Editing George V (section)

==Prince of Wales==
[[File:Duke of York at Montreal and Quebec 1901.ogv|thumb|left|alt=George in military dress uniform hands out medals to servicemen, rides in a carriage and inspects a guard of honour|George at Montreal and Quebec, 1901]]

As Duke of York, George carried out a wide variety of public duties. On the [[death of Queen Victoria]] on 22 January 1901, George's father ascended the throne as King [[Edward VII]].<ref>Rose, p. 42</ref> George inherited the title of [[Duke of Cornwall]], and for much of the rest of that year, he was known as the Duke of Cornwall and York.<ref>Rose, pp. 44–45</ref>

In 1901, the Duke and Duchess toured the [[British Empire]]. Their tour included Gibraltar, Malta, Port Said, [[Aden]], Ceylon, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Mauritius, South Africa, Canada, and the [[Colony of Newfoundland]]. The tour was designed by Colonial Secretary [[Joseph Chamberlain]] with the support of Prime Minister [[Lord Salisbury]] to reward the Dominions for their participation in the [[South African War]] of 1899–1902. George presented thousands of specially designed South African War medals to colonial troops. In South Africa, the royal party met civic leaders, African leaders, and Boer prisoners, and was greeted by elaborate decorations, expensive gifts, and fireworks displays. Despite this, not all residents responded favourably to the tour. Many white Cape [[Afrikaner]]s resented the display and expense, the war having weakened their capacity to reconcile their Afrikaner-Dutch culture with their status as British subjects. Critics in the English-language press decried the enormous cost at a time when families faced severe hardship.<ref>{{citation|first=Phillip|last=Buckner|title=The Royal Tour of 1901 and the Construction of an Imperial Identity in South Africa|journal=South African Historical Journal|date=November 1999|volume=41|pages=324–348|doi=10.1080/02582479908671897}}</ref>

[[File:Opening of the first parliament.jpg|thumb|Painting by [[Tom Roberts]] of the Duke opening the first [[Parliament of Australia]] on 9 May 1901]]

In Australia, George opened the first session of the [[Australian Parliament]] on the [[Constitutional history of Australia|creation of the Commonwealth of Australia]].<ref>Rose, pp. 43–44</ref> In New Zealand, he praised the military values, bravery, loyalty, and obedience to duty of New Zealanders, and the tour gave New Zealand a chance to show off its progress, especially in its adoption of up-to-date British standards in communications and the processing industries. The implicit goal was to advertise New Zealand's attractiveness to tourists and potential immigrants, while avoiding news of growing social tensions, by focusing the attention of the British press on a land few knew about.<ref>{{citation|first=Judith|last=Bassett|title='A Thousand Miles of Loyalty': the Royal Tour of 1901|journal=New Zealand Journal of History|date=1987|volume=21|issue=1|pages=125–138}}; {{citation|editor1-first=W. H.|editor1-last=Oliver|title=The Oxford History of New Zealand|year=1981|pages=206–208}}</ref> On his return to Britain, in a speech at [[Guildhall, London]], George warned of "the impression which seemed to prevail among [our] brethren across the seas, that the Old Country must wake up if she intends to maintain her old position of pre-eminence in her colonial trade against foreign competitors."<ref>Rose, p. 45</ref>

On 9 November 1901, George was created [[Prince of Wales]] and [[Earl of Chester]].<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=27375 |date=9 November 1901 |page=7289 |mode=cs2}}</ref><ref>{{citation|url=https://www.princeofwales.gov.uk/titles-and-heraldry|title=Previous Princes of Wales|publisher=Household of HRH The Prince of Wales|access-date=19 March 2018|archive-date=19 April 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200419231207/https://www.princeofwales.gov.uk/titles-and-heraldry|url-status=live}}</ref> George's father wished to prepare him for his future role as king. In contrast to Edward himself, whom Queen Victoria had deliberately excluded from state affairs, George was given wide access to state documents by his father.<ref name="dnb"/><ref>Clay, p. 244; Rose, p. 52</ref> George in turn allowed his wife access to his papers,<ref>Rose, p. 289</ref> as he valued her counsel and she often helped write his speeches.<ref>Sinclair, p. 107</ref> As Prince of Wales, he supported reforms in naval training, including cadets being enrolled at the ages of twelve and thirteen, and receiving the same education, whatever their class and eventual assignments. The reforms were implemented by the then Second (later First) Sea Lord, [[Sir John Fisher]].<ref>{{citation|author-link=Robert K. Massie|last=Massie|first=Robert K.|year=1991|title=Dreadnought: Britain, Germany and the Coming of the Great War|publisher=Random House|pages=449–450|title-link=Dreadnought: Britain, Germany and the Coming of the Great War}}</ref>

From November 1905 to March 1906, George and May toured [[British India]], where he was disgusted by racial discrimination and campaigned for greater involvement of Indians in the government of the country.<ref>Rose, pp. 61–66</ref> The tour was almost immediately followed by a trip to Spain for the [[Wedding of Alfonso XIII and Princess Victoria Eugenie|wedding of King Alfonso XIII to George's cousin Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg]], at which the bride and groom [[Morral affair|narrowly avoided assassination]] when the driver of their coach and more than a dozen spectators were killed by a bomb thrown by an anarchist, [[Mateu Morral]]. A week after returning to Britain, George and May travelled to Norway for the [[Coronations in Norway|coronation]] of [[King Haakon VII]], George's cousin and brother-in-law, and [[Maud of Wales|Queen Maud]], George's sister.<ref>Rose, pp. 67–68</ref>