George VI the Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs, J. H. Thomas. King George V had severe reservations about Prince Edward, saying "After I am dead, the boy will ruin himself in twelve months" and "I pray God that my eldest son will never marry and that nothing will come between Bertie and Lilibet and the throne." On 20 January 1936, George V died and Edward ascended the throne as King Edward VIII. In the Vigil of the Princes, Prince Albert and his three brothers took a shift standing guard over their father's body as it lay in state, in a closed
J. B. M. Hertzog J. B. M. Hertzog General James Barry Munnik Hertzog , better known as Barry Hertzog or J. B. M. Hertzog (6 April 1866 – 21 November 1942), was a South African politician and soldier. He was a Boer general during the second Anglo-Boer War who became Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa from 1924 to 1939. Throughout his life he encouraged the development of Afrikaner culture, determined to protect the Afrikaners from Britain's influences. He is the only South African Prime Minister to have served under three British Monarchs (George V, Edward VIII, and George VI). Hertzog first