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King George VI and Queen Elizabeth with French president Albert Lebrun enjoying a garden party at the Château de Bagatelle in the Bois de Boulogne on July 20, 1938, during their state visit to France. 🇫🇷

Totally checking out Bertie’s fancy socks🧦, ain’t gonna lie.

#king george vi #queen mother

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Happy 101th Anniversary to Bertie & Elizabeth

The Duke & Duchess of York on their wedding day, April 26, 1923.

The young royals had no idea that 13 years later they would become King George VI & Queen Elizabeth.

Prince Albert's gift to Elizabeth's bridesmaids was an exquisitely carved crystal brooch of the white Rose of York with the couple's monogram (E A) and the ducal crown in diamonds. I really love how modern the style of the cypher is! Very reflective of the Deco period.

If you look carefully at the wedding portrait, you can see the bridesmaids wearing the brooch. It's a lovely small size; not too much!

Just Married!!

Throwing this one in for fun 'coz you can tell they are smiling even from behind. :)

The newly married Duke & Duchess of York leaving Buckingham Palace for their honeymoon. The Duke is getting pelted with confetti by his brothers.

Theirs is such a beautiful love story. ❤️💍❤️ 

RCT, thebeaumondecollection,

#king george vi #queen mother

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The Duke of York (later King George VI), Lord Birkenhead, the Lord Chancellor, and F M B Fisher. c. 1930s.

#king george vi

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“On her twenty-fourth birthday, 21 April 1950, at 8:45 a.m., in her bedroom at the Villa Guardamangia, her telephone rang. When she picked up the receiver she was greeted with a rousing chorus of ‘Happy Birthday to You’ performed by a group of young naval officers accompanied by some of the band of HMS Liverpool. According to Bobo, who was there (of course), ‘Lilibet was wildly excited and kept saying, “Oh! Thank you, thank you! That was sweet but who are you?”’ She was answered by a second chorus of the song, harmonised by the officers’ Glee Club, then a burst of bagpipes. Bobo reported to Dickie Moutbatten – whose Flag Officer had been responsible for organising the surprise birthday greeting – that ‘Lilibet first went white, then quite red, and ended up with tears in her eyes.’”

Elizabeth: An Intimate Portrait by Gyles Brandreth

#queen elizabeth ii

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“Bertie’s delight is touching.”

— Queen Mary on the birth of her granddaughter, Princess Elizabeth Alexandra Mary, born on April 21, 1926

Happy heavenly birthday to Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II. 💕

#king george vi #queen elizabeth ii #queen mary

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King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in 1943, photographed by Cecil Beaton.

Inspiration for the day...

Such a beautiful portrait of Bertie & Elizabeth. Even though it is a posed photo, they just look so comfortable holding onto each other; you can sense the strength of their togetherness. And can we just take a moment to appreciate Bertie's perfect uniform and regal natural elegance?

#❤️ #king george vi #queen mother

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Royals wearing shades💅🏻

(the Queen last picture made me laugh)

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'The Crowning of Queen Alexandra' by Danish painter Laurits Regner Tuxen.

#queen alexandra

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Prince Edward and Prince Albert. (1903)

#king george vi #king edward viii

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Prince Albert opens the new Town Hall in Marylebone, London. Alderman and Mrs Duncan Watson. (1920)

#king george vi

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When the King & Queen danced with students...

In 1945 King George VI & Queen Elizabeth visited Imperial College to commemorate the centenary of the Royal College of Science. The King gave a memorable speech that was extremely well received by the students. And then, quite unplanned, they made an appearance at the College’s Centenary Ball in the Albert Hall. Here's what happened...

"There came a moment when six of us girls found ourselves talking to the Royal couple on our own. We knew that the King and Queen loved ballroom dancing and I said “would your majesties like to join us?” and she looked at him with a sparkle in her eye and said “It would be fun wouldn’t it!” On that spontaneous invitation they came with us – out of the back door of the room and across to the Albert Hall! " --- Gwyneth Rankin (BSc ARCS Botany 1944)

"By pure chance we found ourselves dancing on a sparsely populated promenade arena when the King and Queen appeared in the stalls immediately above us. I retain the vivid image of a smiling King then turning to the Queen, proffering his hand in an invitation to dance [❤️!!] and how they began to dance, with not a single security person in attendance, in a close proximity to a few couples – including ourselves." --- Manfred Kosten (Mining Geology 1949)

On the King's remarks that day...

"...We students were all standing in the centre of the hall and we showed the then normal sign of student approval at appropriate times, by stamping noisily on the floor. This interrupted his speech, but noticed that he started laughing and became visibly more relaxed and a rapport developed. Some days later, we heard that the College authorities had intended to give us a major dressing down for this but had been snookered by a personal message form the King, saying that he had not enjoyed an evening so much for some time! " --- Alan Burdett (Mechanical Engineering 1950)

source

Some thoughts....

I wish there were photos or film of Bertie & Elizabeth dancing - I long to see them do so! It is often repeated that they were both elegant and accomplished dancers.

Bertie seemed to particularly enjoy interacting with young people. I think they appealed to the lighter, boyish part of his character. What a keeper, he was!

Listen to the whole speech the King made that day here. Foot stamping and all!

#a photo of them dancing must exist somewhere!! #king george vi #queen mother

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Duke and Duchess of York dressed in korowai, with huia feathers in their hats after a reception. (1927)

#king george vi #queen mother

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JULIE ANDREWS as QUEEN CLARISSE RENALDI in The Princess Diaries 2: A Royal Engagement

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“It is terrifying to think how little I learned at Oxford. I suppose because I never wanted to go there – my heart was in travel. I was no longer hankering for the Navy, but had this desire for travel. My next brother, now King George VI, was in the Navy and by that time he had gone to sea and was making trips around the world. That irritated me very much because I wanted to be traveling too. I couldn’t think why he should be so lucky to do these things and not me.”

- The Duke of Windsor, reflecting on his time at Oxford.

- from Once a King: the Lost Memoir of Edward VIII, by Jane Marguerite Tippett

#king edward viii #king george vi

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This part from Dimbleby quoting from Charles' naval journal entries about the attempted kidnapping on Anne is just sooooooo:

On his last day in California, he was summoned from a luncheon in San Diego by alarming news from London. According to Jupiter's First Lieutenant, Princess Anne and her husband Mark had just been attacked in the Mall: 'All he told me was that a report had just come through saying that shots had been fired at the car... I was dumbfounded.' Within the hour he was on the phone to his sister: Her story was exactly like a nightmare and she told me about it as if it were a perfectly normal occurrence. Her bravery and superb obstinacy were unbelievable--imagine refusing continually a kidnapper's demands for her to get out of the car and climb into his with all the time a pair of pistols being waved at her? Imagine seeing four people shot in cold blood in front of you and still refusing to get out; to struggle to prevent the man pulling you out of the car while Mark held on to your other arm until, after what must have seemed an eternity, the police arrived in sufficient numbers to overpower the man? My admiration for such an incredible sister knows no bounds! 'The worst part,' he wrote some weeks later, 'was being 8,000 miles away in California and desperate to be back home with Anne, and just to be there...'

#king charles iii #princess anne

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The Princess of Wales, later Queen Mary, with her two eldest sons, Prince Edward of Wales, and Prince Albert of Wales.

I love this picture where Queen Mary's hand is on both David and Bertie's shoulders. I’ve seen just a couple of pictures of her doing that with Bertie, in most part of the pictures she’s doing that just with Edward. I’m very happy I found this because both Mary and George V are always portrayed as terrible parents, and I'm not saying they were perfect but certainly compared to other parents of their time they weren't so bad.

But what are your thoughts about this?

#queen mary #king george vi #king edward viii

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A charming little illustration I came across - assuming it was for a postcard or a magazine - of Prince Edward and Prince Albert during World War I.

I find it rather funny that the Prince of Wales is presented as more physically imposing than Prince Albert - taller and broader in the shoulders. Though they were both rather slightly built, by this age Bertie definitely was a few inches taller than his brother! But as Edward was the heir to the Throne, he had to be presented as the "more manly" of the two! The extreme deference to royalty in any sort of media of the day at that time (and for some time after) is amusing to me and quite interesting. It does however, make research a little difficult at times, as you never quite know what is being "airbrushed" for the tender sensibilities of the Crown.

#tiny bertie! #King George VI #King Edward VIII