| Birth: | Dec. 14, 1895
Welling
Greater London, England | | Death: | Feb. 6, 1952
Welling
Greater London, England | 
British Monarch. Born Albert Frederick Arthur George at Sandringham Castle in Norfolk and called Albert or Bertie for most of his life, he was the second son of King George V and Queen Mary, the former Princess Mary of Teck. As second son, his education was not to prepare him for rule, but for the military. He served in the Royal Navy from 1913 to 1917, seeing action at the Battle of Jutland, and the Royal Naval Air Service and subsequently the Royal Air Force from 1917-1919. After a year at Trinity College, Cambridge University, he was created Duke of York, the traditional title for second sons, on June 3, 1920. The Duke settled in to what was supposed to be a fairly mundane and uneventful life of service to the country – for example, from 1921 to 1939 he sponsored an annual series of boys' camps which brought together sons of privilege with sons of the working class. In 1923 he married Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, the youngest daughter of the Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne. The couple had two daughters: Princess Elizabeth (born 1926, the current Queen Elizabeth II) and Princess Margaret (1930-2002, later Countess of Snowdon). A quiet family life was very much to his liking as he was by nature rather shy, a situation aggravated by a pronounced stammer. However, when his elder brother David, who inherited the throne as Edward VIII in 1936, decided to abdicate, Albert shouldered the unwelcome responsibility of the monarchy and was crowned King George VI in 1937. (Thanks to the intervention of an Australian speech therapist, he overcame the stammer.) Before the war, his dignity and image of very much the family man helped to restore the popular opinion of the monarchy, which had been at its lowest ebb since his great-grandmother Victoria had inherited the throne a hundred years before. When World War II broke out in 1939 the King initially supported Neville Chamberlain's policy of appeasement – as monarch, he couldn't do much else but support the government – but when Churchill became Prime Minister the King's support and commitment to Churchill's policies was total and absolute. During the War King George visited most of the battle fronts where British and Empire troops were fighting, including Normandy just 10 days after the invasion. His quiet dignity and Churchill's famous pugnacity provided the perfect image of British leadership. After the war, the King oversaw the initial phases of changeover from Empire to Commonwealth when India and Pakistan became independent in 1947. The strain of World War II and the transition into Cold War as well as Britain's post-war economic woes proved a strain on his health. He died where he was born, at Sandringham, after a lengthy battle with lung cancer. (bio by: Paul F. Wilson)
Search Amazon for King George VI | | | Burial:
St George's Chapel
Windsor
Berkshire, England
Plot: King George VI Memorial Chapel |
Maintained by: Find A Grave
Record added: Jan 01, 2001
Find A Grave Memorial# 1446 |
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