KING GEORGE’S REIGN

Greymouth Evening Star, 17 November 1934, Page 10

KING GEORGE’S REIGN

PROPHECY PROVED FALSE King George has falsified a prophecy—repeated by many a. fortune teller while he was Prince of Wales—that his would be a. short reign. King George knew the prophecy long before he became King, and he told the late Lord Esher about it thirty-two years ago. Lord Esher recorded the incident |in a letter included in his “Journals and Letters.’ “1 sat. next the Prince of Wales at dinner last night,” he wrote on July 28, 1902. “He mentioned a queer prophecy which he made me promi.se 1 would not repeat to the King, who is rather influenced by these old women’s tales. “Someone, about forty years ago, said of the late Queen Victoria that she would have a long and glorious reign, the longest and most glorious of all the English sovereigns, that

she would be succeeded by two kings, who would have short reigns, and by a third, whose name would be David, and whose reign would be as glorious as hers. Ono of Prince Edward’s names is David! “V/ hen Lady Waterford was dying she sent for the Prince of Wales, and implored him to call his then unborn son David, as she had some fad about restoring the Jews to the Holy City. To humour her he consented, and Prince Edward was given the names of the four patron Saints of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales—i.e.,

George Andrew Patrick David! “I do not forget that the Prince ol Males is altogether free from super stition himself, but ho is reconciled to a short reign. He would not. however. for words, let the King hear the story.” As King Geoi'ge has reigned more than twenty-four years the prophecy that his reign would be short has proved itself false, a “Daily Express” writer remarks. The date mentioned by Lord Esher as that of the conversation with the present King was a fortnight prior to King Edward’s coronation.