We should remember St George is not specifically (and not originally) English: "St. George is the patron saint of Aragon, Catalonia, England, Ethiopia, Georgia, Greece, Lithuania, Palestine, Portugal, and Russia, as well as the cities of Amersfoort, Beirut, Bteghrine, Cáceres, Ferrara, Freiburg, Genoa, Ljubljana, Gozo, Pomorie, Qormi, Lod and Moscow" says Wikipedia on the matter. I was born in Beirut, where there's a St George's Bay; it is overlooked by the Hotel St-Georges, where Kim Philby hung out sometimes before finally defecting to Moscow (another St George groupie city); a corner of a foreign bar that is forever the stool of an English traitor, so to speak. I am now playing Hamaltu Beirut by the legendary Fairuz on my iPod. I know that's not quite the done thing, but there you are.
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