Who was Prince George?
The Prince of Wales, Edward became Edward VIII in 1936 and then abdicated. The next eldest son and second child of Edward's father George V was Albert, called Bertie by those closest to him, who became George VI in 1938 upon the abdication of his elder brother - and is the present queen's father, George VI. Their dad George V's fifth of six children was Prince George, their brother - for whom our city is named, making Prince George the present Queen's uncle. The closest our namesake George came to our fair city was Alberta in 1927 - Calgary to be exact - where he visited with the Prince of Wales, Edward - resulting in the naming of Calgary's Princes Island in their honour.
Our Prince George died in 1942 in a plane crash in Scotland. Lastly, while we came close to having the next King be the King of England with a Yes vote in the recent Scottish referendum, since the union of the English and Scottish crowns in 1707 there hasn't been a King or Queen of England in nearly 200 years. Queen Ann was the last Queen of England - for the last 200 odd years, the monarch is King or Queen of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, but there is no Queen of England. Though, oddly enough, there is a Queen of Canada.
Well, that's a lot of history, but since it is our 100th, we should know a bit about our namesake. Perhaps it's time to change our city's name?
Nancy D. Alexander
Prince George
