Burns Collection

About This Set: King George V was an unremarkable bloke who happened to rule history's greatest empire at the zenith of its geographic spread. Born in 1865, the son of the dissolute King Edward VII, George was not keen on intellectual pursuits, so at twelve he joined the Royal Navy as a cadet, intending on a career as a sailor. But when his elder brother died in 1894, George was removed from active duty to be groomed for the monarchy. He was crowned King George V after his father succumbed to emphysema in 1910.

Unlike his father, George was rather low key and moderate in most respects, preferring a quiet country life to hobnobbing with the glitterati. To his credit, he spoke up for the working man and for Roman Catholics, and opposed racism in his Empire of India.

George had three passions. First and foremost, he was a ravenous hunter, and having royal game privileges, was never short of easy prey. In Nepal, he shot twenty-one tigers, eight rhinoceroses, and a bear in a ten-day orgy . On another occasion, he blasted over 1000 pheasants out of the sky in a mere six hours. George was also an avid stamp collector, and during the Great War he spent much of his time holed up at home with his binders. He amassed an enormous personal collection, and also made important contributions to the Royal Philatelic Society. Finally, like his father before him and both his sons, George was a voracious smoker.

George's cigarette habit led to chronic bronchitis, septicemia, and a steep and steady general decline in overall health, and by January of 1936 he lay moaning in his deathbed. Unbeknownst to George and his family, his royal physician, an early advocate of euthanasia, polished him off with a cocktail of morphine and cocaine.

By the time of his silver jubilee in 1935, George was warmly embraced by his subjects. But his biographer did not remember him so fondly, writing pithily "he did nothing at all but kill animals and stick in stamps"