2-625-581 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

An extraordinary bulletin by The London Gazette anouncing the death of King George V (1865-1936). By 20 January 1936 George V was close to death. His physicians, led by Lord Dawson of Penn, issued a bulletin with words: The King's life is moving peacefully towards its close. Dawson's private diary, made public in 1986, revealed that he hastened the King's death by injecting him with a lethal combination of morphine and cocaine. Dawson noted that he acted to preserve the King's dignity, to prevent further strain on the family, and so that the King's death at 11:55 p.m. could be announced in the morning edition of The Times newspaper rather than less appropriate ... evening journal. [His Majesty's Stationery Office, London]