As the second son of the Prince of Wales, he was able to make a 
          career in the navy. It gave him a chance to live a more normal life, 
          normal enough to pick up naval language and manners which would stay 
          with him all his life. 
             He was looking forward to a straightforward naval career but 
          everything changed when his elder brother suddenly died, making him 
          his father's heir and therefor the future King-Emperor. Not only did 
          he take his brother's position, he also married his brother's fiancee, 
          Princess Mary of Teck. 
             It was strange that George and his wife were so well suited and yet 
          at the same time so different. Mary loved art, something that George 
          and his equally philistine sister, Victoria, scoffed at. George once 
          said he loved the opera "La Boheme" because it was the shortest. He 
          was always on good terms with his father, mother, brother and sisters; 
          however, once his own children grew up, he seemed unable to understand 
          them. He was more at ease with his grandchildren once they started to 
          arrive. 
             He became King-Emperor at almost forty-five and started his reign 
          by going to India with his wife, receiving homage of the Indian 
          princes. Three years later, World War I started and, on 17 July 1917, 
          he changed the name of the royal family into Windsor to counter-act 
          the anti-German feelings. At the end of the war, to his great sorrow, 
          he was unable to save his Russian cousin, Nicholas II, and his family. 
             No doubt this influenced him when, in 1922 during a revolution in 
          Greece, another cousin, Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark, was 
          imprisoned and threatened with execution. A British secret mission 
          secured his life and release. 
             In his years as king, his honesty and straightforward behaviour 
          earned him the love and respect of his people. The warmth displayed to 
          him at the time of his Silver Jubilee surprised him, and he wrote in 
          his diary "They must love me for myself alone". 
             On 29 November 1934 at Westminster Abbey, his son, the Duke of 
          Kent, married Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark. On 3 December 
          1935, his favourite sister, Victoria, died, and this shattered him 
          greatly. He recorded in his diary: "How I shall miss her, and our 
          daily talks on the telephone. No one ever had a sister like her". On 
          15 January 1936, he was feeling unwell; on 17 January he made his last 
          entry in his diary. On the 20th of January 1936 he died. 
 

Source: Leo van de Pas