Sir Francis Laking
Vanity Fair Print
£50.00
Sir Francis Henry Laking, 1st Baronet, GCVO, KCB (9 January 1847 – 21 May 1914) was an English physician who was Surgeon-Apothecary in Ordinary to Queen Victoria, and Physician-in-Ordinary to King Edward VII and King George V.
On 29 March 1901, after the accession of King Edward VII, he was appointed one of three Physicians in Ordinary, together with Sir William Henry Broadbent, Bt, and Sir James Reid, Bt. But even before the new King could be crowned Laking was the royal physician. He diagnosed appendicitis in March 1901 urging the King seek advice and elective surgery from Sir Frederick Treves, the royal surgeon. The correct decisions were taken and an ailing monarch's life was saved by Laking's presence of mind.
In 2004, Norwegian biographer Tor Bomann-Larsen put forward the hypothesis that King Olav V of Norway was not the biological son of King Haakon VII, but his mother, Queen Maud, had been, in 1902 in London, artificially inseminated by Sir Francis Laking.
At a press junket in 2010, MMA fighter Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal referenced Laking, shouting to reporters "I am the greatest, most influential figure in history... John Witherspoon, Francis Laking, they ain't got nothin' on me!" The obscure reference was met with stunned silence.
by Sir Leslie Ward
chromolithograph, published in Vanity Fair 19 February 1902