February 6, 1952: King George VI Dies

King George VI, London Airport, January 31, 1952.

His last public appearance, and his last known photo.

He was 56 years old, but looks much older.

February 6, 1952: King George VI of Great Britain dies of a coronary thrombosis at his country home, Sandringham House, in Norfolk, England. He was 56 years old, and had been battling several illnesses, including lung cancer, for years.

Born December 14, 1895 as Albert Arthur Frederick George, the 2nd son of King George V, he was the Duke of York to the public, and "Bertie" to his family. (His grandfather, King Edward VII, had been born Albert Edward, and was also "Bertie" to his family.) When his father died, his brother, the Prince of Wales, became King Edward VIII. But Edward abdicated the throne on December 11, 1936, because the King no longer ruled absolutely, and Parliament was not willing to accept that he wanted to marry Wallis Simpson, a twice-divorced American.

So Bertie became King, and, since Queen Victoria had ruled after the death of her husband, Prince Albert, that no King of England could take the name Albert, Bertie took the regnal name George VI. While he had been trained in royal protocol, and had made many public appearances on behalf of the royal family, he had never expected to become King until the scandal of Edward's affair became public.

He had a serious stammer, which was a lot harder for radio broadcasts and newsreels to hide than was the polio of America's President at the time, Franklin D. Roosevelt. King George went to great lengths to overcome this, as seen in Colin Firth's Oscar-winning role in the film The King's Speech. Those lengths improved his public speaking considerably, but not completely.

Being his country's head of state through World War II took a terrible toll on him. And, like Roosevelt (but not like the continually cigar-smoking Prime Minister, Winston Churchill), the King smoked cigarettes unceasingly. When The War ended, he was not yet 50 years old, but looked 60.

In 1949, he needed surgery to remove an arterial blockage in his right leg. Had it failed, the leg would have had to be amputated. This postponed a tour that he and his wife, Queen Elizabeth, were going to take to Australia and New Zealand. In his place went their daughter, Princess Elizabeth, and her husband, Prince Philip. In September 1951, another trip was postponed, and subsequently undertaken by the Princess and her husband, when the King's cancer had required the removal of his left lung.

Since 1932, when George V finally accepted, 10 years after first being asked, that radio broadcasting was no longer just a means of entertainment, the British monarch has delivered a Christmas broadcast, to the nation and first the British Empire, and later to the British Commonwealth. George VI had faithfully done this since December 25, 1936. But in 1951, he was too ill to sit still for the usual 10 minutes or so. He recorded it piece by piece, and it was edited together. (It would not be done on television until 1957, and it is still recorded beforehand.)

On January 31, 1952, Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip flew to Kenya, then still a British colony, as a stopover on a tour of Australia. The King saw them off at London Airport (renamed Heathrow Airport in 1966). It was his last public appearance. He and the Queen went to Sandringham, and, 6 days later, at 7:30 AM local time on February 6, it was found that he had passed away in his sleep.

This was not the age of social media, or of 24-hour news. Only a small minority of people on Earth even had television sets. The whole world did not find out at once. Certainly, the British government could not reveal the news to the world before notifying the heir to the throne. And getting word from London to the rural hotel where the heir and her husband were staying was not easy.

Philip was told first. He then asked his wife to take a walk with him. All at once, he had to tell his wife that her father was dead, her King was dead, and that she was now the head of state of the British Commonwealth. And she was only 25 years old. (She turned 26 on April 21.)

She returned at once, setting foot at the same airport, as Queen Elizabeth II. (Like her grandfather, but unlike her father and her great-grandfather, she chose her own name as her regnal name.) Churchill was there to greet her. For her grace in mourning, and for her steadiness in reigning over a grieving nation at such a young age, Time magazine named her its Woman of the Year. This was in place of a "Man of the Year"; the distinction's name wasn't changed to "Person of the Year" until 1999.

A state funeral was held. Edward VIII, now with the title of the Duke of Windsor, marched behind his brother's horse-drawn coffin. It was the only time after his abdication that he set foot in his homeland, as he had been living in France ever since.

King George VI is laid to rest inside St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle, the family's preferred residence over London's Buckingham Palace, in Windsor, Berkshire, about 30 miles west of London. His widow, re-titled Elizabeth the Queen Mother, lived until 2002, age 101, and was buried alongside him. His 2nd daughter, Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon, is also buried there. As are, among others, the great rivals in the War of the Roses, Kings Henry VI and Edward IV; and also Kings Henry VIII, Charles I, George III, George IV, Edward VII and George V. 

Queen Elizabeth II is now 95, and has reigned for 70 years, both records for an English and/or British monarch. She appears to be in good health: She has never smoked, and while she enjoys drinking, she does it in moderation. Nevertheless, plans for her memorials have been made, but it is not publicly known where she will be laid to rest. Somewhere at Windsor Castle is likely, but it could be in a separate mausoleum, as is the case with her great-great-grandmother, Queen Victoria.

He was played by James Wilby in Bertie & Elizabeth in 2002, Bill Champion in Wallis & Edward in 2005,Colin Firth in The King's Speech in 2010, Samuel West in Hyde Park on Hudson in 2012, Rupert Everett in A Royal Night Out in 2015, Jared Harris on The Crown in 2016, and Ben Mendelsohn in Darkest Hour in 2017.

UPDATE: Queen Elizabeth died on September 8, 2022, at 96. She was laid to rest in St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle, near her parents, her sister, and her husband.

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February 6, 1952 was a Wednesday. England's Football League then played almost exclusively on Saturdays, but despite the funeral activities taking place over several days, no games were postponed. The great rivals of North London played their Derby on February 9 at White Hart Lane as scheduled, and Arsenal defeated Tottenham Hotspur 2-1.

In America, it was the off-season for MLB and the NFL. It was midseason for the NHL, but no games were played. The NHL was then headquartered in Toronto, and Canada was (and remains) part of the Commonwealth, with the British monarch as head of state. And so, the game scheduled for that night at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto, between the Toronto Maple Leafs and the New York Rangers, was postponed. It was rescheduled for February 19, and ended in a 3-3 tie.

There were, however, 2 games played in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks beat the Baltimore Bullets, 73-70 at what my generation would call the old Madison Square Garden. No Knick player scored more than 14 points: Dick McGuire and Max Zaslofsky both scored that many -- but a balanced team effort won the game.

This version of the Bullets would go out of business in 1954, and is not connected to with the new Bullets, who started in 1963, moved to Washington in 1973, and were renamed the Wizards in 1997.

* And the Boston Celtics beat the Syracuse Nationals, 99-88 at the Boston Garden. Bob Cousy scored 33 for the Celts.