The Crown

After weeks of serious illness. His Majesty George V left Bognor-on-Sea last week to go home.

Without ceremony, three automobiles drew up before Sir Arthur (Dunlop tires) Du Cros's comfortable stucco Craigwell House. Standing by the door were butlers, footmen, cooks, grooms, gardeners, royal marines--all who had served and guarded the King during his illness. Through the door came Their Majesties, snugly buttoned up, and as they passed down the line each servant received either a gold stickpin or a pair of gold cufflinks, blue enameled with the royal monogram. Into the car behind the King's stepped Sir Stanley Hewett, His Majesty's physician, and four trained nurses entered another automobile. The three cars moved off.

Great was the celebration in Windsor when the royal motorcade drove through High Street. Pinafored schoolchildren waved flags and screamed excitedly. The merry housewives of Windsor showered rose petals on King George's sober limousine. At the foot of Queen Victoria's statue stood the black-robed mayor and red-robed Town Councilors.

The King-Emperor stuck his head through the limousine door.

"I am happy to be back and to see so many familiar faces again," he called. The cars moved on up the hill to the plump Norman tower of Windsor Castle.

Inside the castle gate stood 1,000 of the King's young neighbors in battered silk hats and very clean collars, the boys of Eton College.

London society was feverishly trying to guess last week who the author of King George's latest biography might be. The book, "By a Person in Close Touch with the Royal Family," was begun at the height of the King's illness in the ghoulish expectation of being the first posthumous biography. With the King's recovery, proof sheets of the volume were forwarded to Buckingham Palace for approval last week. Officials, horrified at the revelation of personal details in the King's private life, not only forbade its publication but sent special King's messengers to the publishers to suppress it.

"Although the author intended to remain anonymous," said a government official secretary, "the book is so intimate that his identity could easily be detected." With only this for a clue, editors busily listed all the King's personal friends who might have written such a book; thoughtfully checked and rechecked the list.

Many pencils poised questioningly over the name of Hon. Sir John William Fortescue, librarian at Windsor Castle from 1905 to 1926, author of a life of Wellington, editor of the correspondence of George III. The pencils poised also over the name of Sir John's brother, Capt. Hon. Sir Seymour Fortescue, equerry-in-waiting to King George since 1893, author of a book of memoirs, Looking Back.

Instantly cleared of suspicion was the King's private secretary, Baron Stamford-ham, courtly letter-writer and precise putterer, characterized by Queen Victoria as "a model of tact and diplomacy."

Other suspects include: Sir Charles Cust, who served with King George in the navy and has been virtually a member of the royal household ever since; Col. Sir Clive Wigram, one of the few grouse shots in England steadier than King George; Captain Lord Claud Nigel Hamilton, deputy master of His Majesty's household; and Captain Sir Bryan Godfrey -Faussett, K. C. V. 0., another equerry.

Every gentleman on the suspected list is a member of the Victorian Order.