In Photos: The Life of George HW Bush

Official portrait of President George HW Bush by Herbert E Abrams, unveiled at the White House on 17 July 1995.

Photograph: Time Life Pictures/Getty Image

After the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 during the second world war, Bush enlisted in the US Navy on his 18th birthday, becoming the youngest aviator in the navy at that time.

Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

George HW Bush and Barbara Pierce on their wedding day in Rye, New York, in January 1945.

Photograph: Everett/Shutterstock/Rex

Captain of the Yale baseball team, Bush played in the first College World Series in 1947.

Photograph: AP

As a congressman in 1968, Bush pins bars on his son George W’s uniform, representing his entry into the Texas air national guard as a 2nd lieutenant.

Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

George and Barbara in Beijing the year after President Gerald Ford appointed Bush as the chief of the US liaison office to China in 1973.

Photograph: AFP/Getty Images