13 March 1915 - intimations of December 1916

On 13th March 1915 Sir George Riddell recorded golfing and lunching with David Lloyd George (then Chancellor of the Exchequer) and Rufus Isaacs (Lord Reading, the Lord Chief Justice). Isaacs had spent the weekend at Walmer with the prime minister, H. H. Asquith, and told Riddell that Asquith's great responsibilities sat lightly on him "except for two hours dealing with business ... he barely mentioned the war". 

Riddell asked Lloyd George if he thought the war was being prosecuted with sufficient energy, and was Asquith too easy going. LlG replied "Things are very unsatisfactory in that respect. Winston [Churchill] said to me the other day, 'We ought to make you a sort of Government Whiteley [the great department store], charged with the duty of providing each department with all the difficult and odd things it requires'". Isaacs replied "They should make you something more than that. A general supervisor and stimulator is badly needed".

All this was two months before Lloyd George became Minister of Munitions in response the the Shell Crisis, and a year and nine months before he was to replace Asquith as Prime Minister. 

Last Two Days!

 Not of this blog.., but the last two days to respond to the Lloyd George Society questionnaire. It's to help us plan the 2026 weekend. If you are interested in attending please do take a couple of minutes to answer the questions. You can find the questionnaire on the Society website at this link

Max Beerbohm and David Lloyd George

Max Beerbohm, essayist, caricaturist, and parodist, was born on this day 1872. Here is "Mr Lloyd George and his Guardians", from his 1914 book "Fifty Caricatures". David Lloyd George is seen between Charles Masterman and Rufus Isaacs.

Masterman had worked closely with Lloyd George on the People's Budget of 1909 and the National Insurance Act 1911. Isaacs, later the 1st Marquess of Reading, was Lord Chief Justice of England, Viceroy of India, and Foreign Secretary, the last Liberal to hold that post. The second practising Jew to be a member of the British cabinet (the first being Herbert Samuel, Isaacs was the first Jewish Lord Chief Justice, and the first British Jew to become a marquess. He was Leader of the Liberal Party in the House of Lords from 1931 to 1935.

Lloyd George Society weekend 2026

Planning has started for the 2026 Lloyd George Society weekend school. We are considering a slightly later date, 7th to 8th March, and a new venue, the Lake Country House Hotel and Spa, at Llangamarch Wells.

You can read more about the proposals at the Society website here

Lloyd George's reading

One of the criticisms of David Lloyd George made by his enemies was that he "did not read". It was, of course, a nonsense. In Lord Riddell's War Diary on the 29th July 1918 Riddell notes Lloyd George reading from and discussing the speeches of John Bright, the letters of Byron, and Macaulay's Essays - "a favourite book of his. He reads well and his comments are fresh and interesting". Lloyd George said of Macaulay "His first object was to be interesting, his second to hit hard".