George VI (Albert Frederick Arthur George) was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until his death. He was also the last Emperor of India (until 22 June 1948), the last King of Ireland (until 18 April 1949), and the first Head of the Commonwealth.
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 Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon in 1923, and they had two daughters, Elizabeth (who succeeded him as Queen Elizabeth II) and Margaret.
George's elder brother ascended the throne as Edward VIII on the death of their father in 1936. However, less than a year later Edward revealed his desire to marry the American socialite Wallis Simpson. British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin advised Edward that, for political and religious reasons, he would not be able to remain king if he married Simpson, who was twice divorced. So Edward abdicated in order to marry, and 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 the Irish Free State. Further events greatly altered the position of the monarchy during his reign: three years after his accession, his realms, except the Irish Free State, were at war with Germany. In the next two years, war with Italy and the Empire of Japan followed. Though the UK and its allies were ultimately victorious, the United States and the Soviet Union rose as pre-eminent world powers, and the British Empire declined. With the independence of India and Pakistan in 1947, and the foundation of the Republic of Ireland in 1949, George's reign saw the acceleration of the break-up of the Empire and its transition into the Commonwealth of Nations.
The stress of the war had taken its toll on the King's health, exacerbated by his heavy smoking and subsequent development of lung cancer among other ailments including arteriosclerosis. Increasingly his daughter Princess Elizabeth, the heiress presumptive, took on more royal duties as her father's health deteriorated. A planned tour of Australia and New Zealand was postponed after the King suffered an arterial blockage in his right leg, which was operated on in March 1949.The delayed tour was re-organised with Princess Elizabeth and her husband, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, taking the place of the King and Queen. The King was well enough to open the Festival of Britain in May 1951, but on 23 September 1951, he underwent a pneumonectomy where his left lung was removed following the discovery of a malignant tumour. At the State Opening of Parliament in November, the King's Speech from the throne was read for him by the Lord Chancellor Lord Simonds. His 1951 Christmas broadcast was recorded in sections, and then edited together.
On 31 January 1952, despite advice from those close to him, he went to the airport to see off Princess Elizabeth, who was going on her tour of Australia via Kenya. On 6 February, George VI died from a coronary thrombosis in his sleep at Sandringham House in Norfolk, at the age of 56. His daughter Elizabeth flew back to the UK from Kenya, as Queen Elizabeth II.
His funeral took place at St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, on 15 February, after a lying in state at Westminster Hall. He was interred in the Royal Vault until transferred to the King George VI Memorial Chapel inside St. George's on 26 March 1969. In 2002, the remains of his widow, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, and the ashes of his daughter Princess Margaret, who both died that year, were interred in the chapel alongside him
George has been portrayed on screen by Andrew Ray in the 1978 Thames Television mini-series Edward and Mrs. Simpson, Lyndon Brook in the 1979 BBC TV drama Churchill and the Generals, Owen Holder in the 1986 TV drama series Lord Mountbatten: The Last Viceroy, James Wilby in the 2002 Carlton Television drama Bertie and Elizabeth, Anthony Andrews in the 2003 BBC TV series Cambridge Spies, Mick Rose in the 2004 TV drama Ike: Countdown to D-Day, Harry Enfield in the 2004 spoof Churchill: The Hollywood Years, Bill Champion in the 2005 film Wallis and Edward, Iain Glen in the 2009 TV drama Into the Storm, and Colin Firth in the 2010 film The King's Speech.
George is a significant character in Michael Dobbs' 2003 novel Winston's War, and Len Deighton's alternate history novel SS-GB, in which he is imprisoned, and killed, during a Nazi occupation of Britain
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King George VI and His Familyby monarchy4life39,802 views
Thank you for the lovely photos..
dayzedukez 1 year ago
@dayzedukez no probs *_*
trueblueaus1488 1 year ago