"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]