President Woodrow Wilson and King George V outside Buckingham Palace in London, December 31, 1918. This is the first time an incumbent American President and reigning King of England were photographed together.
President Wilson was invited to make a state visit to England on his way to the Paris Peace Conference to participate in the negotiation of terms for the end of World War I. As the first American President to travel to Europe while in office and leader of the nation that had helped the Allies win the war, Wilson received a hero's welcome virtually everywhere he visited, with European crowds often chanting "We Want Wilson!".
However, King George V and President Wilson did not hit it off when they met. When the British government invited the President to make the state visit, they did not consult the King first, frustrating the sovereign, who had hoped to spend Christmas at Sandringham rather than in London. Recounting their meeting, the historian Miranda Carter wrote, "When the U.S. President, Woodrow Wilson, came to London in December 1918, George took an instant dislike to him. Wilson, who was even more awkward and shy than George, had become, with his talk of free states, the flag-bearer of republicanism and independence. The King also felt the President was high-handed, gave America too much credit for winning the war and failed to acknowledge the sacrifices that British troops had made. Perhaps he could feel the initiative in world affairs shifting quietly and permanently from Britain to America as they spoke."
Later, while speaking to a friend, King George said of President Wilson: "I never thought much of the man...I could not bear him, an entirely cold academical professor -- an odious man."
