| George VI |
King of Great Britain, Ireland and the British
dominions beyond the Seas; Emperor of India (more...) |
 |
| Formal portrait, circa 1940–46 |
| Reign |
11 December 1936 – 6
February 1952
India: 1936–47
Ireland: 1936–49 |
| Coronation |
12 May 1937 |
| Predecessor |
Edward VIII |
| Successor |
Elizabeth II |
| Consort |
Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon |
| Issue |
Elizabeth II
Margaret, Countess of Snowdon |
| Full name |
| Albert Frederick Arthur George |
|
Titles |
HM The King
HRH The Duke of York
HRH The Prince Albert
HRH Prince Albert of Wales
HRH Prince Albert of Cornwall
HRH Prince Albert of York
HH Prince Albert of York |
| Royal house |
House of Windsor |
| Royal anthem |
God Save the King |
| Father |
George V |
| Mother |
Mary of Teck |
| Born |
14 December 1895(1895--)
Sandringham House, Norfolk, England |
| Baptised |
17 February 1896
St. Mary Magdalene's Church, Sandringham, England |
| Died |
6 February 1952 (aged 56)
Sandringham House, Norfolk, England |
| Burial |
15 February 1952
St George's Chapel, Windsor, England |
| Occupation |
Military |
George VI (Albert Frederick Arthur George; 14 December 1895 – 6 February 1952) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions from 11 December 1936 until his
death. He was the last Emperor of India (until 1947) and the last King of Ireland (until 1949).
As the second son of King George V, he was not expected to inherit the
throne and spent his early life in the shadow of his elder brother, Edward. He served in the Royal Navy during
World War I, and after the war took on the usual round of public engagements. He married
Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon in 1923, and they had two daughters, Elizabeth (who succeeded him as Queen Elizabeth II) and Margaret.
At the death of their father in 1936, his brother ascended the throne as Edward VIII. However, less than a year later Edward
expressed his desire to marry the twice-divorced American socialite Wallis Simpson. For political and religious
reasons, the British Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin, informed Edward that he could not marry Mrs. Simpson and remain king. So,
Edward abdicated to marry. By reason of this abdication, unique in 2000
years of British history, George VI ascended the throne as the third monarch of the House of
Windsor.
Within 24 hours of his accession the Irish parliament (the Oireachtas) passed the External
Relations Act, which essentially removed the power of the monarch in Ireland. Further
events greatly altered the position of the monarchy during his reign: three years after his accession, his realms, except
Ireland, were at war with Nazi Germany. In the next
two years, war with Italy and the Empire
of Japan followed. A major consequence of World War II was the decline of the British Empire, with the United States and the Soviet Union rising as pre-eminent
world powers. With the independence of
India and Pakistan in 1947, and the foundation of the Republic of Ireland in 1949, King George's reign saw the acceleration of
the break-up of the British Empire and its transition into the Commonwealth of
Nations.
Birth and family
The future George VI was given the first name of Albert and was known formally as Prince Albert (or "Bertie" to his
family).[1] He was born at York Cottage, on the
Sandringham Estate, Norfolk, England, during the reign of his great-grandmother Queen Victoria. His father was Prince George, Duke of York (later King George V), the second and
eldest-surviving son of the Prince (later Edward VII) and Princess of
Wales (later Queen Alexandra). His mother was the Duchess of York (later
Queen Mary), the eldest daughter of Prince Francis,
Duke of Teck and Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge.
Albert's birthday (14 December 1895) was the anniversary of
the death of his great-grandfather, Prince Albert, the Prince Consort. Uncertain
of how the Prince Consort's widow Queen Victoria would take the news of the birth, the Prince of Wales wrote to his son, Prince George, Duke of York, that the Queen had been
"rather distressed".[2] Two days later, he
wrote again: "I really think it would gratify her if you yourself proposed the name Albert to her".[2] This mollified the baby's great-grandmother, who
wrote to the baby's mother, the Duchess of York: "I am all impatience to see the new one, born on such a sad day but
rather more dear to me, especially as he will be called by that dear name which is a byword for all that is great and
good".[2] He was baptised Albert Frederick Arthur George at St Mary Magdalene's Church near Sandringham three months later.[3] However, his maternal grandmother Princess Mary
Adelaide of Cambridge did not like the first name the baby had been given, and she wrote prophetically that she hoped the
last name "may supplant the less favoured one".[4] The
second son, Albert was fourth in line for the throne at birth. The third in line to the throne, his older brother
Edward, was born more than a year earlier, on 23 June 1894.
Early life
Four kings: King Edward VII (far right), his son George, Prince of Wales (far left), and grandsons Princes Albert (foreground)
and Edward (rear), c. 1908
As a great-grandson of Queen Victoria,
Albert was styled His Highness Prince Albert of York from birth. In 1898, Queen Victoria issued Letters Patent that granted the children of the eldest son of the Prince of Wales the style
Royal Highness. So, at age two, Albert became His Royal Highness Prince Albert of
York.
He often suffered from ill health and was described as "easily frightened and somewhat prone to tears".[5] His parents, the Duke and Duchess of York, were generally removed from
their children's day-to-day upbringing, as was the norm in aristocratic families of that era. Albert developed a severe
stammer that lasted for many years, as well as chronic stomach problems. He suffered from
knock knees, and to correct this he was forced to wear splints, which were extremely
painful. He was also forced to write with his right hand although he was naturally left-handed.[6]
Queen Victoria died on 22 January 1901, and the Prince of
Wales succeeded her as King Edward VII. The Duke of York became the new Prince of Wales. Prince Edward was then second in line
for the throne, and Prince Albert was third.
Military career and education
From 1909, Albert attended the Royal Naval College, Osborne as a naval cadet. He came bottom of the class in the final examination, but despite this he progressed to the
Royal Naval College, Dartmouth in 1911.[7] When Edward VII died on 6 May 1910, Albert's father became King George V. Prince Edward was created Prince of Wales on 2
June 1910, and Albert was now second in line to the throne.
Albert was commissioned as a midshipman on 15
September 1913 and one year later began service in World War
I. His fellow officers gave their royal peer the ordinary nickname "Mr. Johnson".[8] He saw action aboard HMS
Collingwood in the Battle of Jutland (31
May – 1 June 1916), which ended as a tactical victory for
Germany but a strategic victory for the United Kingdom. Albert did not see further action in the War largely because
of ill health caused by a duodenal ulcer.[9] In February 1918 Prince Albert was appointed Officer in Charge of Boys at the Royal Naval Air Service's training establishment at Cranwell.[10] With
the establishment of the Royal Air Force later that year and the transfer of Cranwell
from Navy to Air Force control, Albert transferred from the Royal Navy to the Royal Air Force.[11] He was later appointed Officer Commanding Number 4 Squadron of the Boys' Wing at
Cranwell and he remained there until August 1918.[10]
After the war, Prince Albert studied history, economics and civics for a year at Trinity College, Cambridge, from October 1919.[12] On 3 June 1920, Prince Albert was
created Duke of York, Earl of Inverness and
Baron Killarney.[13] He then began to take on royal duties, representing his father, the King, touring coal mines,
factories, and railyards, acquiring the nickname of the "Industrial Prince".[14]
Marriage
In a time when royals were expected to marry fellow royals, it was unusual that Albert had a great deal of freedom in choosing
a prospective wife. In 1920 he met Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, the youngest daughter
of Claude Bowes-Lyon, 14th Earl of Strathmore and
Kinghorne and Cecilia
Cavendish-Bentinck. He became determined to marry her.[15]
Although Lady Elizabeth was a descendant of King Robert I of Scotland and King
Henry VII of England, she was, according to British law, a commoner. She rejected his proposal twice and hesitated for nearly two years, reportedly because she was
reluctant to make the sacrifices necessary to become a member of the royal family.[16] In the words of Lady Elizabeth's mother, Albert would be "made or marred" by his choice of wife,
and after a protracted courtship Elizabeth agreed to marry him.[17]
They were married on 26 April 1923 in Westminster Abbey. The newly formed British
Broadcasting Company wished to record and broadcast the event on radio, but the
Chapter vetoed the idea (although the Dean, Herbert Edward Ryle, was in favour).[18] Lady Elizabeth was styled Her Royal Highness The Duchess of York after their marriage. Albert's
marriage to a British commoner was considered a modernising gesture.[19]
The Duke and Duchess of York had two children, Elizabeth (called
"Lilibet" by the family), born 21 April 1926, who succeeded her
father as Elizabeth II, and Margaret, born 21 August 1930. The Duke and Duchess and their two daughters lived a relatively
sheltered life at their London residence, 145 Piccadilly. One of the few stirs arose when the Canadian Prime
Minister, R. B. Bennett, considered the Duke for Governor General of Canada in 1931 — a proposal that the King rejected on the advice of his
ministers.[20]
The Duchess helped him overcome his dread (due to stammering) of public speaking. On the way to presiding over the opening of
Australia's Federal Parliament at Canberra, he was introduced by her to Lionel Logue, an Australian-born expert on speech. The
Duke and Logue went over the speech multiple times, and the Duchess rehearsed with him patiently on the sea voyage to Australia.
The address at Canberra went successfully, and he was able to speak thereafter with only a slight hesitation.[21]
Reluctant king
On 20 January 1936, King George V died and Prince Edward
ascended the throne as Edward VIII. As Edward had no children, Albert was the heir
presumptive to the throne until his unmarried brother had any legitimate children, or died. George V had had severe
reservations about Edward, saying, "I pray God that my eldest son will never marry and that nothing will come between Bertie and
Lilibet and the throne."[22] Less than a year later, on
11 December 1936, Edward VIII abdicated the throne in order to marry his love, the twice-divorced Wallis Warfield Simpson. Edward had been advised by Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin that he could not remain King and marry a divorced woman with two living ex-husbands.
Edward chose abdication in preference to abandoning his marriage plans. Thus Prince Albert, Duke of York, was now king, a
position he was reluctant to accept. The day before the abdication, he went to London to see his mother, Queen Mary. He wrote in his diary, "When I told her what had happened, I broke down and sobbed like a
child."[23]
Courtier and journalist Dermot Morroh alleged that there was brief speculation as to the desirability of bypassing Albert and
his brother, Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, in favour of the younger
brother Prince George, Duke of Kent. This seems to have been suggested on
the grounds that Prince George was at that time the only brother with a son.[24]
Reign
Albert assumed the style and title King George VI to emphasise continuity with his father and restore confidence in the
monarchy.[25] The beginning of George VI's reign was
taken up by questions surrounding his predecessor and brother, whose titles, style and position were uncertain. He had been
introduced as "His Royal Highness Prince Edward" for the Abdication broadcast,[26] but George VI felt that by abdicating and renouncing the succession Edward had lost the right to
bear Royal titles, including "Royal Highness".[27] In
settling the issue, George's first act as King was to confer upon his brother the title HRH The Duke of Windsor. But the Letters Patent creating the dukedom
prevented any wife and children from bearing royal styles. George VI was also forced to buy the royal houses of Balmoral Castle and Sandringham House from Prince Edward, as
these were private properties and did not pass to George VI on his accession.[28] Three days after his accession, on his forty-first birthday, he invested his wife, the new Queen,
with the Order of the Garter.[29]
George VI's coronation took place on 12
May 1937, the previously intended date of Edward's coronation. In a break with tradition,
Queen Mary attended the coronation as a show of support for her son.[30] There was no Durbar held in Delhi for George VI, as had occurred for his father, as the cost would have been a burden to the government of India.[31] Rising
Indian nationalism made the welcome that the royal couple would have
received likely to be muted at best,[32] and a prolonged
absence from Britain would have been undesirable in the tense period before World War II.
Two overseas tours were undertaken, to France and North America, both of which promised greater
strategic advantages in the event of war.[33]
The growing likelihood of war in Europe dominated the early reign of George VI. The King was
constitutionally bound to support Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's
appeasement stance towards Adolf Hitler.
However, when the King and Queen greeted Chamberlain on his return from negotiating the Munich
Agreement in 1938, they invited him to appear on the balcony of Buckingham
Palace with them. This public association of the monarchy with a politician was exceptional, as balcony appearances were
traditionally restricted to the royal family.[6]
In 1939, the King and Queen undertook an extensive tour of Canada, during which they made a
brief visit to the United States. From Ottawa, the royal
couple were accompanied throughout the trip by the Prime Minister of Canada,
and not a British minister, meaning they were present in both Canada and
the US as King and Queen of Canada.[34][35] George was the
first reigning Monarch of Canada to visit North America, though he had been to his Canadian realm previously as Prince Albert and
as Duke of York. The Canadian Prime Minister at the time, William Lyon Mackenzie
King, hoped that the King's presence in Canada would allow him to demonstrate in reality the principles of the
Statute of Westminster 1931, which gave full self-government to the
Dominions and recognised each Dominion as having a separate crown. Thus, at his Canadian
residence, Rideau Hall, George VI personally accepted and approved the Letter of Credence of the newly appointed U.S. Ambassador to Canada, Daniel Calhoun Roper. The official Royal Tour historian, Gustave
Lanctot, stated: "When Their Majesties walked into their Canadian residence, the Statute of Westminster had assumed full
reality: the King of Canada had come home."[35]
The entire trip was a measure intended to soften the strong isolationist tendencies
among the North American public vis-à-vis the developing tensions in Europe. Although the aim of the tour was mainly political,
to shore up Atlantic support for Britain in any upcoming war, the King and Queen were enthusiastically received by the Canadian
public.[36] The fear that George would be unfavourably
compared to his predecessor, Edward VIII, was dispelled.[37] They were also warmly received by the American people, visiting the 1939 New York World's Fair and staying with President Franklin D. Roosevelt at the
White House and at his private estate at Hyde
Park, New York.[38]
When war broke out in 1939, George VI and his wife resolved to stay in London and not flee to Canada, as had been suggested.
The King and Queen officially stayed in Buckingham Palace throughout the war, although they usually spent nights at
Windsor Castle to avoid bombing raids. George VI and
Queen Elizabeth narrowly avoided death when two German bombs exploded in a courtyard at Buckingham Palace whilst they were
there.[39]
In 1940 Neville Chamberlain was replaced as Prime Minister by Winston Churchill.
Throughout the war, the King and Queen provided morale-boosting visits throughout the UK, visiting bomb sites and munitions
factories. The Royal Family adhered to rationing restrictions in the
country at the time; indeed, U.S. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt during her stay at Buckingham Palace during the war reported expressly on the
rationed food served in the Palace and the limited bathwater that was permitted.[40]
Author Will Swift has suggested that a strong bond of friendship was forged between the King and Queen and President and First
Lady during the 1939 Royal Tour, which had major significance in the relations between the United States and Great Britain
through the war years.[41] However, there have never been
credible suggestions that the King took any strategic role in the war; his frequent letters to the President were mostly
unanswered, and it was Roosevelt's relationship with Churchill that was critical. Eleanor Roosevelt took a wry view of the
utility of kings and queens and the substance of George and Elizabeth ("a little self-consciously regal," was her verdict on
Elizabeth).[42]
In 1945, in an echo of Chamberlain's appearance, the King invited Churchill to appear with him on the balcony of Buckingham
Palace for the VE Day celebrations.
Empire to Commonwealth
George VI's reign saw the acceleration of the dissolution of the British Empire, which
had begun with the Balfour Declaration at the Imperial Conference of 1926, when the Commonwealth
came into being and the Dominions were acknowledged to have evolved into sovereign states
over a period of years previous — the declaration was formalised in the Statute
of Westminster 1931 (Imp.).[43]
Britain's brief League of Nations Mandate over Iraq ended in 1932 with Iraqi independence without membership in the as-yet
ill-defined Commonwealth even being considered. This process gathered pace after World War II. Transjordan became independent as the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in 1946,
Burma in January 1948, and Palestine
(although divided between Israel and the Arab states) that May; all three opted out of the
Commonwealth. After declaring itself a Republic, southern Ireland left the
Commonwealth the following year. India became the two independent dominions of India and
Pakistan. George relinquished the title of Emperor of
India, and became King of India and King of Pakistan instead. In 1950 India became a republic within the Commonwealth, and
George VI ceased to be King of India. India recognised George's new title as Head of
the Commonwealth.[44]
Illness and death
The stress of the war had taken its toll on the King's health,[45] exacerbated by his heavy smoking and subsequent
development of lung cancer among other ailments including arteriosclerosis. Increasingly his daughter Princess Elizabeth, the heir presumptive to the throne,
would take on more of the royal duties as her father's health deteriorated. In September 1951, George VI underwent a
pneumonectomy where his left lung was removed following the discovery of a malignant
tumor.[46]
In January 1952, despite advice from those close to him, he went to the airport to see off Princess Elizabeth, who was going
on a tour of Australia via Kenya. Before takeoff he reportedly
said to Bobo Macdonald, Elizabeth's nanny in childhood who was accompanying her on the trip, "Take care of Lilibet for me", and
she promised she would.[47] It was the last time he was
to see her.
On 6 February 1952, George VI died from a heart attack in his sleep at Sandringham House in Norfolk, at the age of 56.[45] After lying in
state at Westminster Hall, his funeral took place on 15 February, and he was interred
in St George's Chapel at Windsor
Castle.[48] In 2002, the remains of his wife Queen
Elizabeth and the ashes of his daughter, Princess Margaret, were
interred in the King George VI Memorial Chapel in St George's Chapel alongside him.
Legacy
There are a number of geographical features, roads, and institutions named after George VI. These include King George Hospital in London; the King George VI
Highway, including the King George Station, in the Metro Vancouver district of British Columbia; George VI Sound in Antarctica; and the King George VI Chase, a horse race in the United Kingdom.
Titles, styles and honours
Titles
United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland
- 1895–1898: His Highness Prince Albert of York
- 1898–1901: His Royal Highness Prince Albert of York
- 1901: His Royal Highness Prince Albert of Cornwall and York
- 1901–1910: His Royal Highness Prince Albert of Wales
- 1910–1920: His Royal Highness The Prince Albert
- 1920–1936: His Royal Highness The Duke of York
- in Scotland: May 1929: His Grace The Lord High Commissioner
- 1936–1952: His Majesty The King
and, occasionally, outside of the United Kingdom, and with regard to India (until the King ceased to use the imperial title
upon India's independence)
- 1936–1947: His Imperial Majesty The King–Emperor
Isle of Man:
Islands of Guernsey & Jersey:
Styles
Monarchical Styles of
King George VI of the United Kingdom |
 |
| Reference style |
His Majesty |
| Spoken style |
Your Majesty |
| Alternative style |
Sir |
From his brother's ascension to the throne, on 20 January 1936, until his own accession, on 11 December 1936, Prince Albert held the style His Royal Highness, The Prince Albert, Duke of York, Earl of Inverness and
Baron Killarney.
His full style as king was, from 11 December 1936,
George the Sixth, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, Ireland and the British Dominions beyond the Seas King, Defender of
the Faith, Emperor of India. Following 1948 the style Emperor of India was dropped, and the King was styled George the
Sixth, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, Ireland and the British Dominions beyond the Seas King, Defender of the
Faith.
Honours
-
Ancestors
