I know all about King Edward VII and his children and Queen Victoria’s. I stated very carefully in my post ‘FULL TIME royals’ when referring to the heir to the British throne and his adult children.
The future George V when Duke of York, was not performing royal duties fulltime as the Prince of Wales’s son and second in line heir to the throne. His official biographer later referred to him living at York Cottage at Sandringham and spending the vast majority of his time shooting birds and tending to his stamp collection until his grandmother died, and even later.
Had he not become heir due to his older brother’s death, he would have continued his naval career. If he had married in those circumstances he would have undoubtedly received a home either on a royal estate or with the help of his father. As it was, he was granted York Cottage (even though he was not a royal who performed fulltime duties.)
George’s sisters certainly weren’t fulltime royal workers. Louise spent much of her time in Scotland with her family. Maud was in Denmark, then Norway, and Victoria was more or less the single daughter at home then hand maiden to her mother.
Of course George and his wife May became more active when Prince and Princess of Wales, and they, and George’s sisters did do a certain number of royal duties and some charity work when Queen Victoria was on the throne but certainly were not regarded as full time royals in the way senior royals are now, performing hundreds of engagements a year. It was not expected of them.
The emphasis began to change after WW1. William and Harry were the first sons of any Prince of Wales who were expected to become full time royals while the monarch who was their grandparent was still alive. That was what I was referring to.
