George V, Never a Dull Moment by Jane Ridley

George V (1865-1936), grandfather of the current Queen, was not one of England’s liveliest monarchs; he collected stamps.  (Apologies to philatelists everywhere.)

Tommy Lascelles, an astute royal advisor (played brilliantly in The Crown by Phillip Torrens), said of George V, “He was dull, beyond dispute—but my God, his reign…never had a dull moment.”

So how did this dreary man keep the monarchy afloat during a particularly turbulent time for the British royal family and royals in general?

George’s father was Queen Victoria’s eldest son, the cosmopolitan, multi-lingual, philandering Edward VII, and his wife, the long-suffering Queen Alexandra.

George was their second son. As the “spare”, George only became the heir to the throne when his elder brother, Eddy, Duke of Clarence, suddenly died in his mid- twenties. Up until that time, George had occupied himself with pheasant hunting and the afore mentioned stamp collecting.

He promptly married May of Teck, who (conveniently) had been engaged to Prince Eddy prior to his death.  Theirs was a strong (if not scintillating) marriage and a true partnership. They had six children, including the “spare”, George VI, Queen Elizabeth’s father.

George was crowned king in 1910 at age forty-four.  During his reign (1910-1936), he faced:

• World War I
• The fall of thirteen European monarchies
• A family name change-from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to the House of Windsor
• Irish home rule
• The rise of bolshevism
• The execution of his look-alike cousin Tsar Nicholas II
• The first Labor government
• The Great Depression
• The rise of fascism
• Wallis Simpson

Despite his lack of education, imagination, and humor, Ridley argues that George V succeeded primarily due to his ability to change and adapt. (With the notable exception of his relationship with his eldest son—the abdicating Edward VIII.) The transition to the 20thC stumped many other monarchs, but stodgy George V passed on the British crown to the next generation, arguably stronger than before.

If you are a House of Windsor devotee, this is a must read. I also highly recommend Ridley’s other royal biography, The Heir Apparent: A Life of Edward VII, the Playboy Prince, who was not dull at all. See my review here. 

What Other Reviewers Say

Simon Heffer, Daily Telegraph: “Superb…a perfectly candid portrait of our present Queen’s grandfather: demythologized, certainly, and with spades called spades, but not trivialized, and not denied credit for the massive amount he achieved…Ridley’s convincing thesis [is] that George V was the true begetter of modern constitutional monarchy…this book makes it clear we were lucky to have him.”

Who Wrote It

Jane Ridley is a professor of history at the University of Buckingham, where she teaches an MA course on biography. She is the author of The Young Disraeli, 1804-1846, The Architect and His Wife, and The Heir Apparent: A Life of Edward VII, the Playboy Prince, which was a Sunday Times bestseller and one of the most critically acclaimed books of 2013. A fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, she writes book reviews for the Spectator and other newspapers, and has also been featured on radio and appeared on several television documentaries.