George VI received numerous decorations and honorary appointments, both during and before his time as monarch of the United Kingdom and the dominions. Of those listed below; where two dates are shown, the first indicates the date of receiving the award or title, and the second indicates the date of its loss or renunciation.
Styles of King George VI | |
---|---|
Reference style | His Majesty |
Spoken style | Your Majesty |
George VI was from birth a Prince of the United Kingdom, and was subsequently created a royal duke. It was as a duke that he succeeded his brother, King Edward VIII, to the throne.
Certain titles are borne and held by the reigning sovereign.
Other titles traditionally attributed to the reigning sovereign are Duke of Lancaster, to reflect that the Duchy of Lancaster is a private estate of the sovereign, [2] [a] and Duke of Normandy in the sovereign's capacity as head of state of the Bailiwicks of Jersey and Guernsey. [4] [b]
George VI has held certain titles in a personal capacity, either by virtue of birth, or otherwise.
The Dominions were self-governing entities which had the as their respective head of state the same person as was the British sovereign. [12] [13] These Dominions typically used the style and title of the sovereign as proclaimed in the United Kingdom, which, from the reign of Edward VII came to include the phrase, “and of the British Dominions beyond the Seas”, [d] signifying their reign over said Dominions. [15] However, the sovereign reigned in these Dominions in a capacity independent from their position as monarch of the United Kingdom, similar in meaning and usage to, but not the same as modern-day Commonwealth realms, in that they lacked a separate title for each Dominion, until the reign of Elizabeth II. George VI's reign in the Dominions does not completely match his reign in the United Kingdom and his role as monarch in the Irish Free State is debated. [16]
Per the terms of the Indian Independence Act, the imperial title was to be abolished. However, George VI issued a royal proclamation for that purpose and to that effect only on 22 June 1948, effectively reigning as king in the newly created Dominions of India and Pakistan whilst still bearing the imperial title for himself and his consort. [17]
The title of Kaisar-i-Hind was coined in 1876 by the orientalist G. W. Leitner as the imperial title for the sovereign [18] and was also employed in an official capacity, most notably to denote Crown property in India. [19] This title continues to persist as a placeholder to the modern day in official records dating to the British era, despite the prohibition and deprecation of the use of the said title and all its variants for any and all purposes. [20] Its usage is to be so understood as to denote the Government of India per the relevant provisions of the Government Grants Act, [21] read alongside and in the context of the Transfer of Property Act and the Repealing and Amending (Second) Act. [22] [23]
Flag | Date | Rank | Branch | Ref |
---|---|---|---|---|
Australia | ||||
2 June 1938 | Admiral of the Fleet | Royal Australian Navy | [24] | |
Field Marshal | Australian Army | |||
Marshal of the Royal Australian Air Force | Royal Australian Air Force | |||
United Kingdom | ||||
15 May 1916 | Sub-Lieutenant | Royal Navy | [25] | |
29 December 1918 | Temporary Captain and Staff Officer (3rd Class, Air) | Royal Air Force | [26] | |
1 August 1919 | Flight Lieutenant | [27] | ||
1 November 1919 | Squadron Leader | [28] | ||
31 December 1920 | Commander | Royal Navy | [29] | |
1 June 1920 | Wing Commander | Royal Air Force | [30] | |
30 June 1921 | Group Captain | [31] | ||
3 June 1932 | Rear Admiral | Royal Navy | [32] | |
Major General | British Army | |||
Air Vice-Marshal | Royal Air Force | |||
1 January 1936 | Vice Admiral | Royal Navy | [33] | |
Lieutenant General | British Army | |||
Air Marshal | Royal Air Force | |||
21 January 1936 | Admiral | Royal Navy | [34] | |
General | British Army | |||
11 December 1936 | Admiral of the Fleet | Royal Navy | [35] | |
Field Marshal | British Army | [36] | ||
Marshal of the Royal Air Force | Royal Air Force | |||
8 October 1948 | Captain General Royal Marines | Royal Marines |
The undress ribbons worn by George VI in undress uniform were as follows: [40]
A number of geographical features, roads, and institutions are named after George VI. These include King George Hospital in London; King George VI Reservoir in Surrey, United Kingdom; King George Highway and King George Boulevard in Surrey, British Columbia; Kingsway in Edmonton; George VI Sound in Antarctica; and the King George VI Chase, a horse race in the United Kingdom.
The fourth future Dreadnought-class submarine will be named as HMS King George VI. [71]
Prince Edward, Duke of Kent is a member of the British royal family. The elder son of Prince George, Duke of Kent, and Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark, he is a grandson of George V, nephew of Edward VIII and George VI, and first cousin of Elizabeth II. Edward's mother was also a first cousin of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, consort of Elizabeth II, making him both a second cousin and first cousin once removed to Charles III. He is 41st in the line of succession to the British throne.
Alexander Cambridge, 1st Earl of Athlone, was a member of the extended British royal family, as a great-grandson of King George III, a brother of Queen Mary, uncle to the Kings Edward VIII and George VI, and the husband of Princess Alice of Albany. He was a British Army commander, who served as Governor-General of the Union of South Africa and Governor General of Canada.
Prince Arthur of Connaught was a British military officer and a grandson of Queen Victoria. He served as Governor-General of the Union of South Africa from 20 November 1920 to 21 January 1924.
Princess Alexandra, 2nd Duchess of Fife, born Lady Alexandra Duff and known as Princess Arthur of Connaught after her marriage, was the eldest surviving grandchild of Edward VII and also the first cousin of Edward VIII and George VI. Alexandra and her younger sister, Maud, had the distinction of being the only female-line descendants of a British sovereign officially granted both the title of Princess and the style of Highness.
Adolphus Cambridge, 1st Marquess of Cambridge, born Prince Adolphus of Teck and later the Duke of Teck, was a relative of the British royal family, a great-grandson of George III and younger brother of Queen Mary, the wife of George V. In 1900, he succeeded his father as Duke of Teck in the Kingdom of Württemberg. He relinquished his German titles in 1917 to become Marquess of Cambridge.
Princess Marie Louise of Schleswig-Holstein was a granddaughter of Queen Victoria.
Maud Carnegie, Countess of Southesk, titled Princess Maud from 1905 to 1923, was a granddaughter of Edward VII. Maud and her elder sister, Alexandra, had the distinction of being the only female-line descendants of a British sovereign officially granted both the title of Princess and the style of Highness.
Ernest Augustus ; 17 November 1887 – 30 January 1953) was Duke of Brunswick from 2 November 1913 to 8 November 1918. He was a grandson of George V of Hanover, thus a Prince of Hanover and a Prince of the United Kingdom. He was also a maternal grandson of Christian IX of Denmark and the son-in-law of German Emperor Wilhelm II. The Prussians had deposed King George from the Hanoverian throne in 1866, but his marriage ended the decades-long feud between the Prussians and the Hanoverians.
Prince of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a royal title normally granted to sons and grandsons of reigning and past British monarchs, plus consorts of female monarchs. The title is granted by the reigning monarch, who is the fount of all honours, through the issuing of letters patent as an expression of the royal will.
Admiral Sir Alexander Robert Maule Ramsay was a Royal Navy officer. He was the husband of Princess Patricia of Connaught, the youngest child of Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, third son of Queen Victoria. He served with distinction during the First World War. During the 1920s and 1930s, he held several important naval aviation commands.
Lord Leopold Arthur Louis Mountbatten was a British Army officer and a descendant of the Hessian princely Battenberg family and the British royal family. A grandson of Queen Victoria, he was known as Prince Leopold of Battenberg from his birth until 1917, when the British royal family relinquished their German titles during World War I, and the Battenberg family changed their name to Mountbatten.
Adolphus Frederick VI was the last reigning grand duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz.
In the British peerage, a royal duke is a member of the British royal family, entitled to the titular dignity of prince and the style of His Royal Highness, who holds a dukedom. Dukedoms are the highest titles in the British roll of peerage, and the holders of these particular dukedoms are princes of the blood royal. The holders of the dukedoms are royal, not the titles themselves. They are titles created and bestowed on legitimate sons and male-line grandsons of the British monarch, usually upon reaching their majority or marriage. The titles can be inherited but cease to be called "royal" once they pass beyond the grandsons of a monarch. As with any peerage, once the title becomes extinct, it may subsequently be recreated by the reigning monarch at any time.
Edward VIII, later known as the Duke of Windsor, was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Empire, and Emperor of India, from 20 January 1936 until his abdication in December of the same year.
Sir Godfrey John Vignoles Thomas, 10th Baronet, was a British courtier who served as Assistant Private Secretary to Edward VIII in 1936.