Demise of the Crown: #24: George VI Memorials

As the official public record since 1665, The Gazette has been recording the deaths of monarchs for over three centuries. As part of our ‘Demise of the Crown’ series, historian Russell Malloch looks through the archives at The Gazette’s reporting of demise events following the death of King George VI.

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King George VI’s coffin was placed in the Georgian crypt or royal vault below the Albert Memorial Chapel at Windsor, but it would be almost two decades before his permanent destination was settled. This contrasted with the much shorter time that elapsed between the demise of the crown and the placing of many of his predecessors’ remains in their final resting place.

George II, for example, was buried in Westminster Abbey within three weeks of his demise, and George III and his two Hanoverian successors were also laid to rest at Windsor within a period of weeks rather than years. Similarly, there was no delay in finding a home for Queen Victoria’s remains, as her burial site had been ready in the mausoleum at Frogmore for many years before she expired.

Edward VII took much longer to accommodate, and did not reach his tomb, close to the altar of St George’s Chapel, until the late 1920s, and it was three years before George V moved from the royal vault to his sarcophagus in the north nave in 1939.

Royal additions

Long before George VI’s resting place was constructed, a number of modest additions were made to royal churches to commemorate his life and reign, with Elizabeth II attending the dedication of memorials to her father at Sandringham, Balmoral and Edinburgh. Steps were also taken to add to London’s supply of statues, which showed sovereigns and their consorts in their Garter robes, starting with the Prince Consort’s effigy at the Albert Memorial in Kensington.

In 1947 Queen Elizabeth, later the Queen Mother, saw the statue of her Garter robed father-in-law being revealed across from the Houses of Parliament, and in October 1955 she attended the inauguration of the bronze statue of her husband in his Garter robes. When unveiling this monument at Carlton Gardens, beside the Mall, Elizabeth II noted that, like his father, her father had expected to support the throne rather than to fill it.

The Gazette reported awards connected with the George VI memorial, as Sir George Wilkinson, the lord mayor of London who chaired the national memorial fund committee, became a knight commander in the Victorian Order (KCVO), while the sculptor William McMillan and the architect Louis de Soissons were admitted as commanders (CVO), and the site foreman became a member (MVO) (Gazette issue 40669).

At Sandringham, the King was recalled in a plaque that followed the general commemorative scheme in St Mary Magdalene’s Church. The memorial stone tablet was surmounted by a circular bronze plaque, showing the head and shoulders of George VI, once again wearing his Garter robes, and was dedicated by the bishop of Norwich in December 1956.

Near his Balmoral home, the King was remembered in a similar way to his father, in the church at Crathie, where a bust of him wearing the robes of the Thistle was dedicated in September 1957. The King was also recalled in the Thistle Chapel in Edinburgh, close to the spot where Queen Elizabeth II lay in state, where the memorial consisted of a floor plaque showing the royal arms, which was dedicated in July 1962.

The King at Windsor

The late King may have been provided with memorials in Edinburgh and London and at several royal venues around the nation, but it took 17 years before his final resting place was dedicated, close to his stall as sovereign of the Order of the Garter.

In terms of precedent, no tomb or structure had been erected to recall the life of any of the Stuart or Hanoverian sovereigns of the Garter who lay in Westminster Abbey, or the three kings who lay below the Tomb House in Windsor Castle. There was ample room in the Georgian crypt to accommodate the remains of George VI, especially after 1928 when several caskets were removed and re-interred at Frogmore.

Queen Victoria had secured a more magnificent departure for herself, as she was buried beside the Prince Consort in their sumptuous shrine at Frogmore. Then there were the relatively modest tombs in St George’s for Edward VII and George V, with sarcophagi and recumbent figures in Garter robes.

The taste for such large and costly memorials seems to have passed by the early 1960s, when it was decided to house George VI’s remains in a modern version of a Gothic chantry chapel, which was added to the structure of St George’s, and placed between two buttresses on the north wall, where it was hidden from view from the Lower Ward.

One commentator, who wrote a brief guide that was given to members of the royal family in connection with the opening of the chapel, said of George VI that:

“[his] trust in God was simple and deep, his faith in Christ firm, his devotion to the Church of England sincere. He appreciated all in the Commonwealth who aspired after true religion. St George’s Chapel was for him a place of regular worship and within its walls his faith was nourished and sustained. He re-established the annual service of the Order of the Garter and the religious solemnity of the installation of new knights. He is remembered as a good, just and God-fearing king. It is for these reasons that this chapel has been added to St George’s as both his memorial and his resting-place.”

The King had indeed played an important part in breathing fresh life into the affairs of the Garter, after long periods of inactivity. In 1937 he attended the first annual service for the knights to be organised since before the first world war, and in 1948 he held the first installation of members of the order since 1805, the year in which the first of the modern funerals took place at Windsor for the Duke of Gloucester.

The Gazette of April 1937 had published an address by the dean and canons of the Free Chapel of St George, which was presented to the King at Windsor Castle by Albert Baillie, who had supervised the transfer of the royal remains from the Georgian crypt to Frogmore. Dean Baillie and his colleagues said:

“It is of happy augury for us that you bear the name of England’s patron saint whom our chapel commemorates. Twice in its long history the fabric has needed large reparation. At the close of the eighteenth century this work was munificently supported by His Majesty King George III. Between 1920 and 1930 the whole building was restored and strengthened, an undertaking powerfully supported by the generosity and unfailing interest of your beloved father. We are confident that you also, with Her Majesty the Queen, will hold in high regard this house of God, wherein through centuries your predecessors joined with ours in worship.” (Gazette issue 34387)

Memorial Chapel

The tiny building that was designed to house George VI’s remains was made of Northamptonshire stone, in an attempt to blend with the fabric of the existing chapel, although it was accepted that from the outside the new structure showed up brightly against the grime of 500 years, and that the chapel was capable of inducing “aesthetic queasiness”.

The austere interior contained two parts. The mortuary chapel housed a black ledger stone inscribed “George VI”, and on the wall was a replica of the Dick bronze plaque from Sandringham, showing the head and shoulders of the King in his Garter robes. Beyond that, was the liturgical chapel with a plain stone altar and two candlesticks, and windows designed by John Piper.

Access was from the north quire aisle, through wrought iron gates, and with a view of the ledger stone available from the aisle. On the screen at the entrance to the chapel there were two panels, one recording the King’s life and reign, and the second the words he used in broadcasting to the nation in 1939 on the first Christmas day of the war:

“I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year, “Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.” And he replied “Go out into the darkness, and put your hand into the hand of God. That shall be to you better than a light, and safer than a known way.”.

The King’s body was laid in the new vault on 26 March 1969, and the chapel – known as the King George VI Memorial Chapel – was dedicated at evensong five days later by the dean of Windsor, Robin Woods (Gazette issue 42849). The procession in St George’s included the Military Knights of Windsor, together with the officers and companions of the Garter, and the service was attended by the Queen and family members, but not Lord Mountbatten of Burma, who was in Washington, representing the sovereign at the funeral of President Eisenhower.

One of the architects who was responsible for grafting the memorial chapel onto a building he described as “one of the most magnificent of the final flowering of English Gothic” was George Pace, whose works included a post-war restoration of Llandaff Cathedral, where his pulpitum was still regarded as a controversial composition when King Charles III attended a service in 2022, in the days between his mother’s death and funeral. Pace was made a commander in the Victorian Order (CVO) in the New Year’s honours list of 1971 (Gazette issue 45262).

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Succession to the Crown: From Charles II to Charles III

Succession to the Crown is essential reading for anyone with a keen interest in the British royal family and provides an excellent and trusted source of information for historians, researchers and academics alike. The book takes you on a journey exploring the coronations, honours and emblems of the British monarchy, from the demise of King Charles II in 1685, through to the accession of King Charles III, as recorded in The London Gazette.

Historian Russell Malloch tells the story of the Crown through trusted, factual information found in the UK's official public record. Learn about the traditions and ceremony engrained in successions right up to the demise of Queen Elizabeth II and the resulting proclamation and accession of King Charles III.

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About the author

Russell Malloch is a member of the Orders and Medals Research Society and an authority on British honours. He authored Succession to the Crown: From Charles II to Charles III, which explores the coronations, honours and emblems of the British monarchy.

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Succession to the Crown: - From Charles II to Charles III (TSO shop)

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Publication date

24 March 2025

Any opinion expressed in this article is that of the author and the author alone, and does not necessarily represent that of The Gazette.