Lloyd George Knew My Father (song)
"Lloyd George Knew My Father" is a 20th-century English schoolboy folk song. The simple lyrics consist of the phrase "Lloyd George knew my father/Father knew Lloyd George"[1][2] sung to the tune of "Onward, Christian Soldiers".[A] In the song, the two lines referring to Lloyd George (LG) are repeated incessantly, until boredom sets in.[3] There are no lyrics other than those two lines.
The origin of the song is not known[4] but there are several theories, one that it began as a music hall song making an oblique reference to David Lloyd George's supposed womanizing proclivities and rumours of adultery[5] with the neglected wives of his benefactors and acquaintances[6] (with the right timing and intonation and a well-placed wink, "father" could be taken to mean "mother", and "knew" in the biblical sense of sexual relations; thus the singer might even have been fathered by LG, "the Goat").[4]
The Oxford Dictionary of Political Quotations attributes the song to Tommy Rhys Roberts QC, the son of a former law partner of Lloyd George, who literally knew him.[4] According to David Owen, it was a World War I marching song.[4]
Notes
[edit]- ^ Arthur Sullivan's version of the tune. Sabine Baring-Gould had written the hymn in 1865 but had used a theme from the andante movement of Joseph Haydn's Symphony 53 in D major as the music. Sullivan composed a new tune (which he named "Saint Gertrude") in 1871 to go with Baring-Gould's lyrics, and it is this version which is commonly used since.[7]
References
[edit]- ^ "Wee Sing Lyrics: Lloyd George Knew My Father". Lyrics Time. Archived from the original on 22 February 2014. Retrieved 21 November 2019.
- ^ Taylor, A. J. P. (1965). English History 1914–1945. Oxford University Press. p. 73. ISBN 978-0-19-821715-2. Archived from the original on 22 March 2012. Retrieved 21 November 2019.
- ^ Lucas Miller (16 March 2009). "William Douglas Home's Lloyd George Knew My Father". Berkshire Review. Retrieved 3 April 2011.
- ^ a b c d "Lloyd George knew my father....but what's the origin of the famous song?". Lloyd George Society. 31 January 2009. Archived from the original on 1 February 2011. Retrieved 3 April 2011.
- ^ Hague, Ffion, The Pain and the Privilege: The Women in Lloyd George's Life, London: HarperPress, 2008.
- ^ "Llanystumdwy, Gwynedd". Wales Directory. Retrieved 3 April 2011.
- ^ Jack Boyd, ed. (1986). Great Songs of the Church, Revised. Abilene, Texas: ACU Press., No. 412.
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