# First personal meeting of a British Monarch and a US President? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 16, 2015, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-personal-meeting-of-a-british-monarch-and-a-us-president/712811 "2015-02-16T13:36:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Donnerwetter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Donnerwetter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Donnerwetter)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2015, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-personal-meeting-of-a-british-monarch-and-a-us-president/712811/1 "2015-02-16T13:36:02Z")
Who were the first heads of state of the US and the UK respectively to meet in person? And as bonus question: Who were the first President and the first King/Queen to be photographed together? ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2015, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-personal-meeting-of-a-british-monarch-and-a-us-president/712811/2 "2015-02-16T13:56:41Z")
Woodrow Wilson met George V [in 1918](https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/travels/president/wilson-woodrow). It was [photographed](http://www.history.com/photos/world-war-i-leaders/photo8). Wilson was the first president to cross the Atlantic in office, and no monarch had done it yet (George VI was the first, in 1939), so that would have to be the first. (The President traveling abroad was still a very new concept in 1918. Roosevelt and Taft both visited the Panama Canal, a US project, and Taft made one very short visit to Ciudad Juarez, right across the border from El Paso. That’s it before Wilson.) ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2015, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-personal-meeting-of-a-british-monarch-and-a-us-president/712811/3 "2015-02-16T13:56:50Z")
Woodrow Wilson visited King George V in December, 1918. King George VI visited FDR in June, 1939. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2015, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-personal-meeting-of-a-british-monarch-and-a-us-president/712811/4 "2015-02-16T13:57:15Z")
I would guess it was [FDR and George VI](http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/aboutfdr/royalvisit.html)for both. Teddy Roosevelt was the first to leave the country; Wilson met with the British prime minister at Versailles, but the king wasn’t there. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2015, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-personal-meeting-of-a-british-monarch-and-a-us-president/712811/5 "2015-02-16T14:34:13Z")
John Adams famously met King George III. If you are are not restricting it to sitting Presidents. The future King Edward VII dined at the White House with James Buchanan. Not met, but George Washington authorised a plot to get the future William IV kidnapped during the Revolutionary War. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2015, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-personal-meeting-of-a-british-monarch-and-a-us-president/712811/6 "2015-02-16T16:12:32Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > I would guess it was [FDR and George VI](http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/aboutfdr/royalvisit.html)for both. Teddy Roosevelt was the first to leave the country; Wilson met with the British prime minister at Versailles, but the king wasn’t there. For someone who wasn’t there he photographs rather well. 🙂 NB See **Lord Feldon** ’s link above. ---
**Author:** ![Nelson\_Pike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Nelson\_Pike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nelson_Pike)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2015, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-personal-meeting-of-a-british-monarch-and-a-us-president/712811/7 "2015-02-16T16:20:15Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > \Not met, but George Washington authorised a plot to get the future William IV kidnapped during the Revolutionary War. Bollocks. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2015, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-personal-meeting-of-a-british-monarch-and-a-us-president/712811/8 "2015-02-16T17:03:20Z")
What a detailed, reasoned refutation. Major contribution to the thread. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2015, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-personal-meeting-of-a-british-monarch-and-a-us-president/712811/9 "2015-02-16T17:09:31Z")
In rebuttal to **Nelson Pike** ’s incisive commentary, please see the wiki article on William IV: “Early Life” > **[William IV](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_IV_of_the_United_Kingdom)** > > William IV (William Henry; 21 August 1765 – 20 June 1837) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from 26 June 1830 until his death in 1837. The third son of George III, William succeeded his elder brother George IV, becoming the last king and penultimate monarch of Britain's House of Hanover. > William served in the Royal Navy in his youth, spending time in British North America and the Caribbean, and was later nicknamed the "Sailor King". In 1789, he w... ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2015, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-personal-meeting-of-a-british-monarch-and-a-us-president/712811/10 "2015-02-16T17:11:08Z")
> [@Nelson\_Pike](#): > > Bollocks. Not so. It was when William was serving as an officer in the Royal Navy during the American revolution. You can read the letter here: > **[Retired Site | PBS](https://www.pbs.org/retired-site/)** > > This Content is No Longer Available Or, if you prefer: > [@](#): > > To Col[onel] Ogden of the 1 Jersey Regiment > > Sir, > > The spirit of enterprise so conspicuous in your plan for surprising in their quarters, & bringing off the Prince-William Henry & Admiral Digby, merits applause; and you have my authority to make the attempt in any manner, & at such a time as your own judgment shall direct. > > I am fully perswaded, that it is unnecessary to caution you against offering insult or indignity to the persons of the Prince, or Admiral should you be so fortunate as to capture them; but it may not be amiss to press the propriety of a proper line of conduct upon the party you command. > > In case of success, you will, as soon as you get them to a place of safety, treat them with all possible respect, but you are to delay no time in conveying them to Congress, & reporting your proceedings with a copy of these orders. > > Given at Morristown this 28th day of March 1782. > Go: Washington > > Note Take care not to touch upon the ground w[hi]ch is agreed to be Neutral – viz from Raway to Newark & four miles back. ---
**Author:** ![skdo23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@skdo23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/skdo23)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2015, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-personal-meeting-of-a-british-monarch-and-a-us-president/712811/11 "2015-02-16T19:58:47Z")
> [@Nelson\_Pike](#): > > Bollocks. It certainly would have required quite a pair to carry out the plot, yes. ---
**Author:** ![Nelson\_Pike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Nelson\_Pike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nelson_Pike)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2015, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-personal-meeting-of-a-british-monarch-and-a-us-president/712811/12 "2015-02-16T21:15:58Z")
Well, if they have it in GW’s own handwriting then that is that and I owe an apology to Mr. AK84. Although it just sounded too good for the conspiracy theory crowd to be true , conspiracies do happen, and this episode is a good lesson for it.