George VI of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (1895-1952)

Prince Albert Frederick Arthur George of York was born on the 14th December 1895 at York Cottage on the Sandringham Estate. He was the second son of Prince George, Duke of York (1865-1936), the second in line to the throne, and Princess Victoria Mary of Teck (1867-1953). On the death of his great-grandmother, Queen Victoria (1819-1901), in 1901 and then his grandfather, Edward VII (1841-1910) in 1910, he became second in line to the throne, after his father and his elder brother. He changed his family surname of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to Windsor in 1917 due to an anti-german feeling in the country. He married the daughter of a scottish aristocrat, Lady Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon (1900-2002), on the 26th April 1923 at Westminster Abbbey. They had two children together, Elizabeth (1926-) and Margaret (1930-2002). On the death of his father and the abdication of his brother in the same year (1936), Albert succeeded the throne as George VI and reigned for 15 years, until his death on the 6th February 1952, aged 56.