British royal family change their name to Windsor - archive 1917
One hundred years ago, King George V changed the name of the British royal family from the German Saxe-Coburg and Gotha to the English Windsor
Richard Nelsson
Mon 17 Jul 2017 07.31 EDT
On 17 July 1917 King George V issued a proclamation declaring “The Name of Windsor is to be borne by His Royal House and Family and Relinquishing the Use of All German Titles and Dignities.”
This name change saw every German reference and title being replaced with something British. The use of “Degrees, Styles, Dignities, Titles and Honours of Dukes and Duchesses of Saxony and Princes and Princesses of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and all other German Degrees, Styles, Dignities, Titles, Honours and Appellations,” was to be discontinued.
The decision to adopt Windsor as the family name came amid strong anti-German feeling during the first world war. But the turning point was public anger at air raids over London, and in particular the bombing of a school in the East End.
On 13 June 1917, the Germans began daylight raids on Britain and in one of the first attacks
18 children were killed when a bomb fell directly onto Upper North Street School in Poplar. German Gotha bombers carried out the strike - by coincidence, the same name as the royal family.
News of the proposed name change first appeared in the Manchester Guardian in mid-June 1917.
more
One hundred years ago, King George V changed the name of the British royal family from the German Saxe-Coburg and Gotha to the English Windsor