Edward Denny Bacon of state and the war, and made him consider the curator as a friend like Tilleard. After George V's death in January 1936, Bacon continued his tasks on a collection that became part of the royal heritage. Even if Kings Edward VIII and George VI were less enthusiastic stamp collectors than their father, they made sure that all British and colonial postal authorities continued to send philatelic material to the Curator. But Edward VIII ordered that the collection had to be financially self-sufficient, through the sales of duplicate stamps. In July 1936 Bacon was authorised to sell two 500-dollar stamps
George Adam Smith until his retirement in 1935. He was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1916, and was knighted in the same year. He served as Moderator of the General Assembly of the United Free Church of Scotland in 1916-17. In 1917 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were John Horne, Cargill Gilston Knott, Ben Peach and John Sutherland Black. He was appointed a Chaplain-in-Ordinary to King George V in 1933, and reappointed by King Edward VIII and King George VI. From 1924 to 1938 he was Patron of the Seven Incorporated Trades