King George V was born in 1865, the second son of the future King Edward VII. After the death of is brother in 1892, he became heir to the throne, bringing his naval career to an end.  He became King upon his father’s death in 1910.

During his reign and time as Sovereign Head of the Order of St John, the First World War took place. St John Ambulance played a crucial role in providing care for the sick and injured as part of the Joint War Committee with the British Red Cross. Our collection contains images of George V and his wife Queen Mary inspecting St John people contributing to the war effort.

The final version of this painting of King George V, Sovereign Head of the Order of St John, hangs in in Chapter Hall at St John’s Gate. In 1928 Malta was under British rule, and portraits of the monarch would have hung in many government and public buildings.  A portrait identical to this, but with the insignia of the Order of St John replaced, was painted for the Malta Police Headquarters.

 

The portrait was painted by Edward Caruana Dingli, a Maltese artist who had recently become closely connected to the Order of St John. He completed a string of commissions for the Order during the late 1920s including paintings of the Duke of Connaught, the Grand Prior, and Thomas Docwra, a Grand Prior from the early sixteenth century who oversaw the building of St John’s Gate. Dingli would later prepare a similar Bozzetto of George’s son Edward VIII prior to his abdication.