The death of King George is probably most significant in that he was succeeded by the controversial Edward VIII, whose reign ended with his abdication less than a year later. Over seventy years later the death itself, though ostensibly of natural causes, has been revealed as a potential mercy killing.
The Death of George V: Contemporary Reporting
George V died on 20 January 1936 at the Royal family’s private residence at Sandringham House in Norfolk. He was seventy years old. He had been in poor health for some years and, indeed, his life had been despaired of in 1928 when he suffered from complicated heart and long conditions, including septicaemia: his biographer, Kenneth Rose, speculates that by the late autumn of 1935 he was ready to die.
He was taken ill on January 15th 1936 and his personal physician, Lord Dawson of Penn, diagnosed bronchial catarrh which was taking its toll on his already-weakened heart. He died on the evening of 30 January and his death was announced famously, first with Dawson’s note that ‘the King’s life is slipping peacefully to its close’ and then with a confirmatory note that ‘death came peacefully to the King at 11.55 pm.
The biographies written of the key principals make no mention of any controversy associated with the death. Kenneth Rose’s life of George himself was published in 1983 and does not raise the issue: nor do biographies of Queen Mary (1959) or Edward VIII (1990). At the time, and for some years later, there was no suspicion of any irregularity associated with the King’s passing.
The King’s Death: A Mercy Killing?
Although it was rumoured that the king’s death had been hastened by his doctors, either as a mercy killing to ease his suffering or (more prosaically) to ensure that it could be announced in time for the first announcement to be made in The Times, confirmation of the fact had to wait until the publication of Lord Dawson’s personal papers in 1986.
Dawson had unquestionably been responsible for saving George’s life in 1928, a feat which brought him immense professional credit and a degree of celebrity. Yet he had a reputation that was not perhaps altogether enviable – Kenneth Rose quoted a contemporary jingle: Lord Dawson of Penn/Has killed lots of men/So that’s why we sing/God save the King.
Although Dawson’s biography was published in 1950 it made no mention of the controversy but his biographer, Francis Watson, later revealed the information which he had uncovered in the physician’s private papers. In an article in History Today (reported in the New York Times) he revealed that Dawson had injected the dying king with lethal quantities of both heroin and cocaine after he had written his famous bulletin. George died within the hour.
Watson also revealed that Dawson’s notes said that the Queen and Prince of Wales had told him that they didn’t want the king’s suffering ‘needlessly prolonged’: the timing of it to suit the publication of The Times may or may not have been a consideration. Dawson later went on to speak in the House of Lords on the subject, speaking in favour of euthanasia where a cure was impossible.
Whatever the reason, had this action been known at the time, as JHR Ramsay noted in the British Medical Journal, Dawson’s reputation would have been considerably damaged. The responses of biographers and historians to the revelations have generally rejected the idea that Queen Mary would have sanctioned it and it may well have been that Dawson was the initiator as well as the executor.
Sources and Further Information
Joseph Lelyveld “1936 secret is out: doctor sped George V's death” New York Times 28 November 1986
J H R Ramsay A king, a doctor, and a convenient death British Medical Journal 1994
Kenneth Rose King George V Weidenfeld and Nicolson 1983
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