George V of the United Kingdom Quotes

George V was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until his death in 1936.

Born during the reign of his grandmother Queen Victoria, George was third in the line of succession behind his father, Prince Albert Edward, and his own elder brother, Prince Albert Victor. From 1877 to 1891, George served in the Royal Navy, until the unexpected death of his elder brother in early 1892 put him directly in line for the throne. On the death of his grandmother in 1901, George's father ascended the throne as Edward VII, and George was created Prince of Wales. He became king-emperor on his father's death in 1910.

George V's reign saw the rise of socialism, communism, fascism, Irish republicanism, and the Indian independence movement, all of which radically changed the political landscape. The Parliament Act 1911 established the supremacy of the elected British House of Commons over the unelected House of Lords. As a result of the First World War , the empires of his first cousins Nicholas II of Russia and Wilhelm II of 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 British 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. Wikipedia  

✵ 3. June 1865 – 20. January 1936
George V of the United Kingdom photo
George V of the United Kingdom: 19 quotes2 likes

Famous George V of the United Kingdom Quotes

“You dress like a cad. You act like a cad. You are a cad.”

George V of the United Kingdom

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.”

George V of the United Kingdom

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.”

George V of the United Kingdom

Harold Nicolson; Diary, 17 Aug 1949
About

“Goddamn you!”

George V of the United Kingdom

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.”

George V of the United Kingdom

Allegedly said in response to H. G. Wells's criticism of his "alien [i.e. German-descended] and uninspiring court"
Attributed

“My father was frightened of his mother. I was frightened of my father and I am damned well going to see to it that my children are frightened of me.”

George V of the United Kingdom

Attributed in Randolph Churchill&#x27;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. <br class="br">Attributed

“The Old Country must wake up if she intends to maintain her old position of pre-eminence in her Colonial trade against foreign competitors.”

George V of the United Kingdom

Speech at Guildhall, 5 Dec 1901, quoted in Harold Nicolson, King George V (1952), p.73

“But, remember, I wish to have the best collection, not just one of the best collections in England.”

George V of the United Kingdom

Allegedly said to J.A. Tilleard, Honorary Secretary, Philatelic Society, on appointing him as Philatelist to the King.
Attributed

“The King feels so strongly that, no matter the crime committed by anyone on whom the VC has been conferred, the decoration should not be forfeited. Even were a VC to be sentenced to be hanged for murder, he should be allowed to wear his VC on the scaffold.”

George V of the United Kingdom

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.”

George V of the United Kingdom

Alleged statement about his cousin Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany (1918)
Attributed

“After I am dead, the boy will ruin himself in twelve months.”

George V of the United Kingdom

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

“I said to your predecessor: 'You know what they're all saying, no more coals to Newcastle, no more Hoares to Paris.' The fellow didn't even laugh.”

George V of the United Kingdom

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.”

George V of the United Kingdom

Allegedly said about two postage stamps issued in 1911.
Attributed

“What did you do about peeing?”

George V of the United Kingdom

Allegedly said to Charles Lindbergh after he flew the Atlantic solo in an aeroplane.
Attributed

“How's the Empire?”

George V of the United Kingdom

On the morning of his death; quoted in Kenneth Rose, King George V (1983), ch.10

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