George V's doctor injected him with morphine and cocaine so his death would make the morning papers

King George V was dying of heart and lung disease at Sandringham. On the night of 20 January 1936 his physician, Lord Dawson of Penn, injected him with three-quarters of a grain of morphine and one grain of cocaine. Dawson's notes said he acted to spare the king and his family a long final stage and so that the death could be announced in the morning edition of The Times rather than "the less appropriate evening journals"^†. The king died at 11:55 pm. The notes became public in 1986 when Dawson's biographer, Francis Watson, published them. George V's will was sealed. Biographers report that it left large cash sums to his younger children and none to his eldest son, the new Edward VIII, who received a life interest in Sandringham and Balmoral^†. Edward had built up savings from the Duchy of Cornwall. Within 11 months he abdicated, and the money question shaped his settlement with his brother (see story 12).