“The British Army should be a projectile to be fired by the British Navy.”

—  Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon

Quoted by Admiral 'Jacky' Fisher in Memories p.18 https://archive.org/stream/memoriesbyadmira00fishuoft#page/18/mode/1up (1919).

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The British Army should be a projectile to be fired by the British Navy." by Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon?
Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon photo
Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon 20
British Liberal statesman 1862–1933

Related quotes

Edmund Burke photo

“I should not be surprized at seeing a French Army conveyed by a British Navy to an attack upon this Kingdom.”

Edmund Burke (1729–1797) Anglo-Irish statesman

Letter to French Laurence (12 May 1797) after hearing of the mutinies in the Royal Navy, quoted in R. B. McDowell (ed.), The Correspondence of Edmund Burke, Volume IX: May 1796–July 1797 (Cambridge University Press, 1970), p. 333
1790s

Bruce Palmer Jr. photo

“Some years ago when I visited the British Army Museum in London, I was impressed by the way in which the history of the British Army was presented. Basically the display briefly and succinctly gave for each war involving the British Army the immediate and more remote causes of the war, British casualties, and the outcome, politically, territorially, economically, and the like. As I went through the display covering centuries of English history in a few minutes, I was struck by what perhaps should have been obvious from the outset. The history of the British Army also chronicles the history of Great Britain. And so it is in our own case- the history of the U. S. Army is inseparable from the history of the United States. We who have been or are privileged now to serve in the American Army should keep that fact in mind.”

Bruce Palmer Jr. (1913–2000) United States Army Chief of Staff

Source: The 25-Year War: America's Military Role in Vietnam (1984), p. 209

Kim Il-sung photo

“Engels once called the British army the most brutal army. During the Second World War, the German fascist army surpassed the barbarism of the British army. No human brain could ever imagine more diabolic and terrible cruelty then those done by the Hitler gangsters at that time. But in Korea, the Americans have far exceed the Hitlerites!”

Kim Il-sung (1912–1994) President of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea

Kim Il-sung to the Swedish communist leader Frank Baude in 1993. Quote and translated fr Mot strömmen, pg. 186: "Engels kallade en gång den brittiska armén den mest brutala armén. Under andra världskriget överträffade den tyska fascistarmén brittiska armén i barbari. Ingen mänsklig hjärna kunde någonsin föreställa sig mer djävulska och förfärliga grymheter än dem som begicks av Hitler-skurkarna vid den tiden. Men i Korea har amerikanerna långt mer överträffat hitleristerna."

Wilhelm II, German Emperor photo

“[The German Legion] which, in conjunction with Blucher and the Prussians at Waterloo, saved the British Army from destruction.”

Wilhelm II, German Emperor (1859–1941) German Emperor and King of Prussia

Speech celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Hanoverian regiments (19 December 1903), quoted in The Times (21 December 1903), p. 9
1900s

David Dixon Porter photo

“[T]he navy must be an adjunct to the army, yet the officers and men of the navy should always have full credit for the service they perform.”

David Dixon Porter (1813–1891) United States Navy admiral

Source: 1880s, Incidents and Anecdotes of the Civil War (1885), p. 212

Will Durant photo

“It might have been supposed that the building of 30,000 miles of railways would have brought a measure of prosperity to India. But these railways were built not for India but for England; not for the benefit of the Hindu, but for the purposes of the British army and British trade.”

Will Durant (1885–1981) American historian, philosopher and writer

The Case for India (1931)

Bernard Cornwell photo

“Thank God for the hours of training, thank God that, for all its sometimes stupidity, the British army was the only army that trained its infantry with real ammunition.”

Bernard Cornwell (1944) British writer

Narrator, p. 283
Sharpe (Novel Series), Sharpe's Enemy (1984)

“God forbid, if the British rule disappears from India. Hindus will lord over it, and we will be in constant danger of our life, property and honour. The only way for the Muslims to escape this danger is to help in the continuance of the British rule. If the Muslims are heartily with the British, then that rule is bound to endure. Let the Muslims consider themselves as a British army ready to shed their blood and sacrifice their lives for the British Crown… Wherever you are, whether in the football field or in the tennis lawn, you have to consider yourselves as soldiers of a British regiment. You have to defend the British Empire, and to give the enemy [Hindus] a fight in doing so. If you bear it in mind and act accordingly, you will have done that and your name will be written in letters of gold in the British Indian history. The future generations will be grateful to you.”

Nawab Waqar-ul-Mulk Kamboh (1841–1917) Politician for India's independence

Viqar-ul-Mulk addressing a students’ gathering at Aligarh. Cited by R.C. Majumdar (ed.), History and Culture of the Indian People, Volume XI, Bombay, 1981, p.146. Quoted from Goel, Sita Ram (1995). Muslim separatism: Causes and consequences. ISBN 9788185990262

Charles Haughey photo

“It's guarded by units of the British army and I can never come up to this border without experiencing deep feelings of anger and resentment.”

Charles Haughey (1925–2006) Irish politician

Ex-Irish Taoiseach Haughey dies http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3001775.stm (BBC News online)
In a television documentary in the 1980s.

Ned Kelly photo

“I will be compelled to show some colonial stratagem which will open the eyes of not only the Victoria Police and inhabitants but also the whole British army”

Ned Kelly (1855–1880) Australian bushranger

Jerilderie Letter (1879)
Context: It will pay Government to give those people who are suffering innocence, justice and liberty. if not I will be compelled to show some colonial stratagem which will open the eyes of not only the Victoria Police and inhabitants but also the whole British army and no doubt they will acknowledge their hounds were barking at the wrong stump.

Related topics