Brits Back St George

Brits have backed St George to remain the patron Saint of England – even though he’s not English.

An online bingo site asked its 200,000 members if they’d prefer London born St Thomas Becket as our national saint – but the overwhelming majority said, ‘No’.

Freddy Benson of OnlineBingoClub.co.uk, launched the survey after several of the site’s members mentioned on their discussion forum that they believe England’s patron saint should be English. St George is a legendary Roman soldier who fought in the Crusades and supposedly killed a dragon in north Africa.

Thomas Becket, a Londoner born in 1118, was put forward as the domestic candidate to challenge for the role, with members voting on which they would prefer to represent their country.

Of those surveyed a massive 81% said they didn’t care that Saint George, famed for slaying a dragon, wasn’t English and were happy for him to remain the country’s patron saint.

Only 19% of respondents voted for the lesser known local to replace the longstanding incumbent.

Mr Benson says he was surprised such a large majority came out in favour of St George.

He said: “Each year millions of Brits celebrate St George’s Day and I imagine the vast majority are unaware that he isn’t actually English. People just see the flag and presume that he is.

“Not only is Saint George not a Brit, he’s also the patron saint of a host of countries including Portugal, Russia, Greece, Ethiopia and Georgia, and many of our members thought we should have our own English representative.

“There were outcries when Sven became England’s first ever foreign football manager and when foreign owners took over at Manchester United, so I thought it would be interesting to see if there would be a similar reaction when people realised Saint George was also a foreigner.

“However, it seems the majority of our members are happy for Saint George to continue as our patron saint and I’ll be out with the rest of them having a few drinks on St George’s Day.

“Any man who can defeat a dragon single handed is good enough for me.”

For more information please visit www.OnlineBingoClub.co.uk .

ENDS

More information / images:

Alex Garvey

The London PR Agency

0207 193 0566

[email protected]

www.LondonPRagency.com

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