News about George VI

Dementia is a disorder of the brain that affects memory and other key functions, such as how people use language and communicate, and the processes that enable us to pay ­attention. Around 40 per cent of dementia cases could be prevented or delayed by addressing 12 key risk factors, including: high blood pressure; obesity; diabetes; depression; physical inactivity; smoking; social isolation - and hearing.

King Charles will attend this year's Trooping the Colour ceremony in a carriage instead of on horseback in a break from tradition as he bravely continues to fight cancer. Last June, the King became the first monarch since the late Queen in 1986 to saddle up for the parade but the animal's behaviour came under scrutiny. Noble, a black mare gifted to Charles by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police when he became King, struggled to adapt to the surroundings and a groom had to step forward to help steady the horse. Now it seems the monarch is taking the less taxing option of travelling to his official birthday in a horse-drawn carriage. Last year's episode is believed to have been taken into account by royal courtiers ahead of this June's ceremony.

Alessandro Nasini, the curator behind the exhibition celebrating 100 years of royal portrait photographs, said retouching - which can vary from simply cropping an image to removing entire backgrounds - remains a vital tool in royal portrait photography. Many of the photos on display to the public at the King's Gallery, Buckingham Palace, from today have been retouched and notes describe the process. His comments came two months after five major news and picture agencies (inset, PA's 'kill notice') issued 'kill notices' withdrawing a photograph (left) of the Princess of Wales with her children for Mother's Day because it had been digitally altered. Kate later admitted she had been experimenting with editing the family photo, taken by William. Pictured right: A sign in the new exhibition explaining how retouching is an 'essential part of photography'.

It was a glorious day that boosted the country after the worst constitutional crisis in living memory. On May 12, 1937, five months after Edward VIII's abdication, his brother Albert - the stammering Duke of York - was crowned King George VI. The unlikely monarch's coronation took place on the same day that had been set aside for his errant sibling before he stepped away to marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson. With his beloved wife Elizabeth - the future Queen Mother - alongside him, George's coronation was overseen by the then Archbishop of Canterbury Cosmo Gordon Lang. He was widely thought to have helped push Edward VIII to abdicate and was fiercely criticised for a radio broadcast in which he heaped opprobrium on the departed monarch. Watching the ceremony were the monarch's daughters, 11-year-old Princess Elizabeth - the future Queen - and her sister Margaret, who was aged just six. Although the scene in Westminster Abbey was the epitome of regal glory, there were some mishaps.

The Buckingham Palace garden party is one of the most prestigious invitations of the season. Established by Queen Victoria in the 1860s as twice-yearly 'breakfasts' presenting debutantes into society, the afternoon events took full advantage of the nation's new-found obsession with tea-drinking. Today, the sovereign hosts two summer garden parties at Buckingham Palace and one at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Scotland. Some 30,000 esteemed revelers, chosen on the basis of their charity work or positive impact on the local community, are invited to each event. They are said to consume 20,000 slices of cake, 20,000 sandwiches and 27,000 cups of tea, all while showcasing their finest attire. This year's garden parties celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Commonwealth. On Wednesday, King Charles (inset) made a graceful appearance at the first event at Buckingham Palace, following his return to public duties as he continues receiving treatment for cancer. In 2016, his mother Queen Elizabeth II (bottom right) was overheard saying that aides involved in the state visit of China's Xi Jinping the previous year had been 'very rude' to the British Ambassador. Also pictured: The Queen meeting Postman Pat at the Children's Party at the Palace in 2006 (left); Charles and Camilla meeting guests in 2005 (top right).

Guests of honour were King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, but there amongst the the throng was the young student Jack Kennedy, one day to rise to become the legendary President of the United States. And it was dawn before the last stragglers went away. And all for a surprised and somewhat bewildered 17-year old girl, Rosalind Maud Cubitt. The world had come to pay homage to this shy sprig of aristocracy, but despite society's spotlight shining briefly upon her, she was never to make a name for herself. That honour would later go her daughter, Camilla - now our queen.

If most eyes were on the crown jewels this time last year, the May 6 Coronation saw  another display of gems and jewellery - from the many royal and distinguished guests at Westminster Abbey. Here, in case you missed them, are some of the most remarkable…

She enjoys many and varied interests, from gardening and riding to the serious task of championing literature. Yet, despite the time she spent at a Swiss finishing school, few would have had Queen Camilla down as a domestic goddess. But she has written the foreword to a new edition of An Unbroken Thread: Celebrating 150 Years of the Royal School of Needlework. And she makes quite a disclosure...

Circus owner Cyril Mills was a patriot and a spy who had risked his life uncovering secrets about Hitler's Germany in the 1930s and was tasked with spying on the Soviets in the 1960s. MI5 had asked him to take on the lease of No 17 Kensington Palace Gardens, after the renovation of its 34 rooms, which were badly rundown after years of neglect, and allow bugging equipment to be installed in the attics to listen in to whatever was going on in the Soviet Embassy on the other side of the road.

Edward and Sophie are taking centre stage at this year's Royal Windsor Horse Show, an unmissable diary event for the late Queen. But can the Edinburghs do something about the long-standing ban on dogs? At the 1943 show a lurcher nicked George VI's lunch, leading to their banishment - something the dog-loving Queen never countermanded. Now, a source says there is pressure on the Royal Windsor to let the pets back in. Surely 80 years in the dog house is sufficient punishment!

The Duchess of Edinburgh, 59, was effortlessly elegant in a navy dress - adorned with golden buttons - and a checkered blazer while enjoying the event. The royal carried at £695 leather shoulder bag to accessorise, and tied the look together with blue suede boots. She wore her blonde tresses down in a relaxed smile and opted for dewy, natural make-up.

The Treetops - an elaborate three-bedroom shack on a tree at the edge of a watering hole in Aberdar National Park - was where the monarch famously 'went up the tree a Princess and came down a Queen' after King George VI died on February 6, 1952. Prince Philip told Elizabeth - who didn't know she had become the Queen - about the death of her father later in their tour of Kenya when they were staying in the nearby Sagana Lodge. The Mau Mau rebellion, which started in the same year as Elizabeth's fateful visit, saw the tree house being used as a British snipers' nest before it was burnt down by the rebels, who had a stronghold in a nearby forest, in 1954. It was rebuilt into a 36-room hotel on stilts that included a Princess Elizabeth suite and had royal memorabilia on its walls.

It was one of the feel-good moments of the decade - the union of Prince William, handsome heir to the throne, and elegant commoner Catherine Middleton on April 29, 2011. Even the British weather agreed, with the clouds parting has the new husband and wife emerged from Westminster Abbey to greet the public - and found themselves bathed in golden spring sunshine. Many of us still have fond memories of those moments. And today, on the anniversary of the Waleses' wedding, we hope to jog a few of those with this A-Z of a glorious occasion.

Born at Balmoral, this grand-daughter of Queen Victoria spent her happy childhood years at Kensington Palace. Later she'd be remembered as the great-great grandmother of the present King of Spain, Felipe VI - but only after a turbulent life which embraced haemophilia, the Spanish flu pandemic, the Spanish Civil War, and exile. Possessed of startling aquamarine eyes, she was 'licentious and very bawdy in her conversation' according to the diarist Chips Channon. In other words, more than a bit naughty. But tragedy stalked her footsteps. She inherited the 'royal disease', haemophilia, through her grandmother Victoria, which she was to pass on to her sons once she married.

The good news about the King's cancer treatment today has been a welcome ray of light after months of speculation about the state of Charles' health and Kate's own diagnosis. The Palace revealed today that the King has responded well to his medical regime following his cancer diagnosis in February. The Princess of Wales is continuing her own treatment, which includes a regime of 'preventative' chemotherapy. But the pair are by no means the first members of the Royal Family to face health battles. The late Queen Mother (left) was secretly twice treated for cancer - once in 1966 when she had a tumour removed from her colon and again in 1984 when the royal had a cancerous growth excised from her breast. In the final decade of his life, Prince Philip (top right) had several stays in hospital, the last of which was to treat a pre-existing heart condition. He died in April 2021, just a few weeks after leaving hospital for the final time. And Charles's early openness about his diagnosis is itself a sharp contrast from the final months of King George VI (bottom right), who passed away 72 years ago after suffering from lung cancer. The condition was kept secret from the King himself, who died five months after having part of his left lung removed.

He was the reluctant king - she was his decidedly reluctant bride. Yet together they led the nation through World War II and enjoyed a fulfilled and happy married life which lasted nearly 30 years. King George VI , known as Bertie, had been given the title Duke of York before his marriage to Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon in 1923. It was said he traded in his affair with Sheila, Lady Loughborough, in return for a home and income of his own. He had to get away from his overbearing father, King George V.

When 23-year-old Anne Coke married the Scottish aristocrat Colin Tennant at St Withburga's Parish Church in Norfolk on 21 April 1956, it must have seemed like a fairytale match. After all Lady Anne, the daughter of the 5th Earl of Leicester, was a wealthy and beautiful former Debutante of the Year whose family had been close confidantes of the Royals family for generations. Her grandmother was Edward VIII's mistress and her father an equerry to George VI, while she had been maid of honour at the late Queen's coronation three years earlier and would later become lady-in-waiting to Princess Margaret. Indeed, Anne had been great friends with the young Princesses Margaret and Elizabeth ever since they had played together as children both at Sandringham and at her own grand home a few miles away - Holkham Hall, a stunning Palladian mansion set in its own glorious 25,000-acre estate. The suave and charismatic Hon. Colin, meanwhile, was heir to Baron Glenconner and the family's 3,500-acre estate at The Glen, near Traquair in the Scottish Borders. As part of Princess Margaret's rather raffish set, he knew many glamorous people from the world of literature, art and show business.

Few jewellery collections could rival that of Queen Elizabeth II. The late monarch, who would have celebrated her 98th birthday tomorrow, possessed an astonishing depth and variety of pieces gathered over the years through purchases, gifts and inheritance. She frequently lent items to Catherine, the Princess of Wales , for special occasions, another sign of the strong bond between the while the Queen was still alive. Since Elizabeth's death, Kate has continued to honour the monarch by wearing some of her most cherished treasures.

One might assume that being a member of one of the richest families in the world guarantees you a lavish and carefree life. But in the case of the billionaire Getty family, nothing could be further from the truth. For while money certainly can buy mansions, jewels, and entry into the highest echelons of society, the heirs to the Getty fortune have proven the age old adage that money - no matter how much - cannot buy happiness. That message was made clear yet again this week when heiress Ivy Getty, whose family has an estimated net worth of $4.5 billion, announced that she was divorcing her husband Tobias 'Toby' Engel after just four years of marriage, the latest in a line of heartbreaks to befall the wealthy family.

Buckingham Palace has been the official residence of the monarch since 1837. It is the go-to place on great ceremonial occasions, when crowds fill the length of the Mall to see the King - or Queen - on the famous balcony. On special occasions there are fly-pasts above it and so this great edifice in the centre of London has come to represent stability at the centre of national life. As for those who live inside it the story is rather different, however. It is by no means the favourite home of the Kings and Queens who have occupied it.

After seven decades of certainty and of a monarch who was an unwavering physical presence on the landscape of British national life, the future for the Royal Family suddenly looks less than clear. In the past, it had been been rocked by scandals, extra-marital affairs and what felt in the mid-1990s like a never-ending stream of divorces that all but shattered the fairy-tale ideal of the modern royal marriage. Despite these upheavals royal life, as a whole, continued as normal. This is not the case today, when the difficulties are not just a matter of reputation but are practical.

After a professional lifetime of watching the British Royal Family, first as a professional photographer and now as a historian, I've got a pretty good grasp of how the media coverage works, the incessant nature of it, and so on. That, at least, is what I thought - until the health struggles of King Charles and, more particularly, Catherine, the Princess of Wales. The world-wide attention is on a scale I've never seen before, with the possible exception of the coverage devoted to Diana amid the dramatic collapse of her marriage to Charles. In the wake  of Kate's moving video message, in which she revealed her cancer diagnosis, I looked at the coverage in overseas newspapers - and the results surprised even me.

Lurking stealthily below the surface and armed with devastating weaponry, the Royal Navy's new generation of nuclear submarines is set to become a fearsome adversary in the oceans. Dubbed the 'silent enforcers', the Dreadnought-class submarines are said to be as quiet as an idling car, allowing them to avoid detection. The four vessels - HMS Dreadnought, HMS Valiant, HMS Warspite and HMS King George VI - will replace the ageing Vanguard fleet and become the nation's main nuclear deterrents. BAE Systems is working alongside Rolls-Royce and the Submarine Delivery Agency to deliver the programme, with the first of the vessels - HMS Dreadnought - to be completed in the 2030s. Admiral Lord West said that the high-tech submarines would keep Britain 'ahead of the game'.

Wallis Simpson , the Duchess of Windsor, was frantic with worry. On 16 October 1946, she and her husband the Duke of Windsor - the former Edward VIII - had left Ednam Lodge in Berkshire, where they had been staying with friends,  for dinner at Claridge's hotel in London. In their absence, a daring raid took place at the house, and jewellery of Wallis's that  worth as much as £25,000 (around £1.3 million today) was stolen, never to be recovered. It affected both the Duke and Duchess deeply. Edward later wrote to his brother, King George VI , saying he had discovered 'the bitter and costly way that Great Britain is no longer the secure and law-abiding country it used to be.'