King of England

That January is the month most fatal to British Royalty was the firm belief of Queen Victoria who knew her descendants were "weak in the chest." She died on Jan. 22, 1901 at the great age of 81, having been Queen since she was 18, Empress of India since she was 56, and having celebrated, at 78, her Diamond Jubilee.

There were no jubilees for Edward VII who became King-Emperor when he was 59 and died at 68 on May 6, 1910 "of a bad cold" (bronchitis) only five days after catching it. His eldest son, the Duke of Clarence, died of a bad cold within a week of catching it. Therefore Edward VII's second son came to the Throne as George V, aged 44. Last week His Majesty, having celebrated his Silver Jubilee last year, was taken with a bad cold (bronchial catarrh). Five days later he was dead.

On Dec. 21 the King and Queen motored 100 miles northeast of London to spend Christmas at Sandringham. His Majesty's health permitted him to shoot pheasants, attend church, ride his pony and be most gracious in replying to villagers' greetings. He overtaxed his strength inspecting his racing stables fortnight ago and a few days later caught the cold which this week, to the shock of the whole world, proved fatal. Knowing his constitution to have been weakened and his heart severely strained by his illness eight years ago, the King exerted himself before winter and its dangers should come on to have Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin seek and safely win an election which entrenched the British Conservatives in power for five more years, a great satisfaction to the Sovereign.

In George V not only the Empire but also the whole world saw the sole Emperor of white race not to lose his throne after the War. There was at that time a memorable and tragic hour when even the refugee Romanovs, his cousins, had to be denied visas on which they were to have gone to England on the invitation of George V's impulsive mother, the Dowager Queen Alexandra. With thrones creaking from Berlin to Constantinople, the best and wisest British Cabinet members urgently advised the House of Windsor not to attract attention to this question by becoming hosts to the House of Romanov.

In the years which have followed, the House of Windsor has not only survived the General Strike, several Labor (Socialist) Cabinets and Depression, but it has carried onward & upward with an aggressive strength, a rising British devotion to the Crown and an increased influence by the Sovereign personally in guiding Cabinet affairs which were triumphantly due to the remarkable personal qualities of King George and Queen Mary.

Their eldest son last week was seen at night, a slender figure outlined in silhouette against the glowing windows of Sandringham, pacing about with quick movements in a chamber near that of George V. The Queen, indefatigable nurse and splendid woman, snatched only the briefest catnaps in a small bedchamber and was virtually in attendance night & day in the big, air-conditioned room where the King lay barred from drafts by a double circle of high screens around his bed.

Of the 63 medical men officially appertaining to the Royal Family, a half dozen of the more prominent were in attendance, but George V ordered hastily summoned from Buckingham Palace his favorite chef, designating his adept maker of strengthening broths and gruels as ''that fellow who saved my life."

A careful and entirely liquid diet was prescribed by the Royal physicians, of whom Lord Dawson of Penn is the first doctor ever created a peer. Again working with him last week to save George's life with oxygen and every artifice known to science was Nurse Black.

The world press was handled with great tact by Lord Wigham, the King's Private Secretary of many years. Warm, homely details were not stifled. For example, the King, when broth and gruel palled, was permitted to have a few drops of warm brandy "as a treat."

At Sandringham the Prince of Wales, with news services sending out advance canned dispatches in which he already figured as King Edward VIII, jumped into a car with the Duke of York, drove at a fast clip for Windsor. Technically Windsor is not a "palace" but a "fortress" and, because of this, bulletins on George V's condition were not posted there as they were at Sandringham House and at Buckingham Palace.

At Windsor the Duke of York was dropped with the Duchess, who was ill with influenza, and Edward of Wales drove on through gathering fog and dusk to Buckingham Palace where the Duke of Gloucester was sitting up with a sore throat. The two brothers spoke briefly. It would have been traditional had the Prince of Wales officially summoned the Prime Minister to come to him.

Instead H. R. H. took the wheel of his car again, drove to the north entrance of No. 10 Downing St. just off the Horse Guards Parade. For nearly an hour he conferred with Mr. Stanley Baldwin. News cameramen, mostly the hardest-boiled of journalists, were asked by Edward not to snap him "in the circumstances." Not a single camera was raised, not a single shutter snapped.

At the time of the recent Silver Jubilee very nearly every newsorgan in the world exhaustively reviewed the lives of King George and Queen Mary and the events of their 25-year reign. As Privy Councilors journeyed down to Sandringham and prepared to "put the crown in a commission" (i. e. establish a Council of State to act for George V as was done during his 1928-29 illness), the nation and the world watched ever more intently Their Majesties' eldest son. At Sandringham the Clerk of the Privy Council, Sir Maurice Hankey, handed the order establishing the Council of State to Lord Dawson of Penn. The great doctor, bending over the King's bed, supported the right hand as it weakly scrawled for the last time "George, R. I."

From London Edward of Wales motored to Windsor. Thence in one of his planes he and the Duke of York flew to Sandringham. There waited the Home Secretary, Sir John Simon, who must attest each royal birth and death. Ready on parchment were words hailing "the high and mighty Prince" on his becoming "our only lawful and rightful Liege . . . by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, Ireland and the British Dominions beyond the Seas, King, Defender of the Faith, Emperor of India."

Dining with Queen Mary, her sons and the Archbishop of Canterbury, the royal doctors wore full court dress, gold buttons with the royal crest gleaming on their tail coats above their velvet knee breeches, silk stockings and glistening pumps. A little later His Majesty was found to be beyond hope. With streaming eyes, the Queen and her sons stood at the bedside as George V expired in coma. Turning to the eldest son, Lord Dawson of Penn solemnly made the historic change known. "Your Majesty," he said, "your father is dead."

Instantaneously Edward of Wales be came King Edward VIII, although for malities and proclamations will continue for days. The funeral must be delayed sufficiently to give the World's great time to reach London. Then months of mourn ing must pass before the coronation of His Majesty King Edward VIII.

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