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‘Eddy’) in January 1864 and George Frederick Ernest Albert on 3 June 1865. Their father, the Prince of Wales, was not entrusted by the queen with any role in affairs of state and therefore his sons, although they were respectively second and third in line to the throne, did not grow up to be familiar with political or constitutional issues, or with any sense of impending responsibility.
    George may have been the second son, but he was far more suited by nature to be king than his brother was. Thoughsomewhat spoiled by his mother, who was devoted to him, he had none of Eddy’s languid and unfocused nature. What he did have were good manners and a sense of duty that developed early and became so overriding that it guided his every action for the rest of his life. He was expected to make a career in the Navy – despite the fact that his grandmother thought this an unsound idea – and was ideally suited to the Service. He had a genuine ability in seamanship that would have made him extremely able in command of a vessel. He also excelled in mathematics, a highly important skill in such a technical profession.
    At the age of twelve he performed impressively in the entrance exam for midshipmen and then undertook, together with his tutor and brother, a series of three voyages that gave him valuable experience of the Navy, the British Empire and the wider world. By the time he became king he would have travelled more widely than any of his predecessors. While overseas he paid formal calls on rulers and governors, and thus his time in the Navy was in no sense an escape from protocol – or from education, for lessons continued on board.
    George probably received a finer education through this process than he could have gained anywhere else. He responded to the sights and sounds and experiences, and to the instruction he received, in exactly the way his elders had hoped he would. Naval discipline had stamped out a previous tendency toward self-indulgence. His inherent abilities as a seaman had been honed by practice to make him a thoroughly professional officer who would have been a credit to any ship and who could, in other circumstances, have enjoyed a successful career. His patriotism, greatly enhanced by his tour of British overseas territories and by the respect with which a grandson of the Queen Empress was received, was to become the hallmark of his character. As his biographer Harold Nicolson was to write: ‘Not being an intellectual he was never variable: he remained uniform throughout his life.’
    A tutor, John Dalton, had been appointed to teach both theprinces, though he was not to have exclusive charge of them for long. As was normal for young men of their era with exalted future roles, the regime they endured was strict and the curriculum crowded and demanding, including as it did not only ‘book learning’ but, by way of exercise, military drill. Dalton quickly came to realize that neither of his charges was naturally academic, and Eddy in particular had an attention span of discouraging brevity. While he has been seen by some historians as slow-witted to the point of virtual imbecility, others have suggested that he suffered from mild epilepsy and that his inattention was perhaps characteristic of children born prematurely (he had arrived two months earlier than expected). George was more intelligent, less indolent, more amenable to instruction and to reason, and more aware of the dignity of his position. He was also absolutely devoted to his father, and wanted above all to earn his approval.
    Though it has been suggested that their tutor was a dull and conventional man who could have gained more of a response from the boys had he been more flexible, they in fact had a happy childhood that was not spoiled by an excess of discipline or deadening rote learning. Their father believed that the Royal Navy would provide them with the best preparation for life, and it was possible for them to go into the Senior