George V (George Frederick Alexander Charles Ernest Augustus; 27 May 1819 – 12 June 1878) was the last king of Hanover and a member of the German branch of the House of Hanover. In the peerage of Great Britain, he was Duke of Cumberland.

George V was a first cousin of Queen Victoria, and inherited the Hanoverian realm, which could not pass to her in 1837, because of Salic law, via his father, who became its king instead. He was the last sovereign ruler of the kingdom of Hanover, losing the territory by annexation to Prussia in 1866, during the Austro-Prussian War, thereby leading to the birth of the modern nation state of Germany.

His Royal Highness Prince George of Cumberland was born in Berlin, the only son of Prince Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, himself fifth son of George III, and his wife, Princess Frederica, Duchess of Cumberland. He spent his childhood in Berlin and in Britain, losing the sight of one eye during a childhood illness, and the other in an accident in 1833. His uncle, William IV, created him a Knight of the Garter on 15 August 1835.

Upon the death of William IV and the ascension of Queen Victoria to the British throne, the 123-year personal union of the British and Hanoverian thrones ended due to the operation of Salic Law in the German states. The Duke of Cumberland succeeded to the Hanoverian throne as Ernst August I, and Prince George became the Crown Prince of Hanover. As a legitimate male-line descendant of George III, he remained a member of the British Royal Family, and second in line to the British throne, until the birth of Queen Victoria's first child, Victoria, Princess Royal, in 1840. Being totally blind, there were doubts as to whether the Crown Prince was qualified to succeed to the government of Hanover; but his father decided that he should do so.

George married, on 18 February 1843, at Hanover, Her Highness Princess Marie of Saxe-Altenburg, the eldest daughter of Joseph, Duke of Saxe-Altenburg, by his wife, Duchess Amelia of Württemburg.

The Crown Prince succeeded his father as the King of Hanover and Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, as well as Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale, in the Peerage of Great Britain, and Earl of Armagh, in the Peerage of Ireland, on 18 November 1851, assuming the style George V.

From his father and from his maternal uncle, Prince Charles Frederick of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, one of the most influential men at the Prussian court, George had learned to take a very high and autocratic view of royal authority. During his 15-year reign, he engaged in frequent disputes with the Hanoverian parliament. Having supported Austria in the Diet of the German Confederation in June 1866, he refused, contrary to the wishes of his parliament, to assent to the Prussian demand that Hanover should observe an unarmed neutrality during the Austro-Prussian War. As a result, the Prussian army occupied Hanover and the Hanoverian army surrendered on 29 June 1866, the king and royal family having fled to Austria. The Prussian government formally annexed Hanover on 20 September, but the deposed king never renounced his rights to the throne nor acknowledged Prussia's actions. From exile in Gmunden, Austria, he appealed in vain for the European great powers to intervene on behalf of Hanover.

King George died in Paris in June 1878. He was buried in St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle.

The king supported industrial development – in 1856 the "Georgs-Marien-Bergwerks- und Hüttenverein" was founded which was named after him and his wife. The company erected an iron and steel works which gave the city Georgsmarienhütte its name.

*27 May 1819 – 20 June 1837: His Royal Highness Prince George of Cumberland *20 June 1837 – 18 November 1851: His Royal Highness The Crown Prince of Hanover *18 November 1851 – 12 June 1878: His Majesty The King of Hanover, Duke of Cumberland

*Die Welfen – George V (with portrait)

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