Lloyd George Knew My Father (song)

This article is about the schoolboy song. For other uses, see Lloyd George Knew My Father.

"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

1. 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

1. "Wee Sing Lyrics: Lloyd George Knew My Father". Lyrics Time. Archived from the original on 22 February 2014. Retrieved 21 November 2019.
2. 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.
3. Lucas Miller (16 March 2009). "William Douglas Home's Lloyd George Knew My Father". Berkshire Review. Retrieved 3 April 2011.
4. "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.
5. Hague, Ffion, The Pain and the Privilege: The Women in Lloyd George's Life, London: HarperPress, 2008.
6. "Llanystumdwy, Gwynedd". Wales Directory. Retrieved 3 April 2011.
7. Jack Boyd, ed. (1986). Great Songs of the Church, Revised. Abilene, Texas: ACU Press., No. 412.