The House of Windsor

On 17 July 1917, at a meeting of the Privy Council, King George V declared that 'all descendants in the male line of Queen Victoria, who are subjects of these realms, other than female descendants who marry or who have married, shall bear the name of Windsor'.  It remains the family name today.

In 1901, the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha succeeded the House of Hanover with the accession of King Edward VII, son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. 

In 1917 the name change came about due to anti-German sentiment in the United Kingdom during WW1.  These feelings reached a peak in March 1917 when the Gotha GIV, a heavy aircraft capable of crossing the English Channel, began bombing London and it became a household name. 

Add to that the abdication of King George’s first cousin, Tsar Nicholas II, Emperor of Russia, which raised the spectre of the eventual abolition of all monarchies in Europe.  The King changed the family name plus all German titles and house names were anglicized.  The name had a long association with monarchy in Britain, through the town of Windsor and Windsor Castle.

There have been four British monarchs of the House of Windsor: King George V, King Edward VIII, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth II.

In Windsor today the George V Memorial Fountain commemorates this event.  It was constructed in 1936 by Sir Edwin Lutyens and has a blue plaque on the front.  It was unveiled on 23 April 1937 by King George VI.  Carved on the memorial is George V First Sovereign of the House of Windsor.