Famous George V of the United Kingdom Quotes
“You dress like a cad. You act like a cad. You are a cad.”
Allegedly said to his son, Prince Edward. Quoted by Christopher Warwick in Abdication (Sidgwick and Jackson, 1986)
Attributed
“It's the shortest one I know.”
Allegedly said to Sir Thomas Beecham on the opera La Bohème, on why it was his favourite.
Attributed
“For seventeen years, he did nothing at all but kill animals and stick in stamps.”
Harold Nicolson; Diary, 17 Aug 1949
About
Alleged last words, after his nurse administered a sedative.
Attributed
George V of the United Kingdom Quotes
“I may be uninspiring, but I'll be damned if I'm alien.”
Allegedly said in response to H. G. Wells's criticism of his "alien [i.e. German-descended] and uninspiring court"
Attributed
Attributed in Randolph Churchill's Lord Derby (1959), but said by Kenneth Rose https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Rose in King George V (1983) to be almost certainly apocryphal.
Attributed
Speech at Guildhall, 5 Dec 1901, quoted in Harold Nicolson, King George V (1952), p.73
Allegedly said to J.A. Tilleard, Honorary Secretary, Philatelic Society, on appointing him as Philatelist to the King.
Attributed
Lord Stamfordham, private secretary to George V, on 26 July 1920. The original Royal Warrant involved an expulsion clause that allowed for a recipient's name to be erased from the official register in certain wholly discreditable circumstances and his pension cancelled. Eight were forfeited between 1861 and 1908. George V strongly opposed the concept of revoking a Victoria Cross, and directed Lord Stamfordham to express this view forcefully in a letter.
About
“I look upon him as the greatest criminal known for having plunged the world into war.”
Alleged statement about his cousin Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany (1918)
Attributed
“After I am dead, the boy will ruin himself in twelve months.”
Statement to Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, referring to his son, Edward, Prince of Wales
Quoted in Keith Middlemas and John Barnes, Baldwin (1969) ch.34
Said to Anthony Eden on 23 December 1935 following the furore that erupted over the Hoare-Laval Pact.
Quoted in Earl of Avon, Facing the Dictators (1962) pt.2 ch.1
“They make me look like a stuffed monkey.”
Allegedly said about two postage stamps issued in 1911.
Attributed
“What did you do about peeing?”
Allegedly said to Charles Lindbergh after he flew the Atlantic solo in an aeroplane.
Attributed
On the morning of his death; quoted in Kenneth Rose, King George V (1983), ch.10
