History

King George V, second son of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra, was born in 1865 and served in the Royal Navy until 1892 when he became heir to the throne following the death of his elder brother, Prince Albert Victor. Prince George was created Duke of York in the same year, married Princess Mary of Teck in 1893, and was created Prince of Wales in 1901.

Edward VII died on 6 May 1910 and King George and Queen Mary were crowned in Westminster Abbey on 22 June 1911. Later the same year they travelled to Delhi, where the King received the homage of the Indian princes at a vast outdoor gathering known as the Delhi Durbar. The Imperial Crown of India (now in the Tower of London) was specially made for this occasion since it was forbidden to take any of the historic Crown Jewels out of the country.

The greatest challenge of George V’s reign came with the outbreak of the First World War in 1914. The King and Queen worked tirelessly throughout, and when the war had ended the King supported proposals for the burial of the Unknown Warrior in Westminster Abbey. On 11 November 1920 George V unveiled the Cenotaph in Whitehall and then processed behind the gun carriage which brought the Unknown Warrior’s coffin to the Abbey for its burial.

Later notable events in the King’s reign included his appointment of Ramsay Macdonald as Britain’s first Labour Prime Minister in 1924, the General Strike of 1926, and the economic depression of the late 1920s and early 1930s. In 1932 George V inaugurated the monarch’s annual Christmas broadcast to the peoples of the Empire and Commonwealth. He addressed his first message ‘to men and women so cut off by the snows, the desert, or the sea, that only voices out of the air can reach them.’

The King’s Silver Jubilee, celebrated at St Paul’s Cathedral in May 1935, was marked by an outpouring of popular affection and loyalty and he was much mourned at his death, on 20 January 1936. After lying in state in Westminster Hall the King was buried in St George’s Chapel, Windsor. His widow, Queen Mary, broke a long-standing tradition by attending the coronation of her son (George VI) in Westminster Abbey in May 1937 and lived to see her elder granddaughter proclaimed as Queen Elizabeth II in February 1952. Queen Mary died in March 1953, a few months before The Queen’s coronation.