How King George V's head ended up on a barbecue

Telegraph

25-03-2025

Monarchs strive to make their mark on history, but King George V could never have imagined that, almost 90 years after his death, he would go viral on social media.
His majesty's extraordinary resurgence involves decapitation, theft, political protest, a republican Belfast rap group, and an ongoing cat-and-mouse chase between criminals and Australian police.
The story began to unfold last year, on the King's Official Birthday in Australia. In the early hours of the morning on June 10, activists used a mechanical saw to hack off the head of a statue of George V which resides in Melbourne's aptly named park, Kings Domain.
A video filmed by the vandals and posted on social media showed a person clad in hi-vis and a headlamp decapitating the effigy, while another daubed it with red paint and the message 'The colony will fall'. The video is soundtracked by the Sex Pistols' God Save the Queen, and ends with the written message 'Happy birthday mother----er'.
Police have been chasing the offenders – and the head – ever since as it has popped up around the city, on barbecues, down toilets and even in food delivery bags, in moments publicised online by anti-monarchy protesters.
Its most recent appearance came earlier this month, when Kneecap, a hip-hop trio from west Belfast whose music has republican themes, paraded the King's head with its imperial crown during their March 14 gig at Melbourne club 170 Russell.
'Some madman dropped by with a huge King George's head so he could hear a few tunes for our last Melbourne show! He was put on stage for a few tunes and then whisked away,' the band posted on Instagram.
The Telegraph understands that the group had the head at their soundcheck prior to the gig and it left the venue with them, suggesting that this was a fully co-ordinated stunt. But it's also telling that the trio, who understand how anarchic art can boost political protest, appeared to have joined forces with the statue bandits. The latter have kept their cause in the headlines through similarly creative means, after all.
After spending months seemingly stashed away, King George V's head first resurfaced at the beginning of this year in an Instagram post that riffed on a very Australian activity. Instead of shrimp on the barbie, we had a king: a video captured the bust engulfed in flames, accompanied by an audio clip of Jamie Oliver enthusing about getting colour and caramelisation via direct heat.
The clip was posted simultaneously by three activist organisations – Whistleblowers, Activists and Communities Alliance (WACA), Disrupt Wars, and hip-hop group Combat Wombat – on Australia Day (Jan 26). It was accompanied by a caption that read: 'Cooking with king. Hot tips for roasting #invasionday #notourking #cooking #cookingwithlove.'
Several other brazen videos were posted online in late January. There was a two-part series entitled 'Toilet King' which saw the bust shoved down a loo. The first featured a voiceover imitating an irate George V, whose imagined voice boomed 'This is treason. I'll see you hanged', followed by the sound of a toilet flushing and the monarch gurgling. The second video declared 'Some turds don't flush' and co-starred one of the activists, their identity concealed by oversized pink glasses, a hospital mask, and a bright green shower cap, as they scoured the head with a scrubbing brush.
Other clips include a comic skit between an imagined George V and Queen Victoria, in which the King complains to her that he won't regain his head unless the Crown gives Indigenous Australians back their land.
Perhaps most gallingly for police, the thieves even returned to the scene of the crime. Another video, which features the jaunty Cliff Richard song Summer Holiday, sees the head being packed into a Deliveroo bag, while in a Monty Python-esque voiceover George grumbles: 'Help me out of here'. The bag is taken to Kings Domain, just yards from the desecrated statue. The video ends with clips of the Aboriginal protest group Camp Sovereignty lighting a ceremonial fire, adding a sober message to the stunt.
Despite the publicity, however, authorities have yet to catch up to the pranksters. 'Melbourne Crime Investigation Unit detectives continue to investigate damage to a statue in Kings Domain last year,' a spokesman for Victoria Police says. 'Investigators are also aware that the head from what appears to be a statue appeared at a concert in Melbourne on March 14. Detectives will investigate whether there is any link between the two incidents. No arrests have been made, and the investigation remains ongoing.'
Meanwhile, republican groups are embracing the opportunity to amplify their message. 'The removal of King George's head is emblematic of a growing imperative to decapitate the monarchy and return the continent known as Australia to its original custodians,' says a spokesman for Disrupt Wars. 'The toppling and beheading of colonial statues is both fun and deadly serious. Ever greater numbers in this colony demand an end to the monarchy […] the return of all stolen lands, reparations for the harm and probably trials for genocide for the Crown.'
A spokesman for WACA expresses similar sentiments – albeit in more colourful language. 'The beheading of the King's statue was an act of anti-colonial resistance and solidarity. Sovereignty in this country was never ceded. The only good king is a dead king. F--- the monarchy, f--- colonial statues and f--- Rupert Murdoch. The colony will fall.'
But the vandalism is a major headache for local authorities. The 12ft, 2½-ton bronze likeness of King George, which sits atop a grand 55ft granite and sandstone column, has been a familiar landmark in the city since it was unveiled in July 1952. Created by artist William Leslie Bowles, it commemorates the monarch who ruled the British empire from May 1910 until his death in 1936. As a prince, he first visited Australia in 1880 and returned in 1901 to open the country's first Commonwealth Parliament. Melburnians regularly pass the statue on their commutes, as they head to concerts at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl, or jog around the city's botanical gardens.
A spokesman for the City of Melbourne Council says: 'At the moment, the statue cannot be repaired – we have to locate the missing head, which is under investigation. The original artist passed away many years ago – so it is problematic.' He adds that the last statue they had to repair, one of Captain Cook in Fitzroy Gardens, which was similarly damaged in February 2024, required nearly 12 months of repair, at a cost to the public purse of 13,000 Australian dollars (£6,325).
Melbourne's lord mayor, Nicholas Reece, says: 'Defacing or damaging city assets in Melbourne will not be tolerated. We are working with Victoria Police and taking proactive steps to stop damage to our statues in its tracks.' Such measures include installing CCTV cameras around major monuments and increasing security patrols.
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'While there are a range of views on statues and memorials, each time a monument is damaged, it's ultimately the ratepayer footing the bill and that is unacceptable,' adds Reece. 'I am open to a debate about the future of statues and memorials in Melbourne, but I will never tolerate or reward vandalism.'
Despite the fightback, anti-colonial statue attacks are still on the rise. Cook, the captain of the first Western ship to reach the east coast of Australia, is the most frequent target, but others – including a Queen Victoria statue that was defaced in January 2024 - have also been vandalised.
It follows a wider trend that has seen historical monuments become a lightning rod in Britain, too, from the Rhodes Must Fall debate in Oxford to Black Lives Matter protestors hurling a statue of 17th-century slave trader Edward Colston into Bristol harbour in 2023.
And while Melbourne's authorities are pushing back, others are waving a flag of surrender in the so-called 'statue wars'. In 2022, vandals toppled a statue of former premier William Crowther in Hobart, the capital of Tasmania. Crowther, a surgeon, reportedly mutilated the bodies of Aboriginal people. The local council had actually agreed to remove the monument, but they didn't get the chance to do so before it was ripped down by activists.
Hobart's Lord Mayor, Anna Reynolds, says: 'The vandals got the satisfaction of gazumping what had been a much more official – and, some might say, credible – democratic process.' She adds that the perpetrators seemed 'quite specialised on the removal of statues' and knew 'how to cover their tracks'.
As the trend continues, royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams warns of thuggish, copycat vandalism, and protest which takes historical figures out of context. 'Just look at the absurd plans to 'decolonise' Shakespeare's birthplace. It's positively terrifying,' he says.
Fitzwilliams points out that, by its very nature, we can never fully protect public art. 'But it would be a real shame if we had to lock everything away,' he adds. 'And where does it [this type of protest] end: will people attack monuments in graveyards?'
Coming back to Melbourne's own missing monarch, Fitzwilliams thinks the British royal family is doing the right thing in not commenting on the desecration of George V. 'The protestors would love that. There is a purpose to being silent,' he says.
But the activists who decapitated the King are unlikely to keep quiet – not when they still have such a potent prop, and continue to lead the police on a merry dance. As a spokesman for Disrupt Wars put it when they released their first video: 'We will BBQ a monarch every year on January 26 until Australia Day is abolished.' The statue wars are just beginning.