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George VI was born on December 14, 1895, and christened Albert Frederick Arthur George. He was the second son of King George V of the United Kingdom and Mary of Teck, who at the time held the title of Duke and Duchess of York, as Queen Victoria was still reigning. There was at the time no likelihood of his ever attaining the throne, because his elder brother, the bright and popular Edward, was ahead of him in the line of succession. Accordingly, George was allowed to serve in the Royal Navy during World War I, and had a certain amount of freedom in his choice of wife. He married Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon in 1923, after she had turned him down several times.

Because of the distance between them and the throne, George and his wife were able to bring up their two daughters, Elizabeth and Margaret, in a relatively normal environment, without the pomp and circumstance that might otherwise had surrounded them. George was a shy man, who suffered throughout his life from a severe stammer. He was dismayed when his elder brother, having acceded to the throne in 1936 as King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom, decided to abdicate, leaving him to take on the crown. Only a few years later, World War II broke out, and the royal family, whose popularity had been waning, sought to set an example and were a decisive factor in keeping up the nation's spirits. The king's morale-boosting Christmas broadcast to the nation, early in the war, went down in history.

After the war, the king's health deteriorated rapidly. He was suffering from lung cancer, and last appeared in public at London Airport to see off his daughter Elizabeth on her tour of Africa. He died suddenly at Sandringham on February 6, 1952. His elder daughter succeeded him as Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom.