George Tupou V swapped his pith helmet for a golden crown today when he was officially crowned the King of Tonga in an elaborate ceremony in Nuku’alofa.

The lavish Christian coronation was full of European pomp and ceremony and capped off five days of celebrations in honour of the new king, who heads Polynesia’s last monarchy.

Dressed in silk breeches, a medal-covered jacket and a maroon-coloured cape trimmed with white ermine fur, King George looked at home in his 2.5m golden throne which sat on a raised platform at the Centenary Free Wesleyan Church.

The 60-year-old sovereign was officially crowned the 23rd ruler of the tiny Pacific nation two years after the death of his father, King Taufa’ahau Tuou IV, who reigned for 41 years.

Times Archive, 1918: King George of Tonga

Physically he certainly filled the position, for he was over 6ft in height and he must have weighed not less than 20st

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King George, wearing a three-metre train which was carried by child pages, entered the church to a fanfare of horns, followed by bearers carrying the crown, royal sceptre and dark blue ring bearing the Tongan royal crest.

He swore to maintain the constitution and laws of Tonga before being anointed on his hands and forehead with oil.

Anglican Archibishop of Polynesia Jabez Bryce then put the royal ring on his superbly manicured finger to signify kingly dignity, and George accepted the sceptre and crown.

"Receive the crown of glory and honour," the archbishop said, with the guests replying "God save the king" as a 21-gun salute rang out to mark the occasion.

The ceremony, which included hymns sung by a 370-member choir, was watched by 1,000 guests including Japan's Crown Prince Naruhito, Thai Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn and Britain's Duke and Duchess of Gloucester along with regional political leaders and Tongans wearing traditional woven mats around their waists.

Afterwards the new king, who is often driven around in a London cab, left the church in an open-topped restored Humber limousine which once belonged to his grandmother Queen Salote.

He was greeted by hundreds of people, including flag-waving children and tourists, who lined the road which was laid with ornately painted tapa cloth, made from the bark of the mulberry tree, for the occasion.

The coronation came 18 months after riots gutted his capital killing eight people, when George succeeded his late father. His road to power has not exactly been smooth - a growing number of Tongans have voiced objections to his great personal power, and to the five million Tongan dollars spent on his coronation celebrations in a country where two out of five people live below the poverty line.

King George is known for his eccentricity, something that appears to run in the family. His father Tupo IV was a larger than life character who stood at 6ft 5in , weighed 462pounds (209.5kg), and was named by Guinness World Records as the heaviest monarch in the world. In the 1990s he led his 108,000 people on a diet and exercise regime in an attempt to discourage them from their customary diet of coconut meat and mutton flaps.

King George’s coronation came two days after he was installed in an ancient Tongan ceremony, in which around 70 slaughtered pigs and hundreds of baskets of food were presented in tribute by more than 200 nobles and chiefs.

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