Editing George V (section)

==Duke of York==
[[File:George, Duke of York, and his children.jpg|thumb|With his children, [[Edward VIII|Edward]], [[George VI|Albert]], and [[Mary, Princess Royal and Countess of Harewood|Mary]]. Photograph by his mother [[Alexandra of Denmark|Alexandra]], 1899.]]

The death of his elder brother effectively ended George's naval career, as he was now second in line to the throne, after his father.<ref name="dnb">[[Colin Matthew|Matthew, H. C. G.]] (September 2004; online edition May 2009), [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/33369 "George V (1865–1936)"], ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, {{doi|10.1093/ref:odnb/33369}}, retrieved 1 May 2010 (Subscription required)</ref> George was created [[Duke of York]], [[Earl of Inverness]], and [[Baron Killarney]] by Queen Victoria on 24 May 1892,<ref>Clay, p. 149</ref> and received lessons in constitutional history from [[J. R. Tanner]].<ref>Clay, p. 150; Rose, p. 35</ref>

The Duke and Duchess of York had [[#Issue|five sons and a daughter]]. [[Randolph Churchill]] claimed that George was a strict father, to the extent that his children were terrified of him, and that George had remarked to the [[Edward Stanley, 17th Earl of Derby|Earl of Derby]]: "My father was frightened of his mother, I was frightened of my father, and I am damned well going to see to it that my children are frightened of me." In reality, there is no direct source for the quotation and it is likely that George's parenting style was little different from that adopted by most people at the time.<ref>Rose, pp. 53–57; Sinclair, p. 93 ''ff''</ref> Whether this was the case or not, his children did seem to resent his strict nature, his son [[Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester|Prince Henry]] going as far as to describe him as a "terrible father" in later years.<ref>Vickers, ch. 18</ref>

They lived mainly at [[York Cottage]],<ref>Renamed from ''Bachelor's Cottage''</ref> a relatively small house in [[Sandringham, Norfolk]], where their way of life mirrored that of a comfortable middle-class family rather than royalty.<ref>Clay, p. 154; Nicolson, p. 51; Rose, p. 97</ref> George preferred a simple, almost quiet, life, in marked contrast to the lively social life pursued by his father. His official biographer, [[Harold Nicolson]], later despaired of George's time as Duke of York, writing: "He may be all right as a young midshipman and a wise old king, but when he was Duke of York&nbsp;... he did nothing at all but kill [''i.e.'' shoot] animals and stick in stamps."<ref>[[Harold Nicolson]]'s diary quoted in Sinclair, p. 107</ref> George was an avid [[stamp collector]], which Nicolson disparaged,<ref>Nicolson's ''Comments 1944–1948'', quoted in Rose, p. 42</ref> but George played a large role in building the [[Royal Philatelic Collection]] into the most comprehensive collection of United Kingdom and Commonwealth stamps in the world, in some cases setting record purchase prices for items.<ref>{{citation|url=http://www.royal.gov.uk/The%20Royal%20Collection%20and%20other%20collections/TheRoyalPhilatelicCollection/History.aspx|title=The Royal Philatelic Collection|publisher=Official website of the British Monarchy|access-date=1 May 2010|archive-date=15 April 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120415133541/https://www.royal.gov.uk/The%20Royal%20Collection%20and%20other%20collections/TheRoyalPhilatelicCollection/History.aspx|url-status=live}}</ref>

In October 1894, George's maternal uncle-by-marriage, [[Alexander III of Russia]], died. At the request of his father, "out of respect for poor dear Uncle Sasha's memory", George joined his parents in Saint Petersburg for the funeral.<ref>Clay, p. 167</ref> He and his parents remained in Russia for [[Wedding of Nicholas II and Alexandra Feodorovna|the wedding]] a week later of the new Russian emperor, his maternal first cousin [[Nicholas II]], to one of George's paternal first cousins, [[Princess Alix of Hesse and by Rhine]], who had once been considered as a potential bride for George's elder brother.<ref>Rose, pp. 22, 208–209</ref>