John Hubert Ward monarchs. He was appointed Equerry to King Edward VII 28 February 1902, and served until the King′s death in 1910. He was then an Extra Equerry to King George V 1910-1936, to King Edward VIII in 1936, and to King George VI from 1937 until the following year, when he died. Ward's engagement to Jean Templeton Reid (1884–1962) was announced in April 1908. She was the daughter of Whitelaw Reid, American ambassador to the United Kingdom, sister of Ogden Mills Reid, a New York publisher, the granddaughter of Darius Ogden Mills, an American financier, and the niece of Ogden Mills,
George V Germany fell, while the British Empire expanded to its greatest effective extent. In 1917, George became the first monarch of the House of Windsor, which he renamed from the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha as a result of anti-German public sentiment. In 1924 he appointed the first Labour ministry and in 1931 the Statute of Westminster recognised the dominions of the Empire as separate, independent states within the Commonwealth of Nations. He had smoking-related health problems throughout much of his later reign and at his death was succeeded by his eldest son, Edward VIII. George was born on 3 June