George VI

King of the United Kingdom (r. 1936–52)

• Born: December 14, 1895
• Birthplace: Sandringham, Norfolk, England
• Died: February 6, 1952
• Place of death: Sandringham, Norfolk, England

As chief of state as well as monarch of the United Kingdom, King George VI symbolized his country’s determination to fight for victory in World War II and to regain its sense of purpose in the war’s aftermath.

Early Life

There are no prescribed courses of study for those who will be kings or queens and least of all for those who might be kings or queens. When George VI was born, Queen Victoria was still on the throne with another six years to reign. George, then called Albert or simply Bertie by his family, was fourth in line for the succession following his grandfather, his father, and his eldest brother. His chances for kingship seemed rather remote. Albert’s father, the duke of York, later George V, ran his family with the tight discipline of a ship of the Royal Navy, in which he had served until put in direct line for the throne by the death of his elder brother Clarence in 1892. The duke was a martinet who incessantly nagged his offspring (five sons and one daughter) to get them to measure up to his high standards of excellence, probity, and duty. During their early lives, the children were reared by nannies, seeing their parents at specific times, as on formal occasions when they were dressed up and put on display. This highly regimented, impersonal atmosphere did not encourage individualism or self-confidence. It especially affected Albert, who grew up very shy and, some would say, scatterbrained; he developed a pronounced stammer that he was able to control only in his late twenties.

Albert’s primary education was, at the insistence of his father, in the company of his other brothers and sister in a family schoolroom at York Cottage, their house on the estate at Sandringham. The tutors were often less than competent and lacking in understanding. Albert, for example, was naturally left-handed but was nevertheless forced to use his right hand. Being deprived of regular associations with boys his own age made eventual adjustment to secondary school all the more difficult.

In 1909, when he was thirteen, Albert was enrolled as a naval cadet at Osborn. His grades were poor, and when he left after two years to attend the senior naval college at Dartmouth, he stood sixty-eighth in a class of sixty-eight. He was graduated from Dartmouth in 1913 as a midshipman. The Royal Navy seemed a most admirable career for an English prince. Albert, though, never became fond of the sea. He became sick in rough weather, and his general health was not good. He frequently suffered from intestinal ailments that required long periods of convalescence. During World War I, he suffered from a duodenal ulcer.

Albert saw action at Jutland, as a sublieutenant on board the Collingwood, but most of his service was spent onshore. When the conflict was over, he permanently left the Royal Navy, joining the fledgling air force. He found adjustment to this new career also difficult. Albert was the first of the royals to get his pilot’s wings, in 1919, but soon he left active service altogether.

Life’s Work

In the decade that followed, Albert tried to make himself useful, participating in those activities at which a royal presence was deemed necessary, often to emphasize and reinforce British policy. He made official tours to various parts of the Empire and Commonwealth, opening parliaments, assisting at war memorial celebrations, and attending funerals. In October 1923, he acted as the chief sponsor in the wedding of Yugoslavia’s Prince Paul. Albert’s participation was arranged to underline his country’s commitment to support Yugoslavia against the attempts of Italy to upset the balance of power in the Adriatic.

Albert’s own marriage, the previous spring, to Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon also served a useful public purpose. It helped to popularize the institution of monarchy, diverted attention from the economic troubles, and gave a boost to the souvenir, trinket, and hotel industries. The resultant births in 1926 and 1930 of George’s two daughters, Elizabeth and Margaret Rose, were especially welcome, as Albert’s older brother David, the Prince of Wales, was as yet unmarried and had a reputation for frivolity.

Ultimately, David’s inability to settle down and accept the sober constraints of his position led to an involvement with a remarried divorcée, producing one of the gravest crises in the history of the modern British monarchy. In 1936, he (Edward VIII) abdicated, dumping the responsibility of kingship directly on his reluctant younger brother.

Albert, now George VI, was forty years old and completely overawed by the formidable responsibilities that lay ahead. Kingship was not a job for which he believed he was qualified. “This is absolutely terrible,” he confessed to his cousin Louis Mountbatten, “I never wanted this to happen. I’m quite unprepared for it. . . . I’ve never seen a state paper; I’m only a naval officer, it’s the only thing I know about.”

George’s knowledge of the workings of government was indeed limited. His father, the late George V, had consistently refused him access to privileged information, especially Foreign Office correspondence. Even his older brother, the heir apparent, was shown only a carefully screened selection of documents. Furthermore, George VI lacked higher education. He had attended Trinity College at Cambridge for one year after his resignation from the air force, but such academic tokenism was hardly sufficient to give him a firm knowledge of either his own country’s or any other country’s political system, past or present.

Fortunately, the tasks the new sovereign was required to perform, although time-consuming, were not intellectually taxing, and George tried hard to do what was demanded of him. His ministers were obliged to inform him of what was happening, but they were not required to take any advice he might choose to give. George’s greatest contribution was in the public sector, where he acquitted himself extremely well, and, on occasion, even with a certain amount of inspiration.

Politicians used Albert’s services so frequently that it seemed that they forgot that the symbols of power could not compensate for an absence of real power. For example, the state visit of George and his wife to France in May 1938 was intended to show that Great Britain and France were united in their determination to uphold the balance of power. The Foreign Office furnished the king with an appropriate speech on the necessity of maintaining the strength of the Entente, but the ploy did not work. Adolf Hitler was not fooled for a minute.

The king, as the titular head of the Commonwealth, was also used to reinforce ties with the Dominions, and the purpose of his visit to the United States in June 1939 was to help chip away at American isolationism. The visit came in response to an invitation by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who had his own reasons for wanting the royal family in Washington. The president believed that reinforcing the Anglo-Saxon connection was vital because Great Britain, in any eventual European conflict, would be the United States’ first line of defense.

The outbreak of war in September 1939 gave George a true calling. As supreme commander of the armed forces, his first act was to broadcast an appeal to the British people (at home and abroad) calling on them to stand firm and united in the face of the common enemy. The king recognized his first duty to be the maintenance of morale, and by his personal conduct, he set the highest example of patriotism. George and his wife remained in London throughout the Blitz, and both of them constantly visited the scenes of destruction to commiserate with the victims. George created the George Cross and George Medal, ranking it in importance after the Victoria Cross, to recognize those civilians who had committed acts of personal heroism on the home front.

Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who tolerated no interference in his own running of the war, was enough of a monarchist to want the king’s active support and maintained close relations with Buckingham Palace. Every Tuesday over lunch, Churchill would brief the king, sharing with him the most intimate of state secrets, including that of the atomic bomb. The king’s duties in war were not unlike those he performed in peace, albeit on a more heroic scale. He made trips to visit the fighting forces, presented decorations and awards (such as the famous sword of honor to the city of Stalingrad), and met various other chiefs of state. Throughout the war, George was an active and sincere participant and was indeed never satisfied that he had done enough.

The end of the war and the beginning of reconstruction brought new concerns. The Labour Party swept the elections of 1945, although having a socialist government in power was not as traumatic to the monarchy as it might seem. King George was no ideologue, but he did share many of the Labour Party’s humanitarian goals, favoring the extension of social and economic benefits to the British people. He wisely believed that if the king showed no active interest in the welfare of his subjects, then monarchy had no answer to republicanism.

George, though, did not have the same easy relationship with Clement Attlee, the new prime minister, as he had had with Churchill. Labour did not favor too close an association with the monarchy anyway, and Attlee himself, like the king, was basically shy and found personal communication difficult. The monarch was able to establish a much better rapport with Ernest Bevin, the foreign secretary. Bevin, ever eager to show off his mastery of foreign affairs, enjoyed telling the king what was going on, often in great detail. It helped that the two men agreed on the basics: a mutual suspicion of the Soviet Union, the need for European reconstruction, and the desire for close relations with the United States.

It was the king’s misfortune to be chief of state during an era of great decline in his country’s world influence. For one born in the Victorian era, the process of decolonization must have been painful. George was no imperialist, however, and he used his office to help smooth the way for national independence. For example, he was instrumental in talking his cousin, Mountbatten, into becoming the last viceroy of India, and he met with the Indian leader Jawaharlal Nehru to help prepare India in joining the British Commonwealth.

George conscientiously did his homework, impressing his ministers with his ability to keep up with the routine of government. This profound sense of task, and an exhausting work schedule, in addition to his cigarette smoking, probably hastened his death, which was caused by a blood clot following an operation for lung cancer.

Significance

Just as it would be unfair to criticize an author for the book they did not write, it would be unfair to criticize George VI for his lack of power. Modern British kingship is exercised within a tight constitutional framework, and strict devotion to this practice has managed to keep republicanism successfully at bay. When people no longer believed that their sovereigns were placed over them by the will of God, kings had to abandon their old pretensions or find themselves without kingdoms. George was a perfect figurehead and consequently a perfect civil servant.

However, George also possessed another asset: He possessed superior virtue, without a show of self-righteousness or arrogance. He was therefore able to epitomize the highest civic and personal morality. His brother, Edward VIII, in failing to set such a standard, contributed to his own downfall. His confession that he could not go through life without the support of the woman he loved earned for him more criticism than praise and ensured his remembrance as the king who failed to do his duty. George VI would never make that mistake.

It is difficult to ascertain how much real influence George had on the affairs of state. So much of the king’s influence was in form and manner and timing, areas of contribution impossible to quantify. When George and his ministers disagreed, his ministers could ignore his wishes. On many occasions they did just that. No doubt, though, his advice was often worth hearing. Perhaps if Stanley Baldwin and Neville Chamberlain had been more attentive to his counsels, they might have focused more on the problems of industrial stagnation and unemployment. Perhaps Great Britain would have rearmed sooner and been in a better position to withstand Germany’s attacks at the beginning of World War II.

George’s influence was more apparent in the lesser affairs of state, in matters of dress, decorations, medals, and titles. He was influential in having the royal collection of art restored. No important modifications were made on the royal estates without his approval. On one occasion, he seems to have prevented Churchill from making a possibly fatal mistake. The prime minister was determined to witness the D day landings personally from one of the escort cruisers, whereupon the king threatened to drive down to Portsmouth and personally stand in his way. Churchill changed his mind.

According to reports, George also significantly influenced the way in which his daughter, who would become Queen Elizabeth II upon his death in 1952, would approach and successfully maintain her lengthy reign. Learning from his experience as an unexpected king, George made sure that his first-born daughter would be as prepared as possible for the duties she would need to undertake upon ascending to the throne herself. Unlike his father before him, he often involved Elizabeth in Crown affairs from a young age, from having her become more familiar with the coronation process by writing a review of his ceremony to inviting her to transmit a radio broadcast during WWII to advocating for the reformative exception that allowed her to serve as a counselor of state prior to turning twenty-one, which she did in 1944 upon her father's travel to Italy. Additionally, he ensured that her studies were catered more to include subjects relevant to responsibilities as a monarch, such as legislation. Other than serving as a model for properly fulfilling one's duty as a leader, he had his family come along on a royal tour, an experience that helped Elizabeth gain insight into this important aspect of rule. Ultimately, Elizabeth's reign, which lasted from 1952 until her death in 2022, would come to be considered one of the most iconic and beloved in the realm's history.

Bibliography

Baxter, Arthur Beverly. Destiny Called Them. London: Oxford University Press, 1939. A picture book of the king and queen and assorted royals, together with captions and brief descriptions.

Bolitho, Hector. King George VI. New York: J. B. Lippincott, 1938. Bolitho wrote this book in a hurry, publishing it in time to capitalize on the king’s coronation. It is a sympathetic, almost reverential, account of the subject’s early life and career. It includes George’s own account of the Battle of Jutland.

Buxton, Aubrey. King in His Country: An Account of King George VI’s Game Shooting Activities. London: Countryman, 1956. The sort of book that would appeal primarily to English squires and unreconstructed Royalists, being a rather comprehensive account of the king’s prowess with the shotgun. Primary sources include the printed record of the king’s bird-shooting from his own gamebook.

Cahn, Lauren. "How King George VI, the Father of Queen Elizabeth II, Prepared His Daughter for the Throne." Reader's Digest, 18 Oct. 2022, www.rd.com/list/rare-photos-queen-elizabeth-her-father/. Accessed 24 Oct. 2022.

Middlemas, Keith. The Life and Times of George VI. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1974. A short, respectable popular biography, treating the monarch as the nice person he in fact was.

Swift, Will. The Roosevelts and the Royals: Franklin and Eleanor, the King and Queen of England, and the Friendship That Changed History. Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley and Sons, 2004. In June, 1939, George VI and Queen Elizabeth visited the United States and met the Roosevelts. This book describes the visit and how it resulted in a friendship between the two couples.

Wheeler-Bennett, John W. King George VI: His Life and Reign. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1958. This official biography by a distinguished British historian presents the monarch in a befittingly uncritical light. By its overpowering detail, its insight into the way George conceived and executed his responsibilities, it becomes almost a guidebook on the art of the modern constitutional British monarchy.