On 20th January 1935 George V, King-Emperor of the British Empire, died.

George V had reigned since 1910 following the death of his father, Edward VII. In 1917, King George had renamed the royal house from the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha to Windsor, due to the events of World War I and anti-Germanic feeling being quite strong.

George V was popular and widely admired by both the people of Britain and the Empire and with the Establishment, due to his appearance of being a hard-working monarch.

His lead physician, Lord Dawson of Penn, following the King's illness, wrote that he decided to hasten the King's death, ease his suffering and that of his family, and so that the news could be announced in the morning papers rather than the evening ones, by administering a fatal dose of morphine and cocaine.

George V was succeeded, briefly, by his eldest son, Edward VIII.

Image: Luke Fildes [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons (commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:King_George_V_1911_color-crop.jpg)