Card of the Day: The Opening of King George V Dock

On this Fathers’ Day, as we celebrate our own fathers, let’s also remember King George V, grandfather of the current Queen and the man who led Britain through the First World War. The fourteenth in the series of Wills Cigarette Cards commemorating the Silver Jubilee of King George V and Queen Mary shows a special day in the life of the inimitable King.


The reverse of the card reads:

THE OPENING OF KING GEORGE V DOCK

Something of the old pageantry of the Thames was revived when the King, taking with him, the Queen, the Duke of York and the Princess Mary, opened on July 8, 1921, the spacious dock at Woolwich which bears his name. Embarking at Westminster in a steam launch and transferring before London Bridge, to Lord Inchcape’s yacht, The Rover, His Majesty passed down a river bright with flags, while from the Tower and the Arsenal sounded the salute of guns. Entering the new basin, The Rover’s prow cut a silken hand: and one more improvement in the Port so “deeply interwoven,” as the King said, “with the fabric of English history,” was completed.