Claim: Edward VIII abdicated the throne.

George VI -LRB- Albert Frederick Arthur George ; 14 December 1895 -- 6 February 1952 -RRB- was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until his death . He was the last Emperor of India and the first Head of the Commonwealth .   Known as Albert until his accession , George VI was born in the reign of his great-grandmother Queen Victoria , and was named after his great-grandfather Albert , Prince Consort . As the second son of King George V , he was not expected to inherit the throne and spent his early life in the shadow of his elder brother , Edward . He attended naval college as a teenager , and served in the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force during the First World War . In 1920 , he was made Duke of York . He married Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon in 1923 and they had two daughters , Elizabeth and Margaret . In the mid-1920s , he had speech therapy for a stammer , which he never fully overcame .   George 's elder brother ascended the throne as Edward VIII upon the death of their father in 1936 . However , later that year Edward revealed his desire to marry divorced American socialite Wallis Simpson . British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin advised Edward that for political and religious reasons he could not marry a divorced woman and remain king . Edward abdicated in order to marry , and George ascended the throne as the third monarch of the House of Windsor .   During George 's reign , the break-up of the British Empire and its transition into the Commonwealth of Nations accelerated . The parliament of the Irish Free State removed direct mention of the monarch from the country 's constitution on the day of his accession . The following year , a new Irish constitution changed the name of the state to Ireland and established the office of President . From 1939 , the Empire and Commonwealth -- except Ireland -- was at war with Nazi Germany . War with Italy and Japan followed in 1940 and 1941 , respectively . Though Britain and its allies were ultimately victorious in 1945 , the United States and the Soviet Union rose as pre-eminent world powers and the British Empire declined . After the independence of India and Pakistan in 1947 , George remained king of both countries , but relinquished the title of Emperor of India in June 1948 . Ireland formally declared itself a republic and left the Commonwealth in 1949 , and India became a republic within the Commonwealth the following year . George adopted the new title of Head of the Commonwealth . He was beset by health problems in the later years of his reign . He was succeeded by his eldest daughter , Elizabeth II .