George VI: The Naval King

William IV is remembered as 'the Sailor King', but the 20th Century had its own sailor king too: George VI, father of Queen Elizabeth II.

Prince Albert (as he was known before adopting the regnal name George), spent most of his youth in the Royal Navy. At the age of 13 (in 1909) he entered the Royal Naval College, Osborne, as a naval cadet. Osborne was a college that was active from 1903-21, training young boys from around the ages of 13-15, before they headed off to Dartmouth. Unfortunately, the young Prince came bottom of his class in his final exams, but unsurprisingly due to his status was allowed to continue on to the Britannia Royal Naval College, Dartmouth.

Prince Albert as a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy

Albert started the year of 1913 in the Caribbean and around Canada on HMS Cumberland, a Monmouth class armoured cruiser refitted to be a training ship. He spent the later parts of that year on HMS Collingwood, a St. Vincent-class battleship, in the Mediterranean, gaining the nickname 'Mr. Johnson' from his shipmates. In 1914, the First World War broke out, but three weeks later Albert was evacuated from the ship to have his appendix removed in Aberdeen.
In 1916, back on Collingwood, he served in the famous Battle of Jutland as a turret officer, for which he was mentioned in despatches. This made him the first British monarch to see action since his fellow naval King, William IV, over 100 years earlier. He did not see action in the rest of the war however, due to ill health.

Prince Albert as a midshipman on HMS Collingwood

In 1918 he became Officer in Charge of Boys at the Royal Naval Air Service's training establishment of Cranwell. And two months later, with the establishment of the RAF and the transfer of Cranwell to Air Ministry control, he himself transferred to the Royal Air Force. Hence, his naval career came to an end and he continued serving in the RAF for the rest of his time in the military, becoming the first member of the British Royal Family to become a fully qualified pilot.

But despite finishing his time in the Forces in the RAF, he is mainly remembered for his time in the Senior Service. And throughout his years as King, he proudly wore his Naval uniform with the rank of Admiral of the Fleet.

And it was recently announced by the First Sea Lord that George VI's naval legacy will live on for decades to come, in the form of the fourth Dreadnought class Ballistic Missile Submarine, HMS King George VI. The first Royal Naval vessel to bare his name, King George VI will "represent the cutting edge of underwater capability and meet the awesome challenge of continuous at sea deterrence into the second half of the 21st century" as Admiral Sir Philip Jones puts it.

HMS King George VI will help maintain the UK's Continuous-at-Sea-Deterrent for decades in the future

And with a young future King with most likely a long military career ahead of him, there's a strong possibility that our next King George could also have a Naval career behind him.