TIL George V Went Out Like John Belushi
Have been on a QI binge lately, so I’ve been learning all sorts of random stuff. Here’s today’s:
Stephen Fry: [Upon reading how Lord Dawson euthanized King George V] “Isn’t that what a speed ball is? He’s basically gone the same way as John Belushi”
Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_V#Declining_health_a…
By 20 January, George was close to death. His physicians, led by Lord Dawson of Penn, issued a bulletin with the words “The King’s life is moving peacefully towards its close.” Dawson’s private diary, unearthed after his death and made public in 1986, reveals that George’s last words, a mumbled “God damn you!”, were addressed to his nurse, Catherine Black, when she gave him a sedative that night. Dawson, who supported the “gentle growth of euthanasia”, admitted in the diary that he ended the King’s life:
At about 11 o’clock it was evident that the last stage might endure for many hours, unknown to the Patient but little comporting with that dignity and serenity which he so richly merited and which demanded a brief final scene. Hours of waiting just for the mechanical end when all that is really life has departed only exhausts the onlookers & keeps them so strained that they cannot avail themselves of the solace of thought, communion or prayer. I therefore decided to determine the end and injected (myself) morphia gr.3/4 [grains] and shortly afterwards cocaine gr.1 [grains] into the distended jugular vein … In about 1/4 an hour – breathing quieter – appearance more placid – physical struggle gone
Dawson wrote that he acted to preserve the King’s dignity, to prevent further strain on the family, and so that George’s death at 11:55 pm could be announced in the morning edition of The Times newspaper rather than “less appropriate … evening journals”.
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