19 Facts About King George VI

1. King George VI was posthumously awarded the Ordre de la Liberation by the French government in 1960, one of only two people to be awarded the medal after 1946.

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2. King George VI bestowed the George Cross on the entire "island fortress of Malta" in 1943.

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3. King George VI became king at a point when public faith in the monarchy was at a low ebb.

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4. King George VI was interred initially in the Royal Vault until he was transferred to the King George VI Memorial Chapel inside St George's on 26 March 1969.

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5. King George VI had died from a coronary thrombosis in his sleep at the age of 56.

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6. The King George VI was well enough to open the Festival of Britain in May 1951, but on 23 September 1951, his left lung was removed by Clement Price Thomas after a malignant tumour was found.

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7. In January 1946, King George VI 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".

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8. The King George VI has related much of what the two discussed in his diary, which is the only extant first-hand account of these conversations.

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9. King George VI developed an interest in working conditions, and was President of the Industrial Welfare Society.

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10. King George VI represented his father, and toured coal mines, factories, and railyards.

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11. King George VI was the first member of the British royal family to be certified as a fully qualified pilot.

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12. King George VI completed a fortnight's training and took command of a squadron on the Cadet Wing.

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13. King George VI was mentioned in despatches for his action as a turret officer aboard Collingwood in the Battle of Jutland, an indecisive engagement with the German navy that was the largest naval action of the war.

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14. King George VI suffered from chronic stomach problems as well as knock knees, for which he was forced to wear painful corrective splints.

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15. King George VI had a stammer that lasted for many years.

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16. King George VI's parents were generally removed from their children's day-to-day upbringing, as was the norm in aristocratic families of that era.

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17. King George VI was born at York Cottage, on the Sandringham Estate in Norfolk, during the reign of his great-grandmother Queen Victoria.

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18. King George VI adopted the new title of Head of the Commonwealth.

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19. King George VI attended naval college as a teenager, and served in the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force during the First World War.

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