Scale: not calculated. A utilitarian though handsome model of 'King George V' (1939). Made entirely of metal it has a tough, resilient, heavy-duty quality about it, as though it has been forged from armour plate. The hull is marked with deck and compartment details, and the interior appears to be sectioned into sealed compartments. On the deck itself and around the hull, apertures for flooding these compartments can be opened and closed. With no accompanying documentation we can assume it was used for buoyancy testing.

The ‘King George V’-class battleships were designed by the Admiralty in 1936 under the restrictions of the Washington Treaty. This vessel was laid down at the Walker Navy Yard, Newcastle-upon-Tyne by Vickers-Armstrong Ltd. Originally, she was to have been named HMS ‘King George VI’ following the tradition of naming the first capital ship of a new reign after the monarch. The King requested that the ship be named in honour of his late father, King George V, after whom an earlier class of battleship had been named in 1911. Another member of this latter class was named HMS ‘Duke of York’ in honour of the King instead; the other ships of this class were ‘Prince of Wales’, ‘Howe’ and ‘Anson’.

The ‘King George V’ was launched on 21 February 1939. She was assigned to the Home Fleet at Scapa Flow in 1940. From here, as flagship of the Home Fleet, she participated in several North Atlantic operations protecting the Arctic convoys. In May 1941 she led the fleet in the attack, and sinking, of the ‘Bismarck’ in the North Atlantic. Following the end of the Second World War, the battleships of the ‘King George V’ class had become obsolete and expensive to maintain. Refitted in 1946–47, ‘KGV’ was reduced to a training role in Portland. In 1950 the entire class was laid up in reserve in Gareloch. After the scrapping of the class was approved in 1957, she was broken up at Dalmuir and Troon the following year.