Person    | Male  Born 28/3/1660  Died 11/6/1727

King George I

Born Hanover. When the last of Queen Anne's 17 children died without issue (no one could accuse her of not trying) there were lots of Catholic potential claimants, but Britain wanted a Protestant heir. Looking further afield, the Act of Settlement named some descendants of James I, Sophia and her son George, who ascended the throne in 1714, unable to speak English.

The sad story of his wife, Sophia Dorothea of Celle, is told in the 1948 film 'Saraband for Dead Lovers'. Mother of the future George II, she never came to Britain, having been effectively imprisioned in Castle of Ahlden in Saxony, from 1695 till her death in 1726.

Invested in and was governor of the South Sea company whose trade was slavery.

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This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
King George I

Commemorated ati

Buck Hill bastion

This is really an information board rather than a plaque and has a number of ...

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King George I statue, WC1

The spire is an astonishing sight, one of our London favourites. It is a tall...

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Monarchs - board in Wine Office Court

When they add Charles III we wonder if they will remember to also increment t...

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Monarchs - board on Fleet Street

This board reads as if the pub has been rebuilt in each of the monarchs' reig...

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Show all 6

Other Subjects

198 Gallery

198 Gallery

Also known as 198 Contemporary Arts and Learning. An art space and gallery in Railton Road, Brixton that for more than three decades has had a strong commitment to diversity, equality and inclusion...

Group, Art, Community / Clubs, Race Issues

1 memorial
King George III

King George III

Born in St James's Square (not the public garden, one of the houses, obviously). Crowned in 1760, the first monarch since Queen Anne to be truly British. It was during his rule that many of the Ame...

Person, Race Issues, Royalty, Seriously Famous

16 memorials
Marcus Garvey

Marcus Garvey

Pan-African nationalist leader. Born Marcus Mosiah Garvey in St Ann's Bay, Jamaica. He founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association in 1914 to foster worldwide black unity, and moved its hea...

Person, Politics & Administration, Race Issues, Jamaica, USA

6 memorials
Alfred Beit

Alfred Beit

Co-founder and funder (with Sir Julius Wernher) of the Royal School of Mines building. Born Hamburg, learnt the diamond trade in Amsterdam and went to Kimberley where he met Wernher and Cecil Rhod...

Person, Industry, Philanthropy, Race Issues, Africa, Germany, South Africa

1 memorial
Henry Thornton

Henry Thornton

Anti-slavery campaigner. Born Clapham. Successful banker. Good friends with his (indirect) cousin, William Wilberforce, prior to their marriages they shared a house bought by Thornton, Battersea Ri...

Person, Commerce, Philanthropy, Politics & Administration, Race Issues, Religion

1 memorial

Previously viewed

Franklin, Gosling, Stokes, Wilson, Wilkins

Franklin, Gosling, Stokes, Wilson, Wilkins

WC2, Strand

R. E. Franklin, R. G. Gosling, A. R. Stokes, M. H. F. Wilkins, H. R. Wilson King's College London DNA, X-ray, diffraction studies 1953.

6 subjects commemorated, 1 creator
First synagogue after resettlement

First synagogue after resettlement

A house in Creechurch Lane was converted to a synagogue for the Sephardi Jews (Spanish and Portuguese) which opened in 1657. This was enlarged but the increase in numbers quickly made a purpose-bui...

Building, Religion

1 memorial