Images of the Queen’s father, George VI, should appear on cigarette packets as warning of the perils of smoking, one of Britain’s leading surgeons has suggested.
Speaking to the Royal College of Surgeons on Tuesday, Prof Harold Ellis said the monarch’s death in 1952 at 56 should serve as a national reminder of the health problems caused by smoking.
In a lecture on royal operations Ellis said: “I think George VI should be on every cigarette packet, because he had severe vascular disease in his legs – 99% due to smoking. He had carcinoma of the lung – 99% due to smoking. [And] he died of coronary thrombosis – 90% due to smoking.”
Ellis qualified as a doctor in July 1948 – the same month the NHS was founded – and still teaches anatomy at King’s College, London.
Ellis said he was working for the medical corp as part of his national service when photographs emerged of an ailing George VI in 1951. “Every doctor and nurse in the country realised he had malignant disease, he looked terrible,” Ellis said.
At the time four doctors treating him put out a statement saying he had “influenza with slight inflammation of the lung”. Ellis described this as “twaddle”.
He pointed out that soon after the monarch had a tumorous lung removed by a lung cancer specialist. George VI died the following year.
The monarch is best known now for his stammer following the success of the Oscar-winning film The King’s Speech. In the film George was frequently depicted lighting up as he struggled with the speech impediment.
But Ellis said that from a public health perspective George VI should be remembered as a smoker.
From May 2016 packaging of all cigarettes in England will have to be sold in plain packets with only the brand name and graphic health-warning images permitted on the front.
Ellis suggested an image of George VI could stand as a health warning. “He should have been an advertisement for cigarettes,” he said.
The royal family’s endorsement of cigarettes ended in 1999, when it withdrew its royal warrant from the tobacco company Gallaher – the makers of Benson & Hedges and Silk Cut.
