Morbid Fact Du Jour For January 23, 2012
Today’s Well-Timed Yet Truly Morbid Fact!
Timing played an important role in the death of English King George V (1865-1936). The announcement of his impending demise was recorded in the famous bulletin, ‘The life of the King is moving peacefully to its close,’ written on the back of a menu by his doctor, Lord Dawson. In 1968 it was revealed by Dawson’s biographer, Francis Watson, that the doctor had taken it upon himself to accelerate death with a lethal mixture of morphine and cocaine injected into the king’s jugular vein. Dawson had resorted to euthanasia not for the comfort of the king – since he was already comatose – but so as not further to exhaust the assembled onlookers. A second reason was also given: Dawson wished the announcement of George’s death to appear in the morning papers; laggardliness on the king’s part ran the risk of the news appearing less ‘appropriately’ in the ‘evening journals’.
Culled from: Death: A History Of Man’s Obsessions and Fears by Robert Wilkins
