are apt nowadays to forget that King George was 'a sailor for Afteen years, and enjoyed the educative benefits incidental to that career. Until the death of his elder brother, the Duke of Clarence, in 1802, it seemed that like his uncle, the Duke of Edinburgh, he would spend his working life as an officer in the Royal Navy." His connection with that service gave him a personal interest in It which he has never lost. Even. after ho had been Heir Apparent for twelve years, he insisted, in the course of a visit to the Fleet, on going down in a submarine and firing a torpedo himself. Tord Esher, who felis the-story, states that the young Ueutenant in command had nearly stifled his crew three days before, "and so the admiral was jolly glad when the saw the heir to the throne reappear. Everyone was very averse from the prince going down, but he insisted, and I think he was right. It will give a lift to the submarines, and, being a sailor, why should he not take risks?'
Prince George was only twelve years old when, with his elder brother, he was sent, much to the disquiet of Queen Victoria, to undergo a training of nearly two years on the Britannia, There the two were treated like their' fellow-cadets, except that they had also the supervision of Canon Dalton, who remained their tutor. "It was not the sovereign but the Prime Minister,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.