch on *Christmas Day. From his twenties he was a keen philatelist and he built up an unparalleled collection of stamps of Britain and the Commonwealth. He had six children (see the *royal family) and was succeeded briefly by his eldest son as *Edward VIII.
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