for initiating or supporting the special efforts required from the public from time to time in the organization of the home front notably his messages appealing for voluntary national service (Oct. 23 1915), compulsory military service (May 25 1916), strengthening of the volunteer forces against the risk of invasion (Jan. 27 1917), general economy in food (May 2 1917), the observance of a special day of prayer on Sunday Jan. 6 1918 (Nov. 7 1917), and those on the victory itself (Nov. 19 1918), on the need for subscriptions to the Victory Loan (June 12 1919), on the signing of the Peace Treaty (June 28 1919), appealing for support to the " King's National Roll " of employers who would take discharged soldiers into their em- ploy (Aug. 18 1919), for the League of Nations (Oct. 13 1919), and for the celebration of the first anniversary of Armistice Day, by two minutes' silence on the nth hour of the nth day of the nth month of the year (Nov. 6 1919). A collection of the King's numerous speeches and replies to addresses, and his constant messages to the Dominions and India, to the army and the navy, or in such special connexions as the repatriation of prisoners of war or the success of Tlie Times' Red Cross fund, would make a bulky volume, and were always full of inspiration and good cheer for those who received them. The King and Queen regularly went in state to prorogue and open Parliament in successive sessions, and on frequent occasions royal visits were paid during the war to important factories and workshops at the munitions centres throughout the country, as well as to shipbuilding yards, hospitals and other institutions engaged in war-work of one kind or another. The King's inspections of provincial industrial establishments included visits to Glasgow and the Clyde (May 1915), Coventry and Birmingham (July 1915), Leeds and Sheffield (Sept. 1915), Nottingham (Dec. 1916), Liverpool, Manchester, Barrow and Gretna (May 1917), New- castle-on-Tyne, Hull and Rosyth (June 1917), Glasgow for a third time (Sept. 1917), Bristol for a second time (Nov. 1917), Bradford, Huddersfield and Leeds (May 1918).
The King was also constantly inspecting the forces at home, visiting the various camps, and holding investitures for con- ferring honours and decorations indeed the total number of war decorations personally conferred by him from the outbreak of war up to the end of 1919 reached the colossal figure of 50,669. Moreover, periodical visits were made by the King to the Grand Fleet (July 8-10 1915; June 18 1916; June 27 I9i7;and July 23 1918), and to the battle-front in France (Nov. 29-Dec. 5 1914; Oct. 2i-Nov. i 1915; Aug. 7-Aug. 15 1916; July 3-July 14 1917; March 28-30 and Aug. 5-13 1918). It was during his visit to the front in 1915 that, on Oct. 28, King George met with a somewhat serious accident, which laid him up for some weeks, through his horse rearing and falling backwards on him, being startled by the sudden cheering of a regiment whom he was inspecting; but after being safely brought back home he made a good recovery from his injuries. On the 1917 visit Queen Mary accompanied the King to France, and returned with him, but made a separate tour while there. Finally, after the Armi- stice, the King made another visit to Paris and to the battle-fields, Nov. 27Dec. 10 1918, and had an enthusiastic reception in the French capital (Nov. 28-30). On each of his last two French visits a distance of about 860 m. was covered by motor-car.
In other directions during the war period, the King's desire to set an example of patriotic self-abnegation was illustrated by two specially notable actions his announcement on March 30 1915 that the serving of alcoholic liquor for his own use and that of the royal family and household would be suspended (as from April 6), in order to assist in the movement for in- creased temperance and economy in wartime, and his spon- taneous gift, on March 31 1916, of 100,000 to the Exchequer out of the Privy Purse, to be used as the Government might decide in relief of war expenditure. The long record of royal attendances at notable ceremonies included such occasions as the funeral services at St. Paul's for Lord Roberts (Nov. 19 1914) and Lord Kitchener (June 13 1916), the commemoration service there on the entry of the United States into the war (April 20 1917), the Albert Hall commemoration of the first
Seven Divisions (Dec. 15 1917), the thanksgiving at St. Paul's on Their Majesties' silver wedding (July 6 1918), the presenta- tion to the King at Buckingham Palace by the special Japanese mission of the sword and badge of a Japanese field-marshal (Oct. 29 1918), the U.S. navy and army baseball match at Stamford Bridge (July 4 1918), the Drury Lane matinee of the Shakespeare tercentenary celebration (May 2 1916), and Their Majesties' visit to the Bank of England and the Stock Exchange (Dec. 18 1917). On the occasion of Their Majesties' silver wedding, the King and Queen were received at the Guildhall (July 6 1918) and were presented with a cheque for 53,000, subscribed by the citizens of London, to be devoted to charities by Their Majesties' wish, together with a silver tankard once owned by Charles II.
On July 17 1917 it was announced that King George V. had abandoned all German titles for himself and his family. At the same time a proclamation was issued to the effect that henceforth the royal house of Great Britain and Ireland would be known, not as the house of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, but as the house of Windsor. It had previously been announced (June 20 1917) that the King had decided that those princes of his family who were British subjects but bore German titles should relinquish those titles in favour of British names. The following peerages were consequently conferred: The Duke of Teck and Prince Alexander of Teck, brothers of Queen Mary, adopted the surname of Cambridge, in allusion to their descent from the Duke of Cambridge, seventh son of George III., and became respectively Marquess of Cambridge- and Earl of Athlone; Prince Louis of Battenberg (see 3.531), brother of Queen Vic- toria's son-in-law Prince Henry of Battenberg, adopted the sur- name of Mountbatten, and became Marquess of Milford Haven, his eldest son assuming the courtesy title of Earl of Medina; while the sons of Princess Henry of Battenberg, youngest daughter of Queen Victoria, also adopted the surname of Mount- batten, the eldest, Prince Alexander, receiving the title of Marquess of Carisbrooke. Princess Henry of Battenberg her- self resumed the style of Princess Beatrice.
With the return of peace it was possible for the more normal activities of court life to be resumed on the lines already familiar before the war, but in the long list of later royal functions some stand out typically as worthy of record for their special appeal to contemporary public interest. Immediately after the Armi- stice in 1918, the King and Queen on successive days made popular progresses through different sections of London, and received general ovations, in carriage drives through the city (Nov. n), to a special thanksgiving at St. Paul's (Nov. 12), through the East End (Nov. 13), the south (Nov. 14), the north (Nov. 15), the north-west (Nov. 18) and the south-west (Nov. 22). On Dec. 27 a great banquet was given in honour of President Wilson at Buckingham Palace, where he and Mrs. Wilson were staying with the King and Queen. During 1919, mention may also be made of Their Majesties' visit (March 4) to Westminster school, to witness the " tossing of the pancake " on Shrove Tuesday; the King's presentation of a cup to the New Zealand Rugby football team at Twickenham after their match against a French army team (April 19); Their Majesties' presence at the thanksgiving at St. Paul's on the signing of the Peace Treaty (July 6), and at the river procession (sea services commemora- tion) on the Thames (Aug. 4) ; the King's banquets at Bucking- ham Palace to the Shah of Persia (Oct. 31), to the President of the French Republic (Nov. io),and to the Prince of Wales on his return from his world tour (Dec. i); and the King's visit to the Oxford and Cambridge Rugby football match (Dec. 9). As time went on the King's long-standing interest in sport was indeed regularly shown by his presence at the chief popular events, whether at race meetings, football or cricket; and public appreciation of this royal interest in sport was enhanced by the way in which the Prince of Wales and the Duke of York (as the King's second son, Prince Albert, was created in 1920) were also taking an active part in it on their own account. On no such occasion was popular enthusiasm shown more em- phatically than in the reception given to the King and the Duke
