Notes:

George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 ? 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until his death in 1936.

Born during the reign of his grandmother Queen Victoria, George was third in the line of succession behind his father, the Prince of Wales, and his own elder brother, Prince Albert Victor. From 1877 to 1891, George served in the Royal Navy, until the unexpected death of his elder brother in early 1892 put him directly in line for the throne. On the death of his grandmother in 1901, George's father became King-Emperor of the British Empire as Edward VII, and George was created Prince of Wales. He became king-emperor on his father's death in 1910.

George V's reign saw the rise of socialism, communism, fascism, Irish republicanism, and the Indian independence movement, all of which radically changed the political landscape. The Parliament Act 1911 established the supremacy of the elected British House of Commons over the unelected House of Lords. As a result of the First World War (1914?1918), the empires of his first cousins Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany fell, while the British Empire expanded to its greatest effective extent. In 1917, George became the first monarch of the House of Windsor, which he renamed from the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha as a result of anti-German public sentiment. In 1924 he appointed the first Labour ministry and in 1931 the Statute of Westminster recognised the dominions of the Empire as separate, independent states within the Commonwealth of Nations. He had smoking-related health problems throughout much of his later reign and at his death was succeeded by his eldest son, Edward VIII.




https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/1986/george_v

British Monarch. The second son of King Edward VII and Alexandra of Denmark, because he was not first in line to the throne, he did not have the same education and upbringing of his older brother, Prince Albert. He chose the career of a Naval Officer. When his brother, Albert, died in 1892, George became the heir apparent. He became King on the death of his father, King Edward VII in 1910. He was married on July 6, 1893 to Mary (May) of Teck, and together they had five children, four boys and one girl. During one of George and Mary's many visits to the front in WWI, George's horse rolled on top of him, shattering his pelvis. It was an injury that would leave him in pain for the rest of his life. His reign saw many changes throughout England and Ireland. He saw to the establishment of an independent Irish Parliament, and the Government of Ireland Act of 1920 divided Ireland's religious lines. Similar establishments of self-governance were granted to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and India (through the Government of India Act of 1935). He is well known for bringing dignity, diligence, duty, and humbleness to the monarchy, evolving the image of the royals into something quite different from the reign of his grandparents and his father. He died the year after his silver jubilee, at the age of 71, after several bouts of bronchitis.

King married Victoria Mary Augusta Louise Olga Pauline Claudine Agnes von Teck 6 Jul 1893, Saint James's Palace, London, England, United Kingdom. Victoria (daughter of Franz Paul Karl Ludwig Alexander Francis Paul Charles Louis Alexander Von Würtemberg, Duke of Teck and Mary Adelaide Wilhelmina Elizabeth of Cambridge) was born 26 May 186, Kensington, London, England; was christened 27 Jul 1867, Saint James's Palace, London, England; died 24 Mar 1953, Marlborough House, London, England; was buried 31 Mar 1953, St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, Berkshire, England. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

In September 1939, the United Kingdom and the self-governing dominions, with Ireland excepted, declared war on Nazi Germany. George VI and his wife resolved to stay in London despite German bombing raids. They officially stayed in Buckingham Palace throughout the war, though they usually spent nights at Windsor Castle. The first night of the Blitz on London, on 7 September 1940, killed about one thousand civilians, mostly in the East End. On the 13th of September, the King and Queen narrowly avoided death when two German bombs exploded in a courtyard at Buckingham Palace while they were there. In defiance, the Queen declared: "I am glad we have been bombed. It makes me feel we can look the East End in the face." The royal family were portrayed as sharing the same dangers and deprivations as the rest of the country. They were subject to British rationing restrictions, and U.S. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt remarked on the rationed food served and the limited bathwater that was permitted during a stay at the unheated and boarded-up Palace. In August 1942, the King's brother, the Duke of Kent, was killed on active service.

In 1940, Winston Churchill replaced Neville Chamberlain as Prime Minister, though personally George would have preferred to appoint Lord Halifax. After the King's initial dismay over Churchill's appointment of Lord Beaverbrook to the Cabinet, he and Churchill developed "...the closest personal relationship in modern British history between a monarch and a Prime Minister." Every Tuesday, for four and a half years from September 1940, the two men met privately for lunch to discuss the war in secret and with frankness. The King has related much of what the two discussed in his diary, which is the only extant first-hand account of these conversations.

Throughout the war, the King and Queen provided morale-boosting visits throughout the United Kingdom, visiting bomb sites, munitions factories, and troops. The King visited military forces abroad in France in December 1939, North Africa and Malta in June 1943, Normandy in June 1944, southern Italy in July 1944, and the Low Countries in October 1944. Their high public profile and apparently indefatigable determination secured their place as symbols of national resistance. At a social function in 1944, the Chief of the Imperial General Staff, Field Marshal Sir Alan Brooke, revealed that every time he met Field Marshal Sir Bernard Montgomery, he thought Montgomery was after his job. The King replied: "You should worry, when I meet him, I always think he's after mine!"

In 1945, crowds shouted, "We want the King!" in front of Buckingham Palace during the Victory in Europe Day celebrations. In an echo of Chamberlain's appearance, the King invited Churchill to appear with the royal family on the balcony to public acclaim.

In January 1946, George addressed the United Nations at their first assembly, which was held in London, and reaffirmed, "...our faith in the equal rights of men and women and of nations great and small."

Ultimately, George VI's reign saw the acceleration of the dissolution of the British Empire. The Statute of Westminster 1931 had already acknowledged the evolution of the Dominions into separate sovereign states. The process of transformation from an empire to a voluntary association of independent states, known as the Commonwealth, gathered pace after the Second World War. During the ministry of Clement Attlee, British India became the two independent dominions of India and Pakistan in 1947. George relinquished the title of Emperor of India, and became King of India and King of Pakistan instead. In 1950 he ceased to be King of India when it became a republic within the Commonwealth and recognized his new title of Head of the Commonwealth; he remained King of Pakistan until his death. Other countries left the Commonwealth, such as Burma in January 1948, Palestine (divided between Israel and the Arab states) in May 1948 and the Republic of Ireland in 1949.

In 1947, the King and his family toured Southern Africa.The Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa, Jan Smuts, was facing an election and hoped to make political capital out of the visit. George was appalled, however, when instructed by the South African government to shake hands only with whites, and referred to his South African bodyguards as "the Gestapo." Despite the tour, Smuts lost the election the following year, and the new government instituted a strict policy of racial segregation.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/1446/george_vi

British Monarch. He ascended the throne on December 11, 1936, after the abdication of his brother Edward VIII. Generally considered a man of weak character, he showed, during the World War II, to have energy and great charisma. He had a valid help from his wife Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon and Sir Winston Churchill, appointed Prime Minister in May 1940, in addressing the serious problems of the United Kingdom. He was highly respected by his people because they flatly refused to leave England during the bombing of London, and when the German invasion seemed imminent. After the war, despite his health was in decline, he was promoter of economic and social recovery of Great Britain.

George married Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon, The Queen Mother 26 Apr 1923, Westminster Abbey, Westminster, London, England, United Kingdom. Elizabeth was born 4 Aug 1900, St Paul's Walden, Hertfordshire, England; was christened 23 Sep 1900, St Paul's Walden, Hertfordshire, England; died 30 Mar 2002, Royal Lodge, Windsor, Berkshire, England; was buried 9 Apr 2002, St George's Chapel, Windsor, Berkshire, England. [Group Sheet]