George VI, Queen Elizabeth and Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret in their coronation robes.

Meredith Frampton's portrait of George VI as Duke of York

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George VI (1936-1952)

George VI (Albert Frederick Arthur George Windsor) (14 December 1895 - 6 February 1952) became the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and Emperor of India, upon the unexpected abdication of his brother, Edward VIII. more...

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He reigned from 11 December 1936 until his death. As well as being King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the British dominions beyond the seas, George VI was the last Emperor of India (until 1947) and the last King of Ireland (until 1949, succeeding to that title by the enactment of the External Relations Act, 1936, until its repeal in the Republic of Ireland Act, 1948 when Ireland also left the Commonwealth). He was the third British monarch to use the name Windsor, the name his father had given to his branch of the German royal House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. He was king during the Second World War.

Birth and family

George VI was born on 14 December 1895 at York Cottage, on the Sandringham Estate, Norfolk. His father was Prince George, Duke of York (later King George V), the second but eldest surviving son of The Prince (later Edward VII) and Princess of Wales (Alexandra of Denmark). 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. The day was the anniversary of the death of his great grandfather, Prince Albert, the Prince Consort. Uncertain of how Albert's widow Queen Victoria would take this news, the Prince of Wales wrote to his son, Prince George, Duke of York, that the Queen had been "rather distressed". Two days later, he wrote again: "I really think it would gratify her if you yourself proposed the name Albert to her". 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." 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".

He was baptised at St Mary Magdalene's Church near Sandringham three months later. His godparents were Queen Victoria, Empress Frederick, Grand Duke Friedrich Wilhelm of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, his wife the Grand Duchess (formerly Princess Augusta of Cambridge), the Crown Prince of Denmark, the Duke of Connaught, and Prince Adolphus of Teck, and the Duchess of Fife.

As the second son of his parents, he was thus fourth in line for the throne at birth. The Duchess of York had given birth to her eldest son Edward, who was third in line to the throne on 23 June 1894. Although George VI was the son and grandson of kings of the United Kingdom, his accession was the result of a play of circumstances. His father, the future George V, was the younger of the two sons of the then Prince of Wales, and was not expected ever to become king. However, his elder brother, Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence, who had been expected to eventually ascend the throne, died unexpectedly at a young age on 14 January 1892 of pneumonia which had developed from influenza. It was this that resulted in the Duke of York later becoming King George V. George VI himself was the second son of his parents; and his own elder brother became king as Edward VIII, upon the death of their father George V. However, Edward VIII chose to abdicate his crown to marry a divorcée; it was by reason of this unforeseeable abdication, unique in British history, that George VI came to the throne.