King Anthony Claimed Throne in 1930s

Would-be King, Anthony Hall.
Secret files released today reveal that a claimant to the Throne, who regarded King George V as an interloper, threatened to chop the sailor King’s head off back in the 1930s.
Reuters reports: An ex-policeman who claimed to be related to King Henry VIII threatened to behead the reigning monarch and take his place on the Throne in the 1930s, according to secret files released on Friday.
The “quarrelsome and scandalous” campaign by former police inspector Anthony Hall against George V ruffled feathers in Buckingham Palace and at the heart of government.
“I claim the crown,” Hall wrote in a letter to the King. “You have no connection with the British Royal family. You are an outsider. Therefore, leave this country.”
Although dismissed by officials as “mere ravings”, Hall’s antics sparked a flurry of correspondence between the police, Government and the Palace on how to silence him.
George V, grandfather of the Queen, was keen for Hall to be arrested, according to official documents released for the first time by the National Archives.
“His Majesty quite agrees that a stop should be put to his effusions,” the King’s Private Secretary Sir Clive Wigram wrote in a letter to the Home Office.
At one of several public meetings, which attracted audiences of up to 600, Hall said he wanted to be the first policeman to “chop off the Monarch’s head” and the first to be crowned King.
At another he said he wouldn’t hesitate to shoot the King “like a dog”. Hall claimed a direct blood link to the Tudor dynasty which ruled from 1485 to 1603.
George V, who changed his family’s Germanic surname Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to Windsor during World War One, was a “pure-blood German” who had no right to be King, Hall argued.
Moves to detain him in a psychiatric hospital foundered when doctors found “no absolute proof of unsoundness of mind”.
Police in Birmingham finally arrested Hall in July 1931 for disturbing the peace. He was found guilty and ordered to behave himself or pay a £25 fine.
Hall’s dream of being crowned “King Anthony” was dashed along with his plans to scrap taxes, build thousands of police stations and set up a Ministry of Pleasure to “revive the ancient merry times”.
What a grand nutcase.





Ah the delusional people the royal family have had to endure over the years. Why he was not found to be competent is beyond me.
By Trudie on July 28th, 2006 at 1:10 pm
Nowadays he’d be dealt with under “stalking” laws. I did love his idea of building lots of police stations — presumably to deal with people like himself.
By John on July 28th, 2006 at 1:15 pm
Touche
By Trudie on July 28th, 2006 at 8:13 pm
Regrettably, the great Hall dynasty came to an end when King Anthony I died in 1947, leaving no male heir.
By Steve on August 16th, 2006 at 3:23 am