The British National Anthem, 'God Save The Queen' (or King, depending on the monarch of the time) has the distinction of being the oldest National Anthem in the world.

If you are just looking for the tune and / or words, click here; if you would like to know more about the Anthem and its history, read on ...

'God Save The King' was first performed publicly in London in 1745. The words and tune are anonymous and are believed to date back as far as the seventeenth century but became popular and well-known in the 18th century with the Jacobite Rebellions and subsequent rise in patriotic fervour.

In September 1745 the Scottish Prince Charles Edward Stuart, the "Young Pretender" to the British throne, defeated the army of King George II at Prestonpans, near Edinburgh. When the news of the defeat reached London, the leader of the band at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, hurriedly arranged "God Save The King" for performance after a play. It was a tremendous popular success and was repeated nightly. The practice soon spread to other theatres and the custom of greeting the Monarch with the song as he or she entered any public place was established.

There is no "official" version of the National Anthem and the words are a matter of tradition. Additional verses have been added but are very rarely used : some of the words to the lesser-known verses are decidedly un-PC (see the complete text and music on this page) and the version used nowadays is the verse sung in 1745, substituting 'Queen' for 'King' when necessary. On official occasions, only the first verse is usually sung and very few people know more. (Guides in the UK sing two verses, the first and the last, and until recently it was a requirement for them to learn both verses by heart!)

The tune has been used in many other countries and at least 140 composers, including Beethoven, Haydn and Brahms, have used the tune in their compositions.

When visitors to Britain in the eighteenth century realised how useful it would be to have a recognised musical symbol of their own they began to develop their own "National Anthems", many - including Germany, Russia, Switzerland and America - using the same tune as the British Anthem at first. The USA was still a British Colony when the National Anthem came into being but on gaining their independence they kept the tune but changed the words of the British Anthem to "My country, 'tis of thee," which was written in 1832 by Samuel F. Smith, who is quoted as saying " .... I instantly felt the impulse to write a patriotic hymn of my own, adapted to the tune."

Incidentally, the words of the "The Star Spangled Banner" were written in 1814 but the tune is much older, written by John Stafford Smith, a British composer born in 1750. “The Star-Spangled Banner” was officially made the USA's national anthem by Congress in 1931.

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