Princess Mary & Brothers, George Grantham Bain Collection

The House of Windsor is the royal house of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms. Founded by Ernest Anton, the sixth duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, it is the royal house of several European monarchies, and branches currently reign in Belgium through the descendants of Leopold I, and in the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms through the descendants of Prince Albert. It succeeded the House of Hanover as monarchs in the British Empire following the death of Queen Victoria. The name was changed from Saxe-Coburg and Gotha to the English Windsor in 1917 because of anti-German sentiment in the British Empire during World War I. Windsors were originally a branch of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha that have provided five British monarchs to date, including four kings and the present queen, Elizabeth II. The name had a long association with the monarchy in Britain.

George VI (1895–1952), king of the United Kingdom from 1936 to 1952. The second son of the future king George V, the prince served in the Royal Navy (1913–17), the Royal Naval Air Service (1917–19), and the Royal Air Force (1919) and then attended Trinity College, Cambridge (1919–20). On June 3, 1920, he was created duke of York. He sponsored the annual Duke of York’s Camp (1921–39), at which equal numbers of public (private) school boys and boys from industrial areas spent a week together as his guests. On April 26, 1923, he married Lady Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon, youngest daughter of the 14th earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne. They had two children: Princess Elizabeth (afterward Queen Elizabeth II) and Princess Margaret (later countess of Snowdon).

George V (1865—1936) king of the United Kingdom from 1910 to 1936, the second son of Prince Albert Edward, later King Edward VII. He served in the navy until the death (1892) of his elder brother, Prince Albert Victor, brought the need for more specialized training as eventual heir to the throne. Created duke of York (May 1892), he married (July 1893) Princess Mary of Teck, who had been his brother’s fiancée. Created duke of Cornwall and prince of Wales after his father’s accession (1901), he succeeded his father on May 6, 1910, and was crowned on June 22, 1911.