Free Darling Georgie by Dennis Friedman

his birthday), and his mother’s lack of punctuality, which had made him so anxious, led to an intolerance of being kept waiting. The importance of punctuality in the Navy was emphasized in the punishing daily routine. ‘Rouse out mids’ at 6 a.m., breakfast at 6.45, 7.30 cutlass or rifle drill, 9.00 prayers, 9.30 school and regular drills until 11.00 and then lunch at noon exactly. The drills continued, depending on the watch, on the half-hour, for an hour until 3.30 p.m. The next watch fell in at 4.00, supper at 4.45, more drill at 5.00 and the hammocks slung at 7.30 ready for lights out at 8.30. It was a programme well suited to the anxious and insecure who take comfort in structure imposed upon them by others. Prince George took readily to the restraints of discipline.
    Princess Alexandra infuriated her Sandringham house guests by seldom appearing for breakfast before 11 a.m. She infuriated her husband even more. On one occasion, shortly after King Edward VII’s accession, when he had engagements of state to attend to, Queen Alexandra was to help him receive deputations and addresses at noon precisely. ‘The King sat in the Equerries room drumming on the table and looking out of the window with the face of a Christian martyr. Finally at 1.50 the Queen came down looking lovely and quite unconcerned. All she said was: “Am I late?” The King swallowed and walked gravely out of the room’ (Battiscombe, 1969). As a child, even before he had been taught to tell the time, Prince George would have known emotionally when the gratification of his needs by his mother was unnecessarily delayed. His cruise to the furthest outposts of his grandmother’s Empire (in 1876 Queen Victoria had been declared Empress of India), which separated him from his parents for two years, might have made him ask himself whether despite her protestations to the contrary his deaf mother had not only failed to listen to him but whether she had also had no time for him.
    Prince George took after his father, Prince Edward, whose reluctance to be kept waiting caused him to seek refuge in eating and sex and to makesure that he never had to wait for the gratification of either appetite. King George V satisfied his needs through an autocratic insistence on deference, obedience and service. In July 1899, in a lecture to cadets on the training ship
Conway,
he said: ‘I think I am entitled, from personal experience of twenty years at sea, to impress upon you three simple qualities which I am sure, if conscientiously acted up to, will go a long way towards ensuring you success. The qualities to which I would refer [qualities which he attempted to instil in all those around him, including his children] are truthfulness, obedience and zeal. Truthfulness will give those placed under you confidence in you; obedience will give those placed over you confidence in you; and although I have mentioned zeal last, it is by no means the least important, for without zeal no sailor can ever be worth his salt.’ In other words his own need for instant gratification would be satisfied, provided he received from others an immediate response to his orders.
    Prince George was never allowed to forget either the trauma of his separation from his parents or their expectations of him. The portraits of Prince Edward and Princess Alexandra, which looked down at him from the walls of the
Bacchante’s
gunroom, not only reminded him of his duty towards his parents but also towards their subjects, whose enthusiastic farewells at Spithead saw him off on his journey round the world as well as his journey into adulthood. The demands of duty and obligation, leadership and example were all to feed into Prince George’s increasingly punishing conscience. As a monarch, his highly developed sense of duty led him to meet his obligations and to honour his debts to society. He interpreted the role literally. Like his grandmother Queen Victoria, he neither shared his feelings with his children