What Happened to George V's 6 Children? The Sons He Frightened and the Son He Kept Out of Sight
Untold Royal Ladies
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Lala Bill telephoned Queen Mary from Wood Farm, on the Sandringham estate, on 18 January 1919: Prince John, thirteen, had died in his sleep.
His oak coffin carried a brass plate that began with three letters, HRH. Those letters turn up again in May 1937, withheld from the woman his eldest brother married.
George V's six children are taken in the order the family lost them: John, sent to live apart in 1916; George, Duke of Kent, killed when a Sunderland flying boat hit Eagle's Rock in Caithness in 1942; Bertie, from a gun turret at Jutland to a microphone in September 1939; Princess Mary, whose 1914 fund sent out some two and a half million gifts in brass boxes; Edward, from Caernarfon to the Château de Candé; and Henry, Governor-General of Australia in 1945 and the last to die, in 1974.
Weighed alongside: a "frightened" sentence first printed in 1959 and doubted by Kenneth Rose, the bulletin that named John's epilepsy, and Edward's letter calling himself a swine.
0:00 A telephone call from Wood Farm
4:12 Two brothers missing from The Times list
6:18 George V and the Derby sentence
8:52 A missed coronation and the move of 1916
12:30 The Lost Prince and the official bulletin
15:12 Prince George at Eagle's Rock
18:03 Jutland, Wembley and Lionel Logue
21:42 Dawson's notes and Fort Belvedere
25:24 Princess Mary's brass Christmas boxes
29:09 Edward behind the camera, and three letters
34:54 Henry, the Hussars and Canberra
37:12 Six deaths, counted in order
Sources:
The Times, 22 January 1919 (John's funeral); The New York Times and the Daily Mirror, 20 January 1919 (the official bulletin)
London Gazette: 18 July 1911 (the Caernarfon reply), issue 30428 of 14 December 1917 (royal styles); Edinburgh Gazette, 20 December 1895
His Majesty's Declaration of Abdication Act 1936; Hansard, 10 December 1936 and 7 October 1942 (Court of Inquiry, Duke of Kent)
Kenneth Rose, King George V (1983)
Jane Ridley, George V: Never a Dull Moment (2021)
Philip Ziegler, King Edward VIII (1990), for Queen Mary's diary and Edward's apology letter
Randolph S. Churchill, Lord Derby, "King of Lancashire" (1959), origin of the Derby sentence
Charlotte Zeepvat on Prince John (2003); Denis Judd
Australian Dictionary of Biography, Lionel Logue; royal.uk, First World War royal archives; Royal Collection Trust
Also cited: Royal Central, the Parliament of Australia, Harewood House Trust, the Newfoundland Gazette (1919)
#GeorgeV #PrinceJohn #HouseOfWindsor
What Happened to George V's 6 Children? The Sons He Frightened and the Son He Kept Out of Sight
Untold Royal Ladies
168 views
Lala Bill telephoned Queen Mary from Wood Farm, on the Sandringham estate, on 18 January 1919: Prince John, thirteen, had died in his sleep.
His oak coffin carried a brass plate that began with three letters, HRH. Those letters turn up again in May 1937, withheld from the woman his eldest brother married.
George V's six children are taken in the order the family lost them: John, sent to live apart in 1916; George, Duke of Kent, killed when a Sunderland flying boat hit Eagle's Rock in Caithness in 1942; Bertie, from a gun turret at Jutland to a microphone in September 1939; Princess Mary, whose 1914 fund sent out some two and a half million gifts in brass boxes; Edward, from Caernarfon to the Château de Candé; and Henry, Governor-General of Australia in 1945 and the last to die, in 1974.
Weighed alongside: a "frightened" sentence first printed in 1959 and doubted by Kenneth Rose, the bulletin that named John's epilepsy, and Edward's letter calling himself a swine.
0:00 A telephone call from Wood Farm
4:12 Two brothers missing from The Times list
6:18 George V and the Derby sentence
8:52 A missed coronation and the move of 1916
12:30 The Lost Prince and the official bulletin
15:12 Prince George at Eagle's Rock
18:03 Jutland, Wembley and Lionel Logue
21:42 Dawson's notes and Fort Belvedere
25:24 Princess Mary's brass Christmas boxes
29:09 Edward behind the camera, and three letters
34:54 Henry, the Hussars and Canberra
37:12 Six deaths, counted in order
Sources:
The Times, 22 January 1919 (John's funeral); The New York Times and the Daily Mirror, 20 January 1919 (the official bulletin)
London Gazette: 18 July 1911 (the Caernarfon reply), issue 30428 of 14 December 1917 (royal styles); Edinburgh Gazette, 20 December 1895
His Majesty's Declaration of Abdication Act 1936; Hansard, 10 December 1936 and 7 October 1942 (Court of Inquiry, Duke of Kent)
Kenneth Rose, King George V (1983)
Jane Ridley, George V: Never a Dull Moment (2021)
Philip Ziegler, King Edward VIII (1990), for Queen Mary's diary and Edward's apology letter
Randolph S. Churchill, Lord Derby, "King of Lancashire" (1959), origin of the Derby sentence
Charlotte Zeepvat on Prince John (2003); Denis Judd
Australian Dictionary of Biography, Lionel Logue; royal.uk, First World War royal archives; Royal Collection Trust
Also cited: Royal Central, the Parliament of Australia, Harewood House Trust, the Newfoundland Gazette (1919)
#GeorgeV #PrinceJohn #HouseOfWindsor