On Sunday 12 April 1908 David Lloyd George was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer. It was less than five months after the death of Mair, his eldest daughter and best-beloved child. Her death, aged 17, was probably the worst personal loss of his life. He cursed god, when not denying him altogether. For months he was liable to burst into tears at the unexpected sight of a picture of her in a friend's house, and he refused to return to live at the home they had shared, sleeping instead in his office at the Board of Trade where Willie Clark, his private secretary, would keep an eye on him, fearful for his sanity and his safety.
Following the advice of his old friend, and political foe, A. G. Edwards the Bishop of St Asaph, he found some relief in work. As President of the Board of Trade Lloyd George was promoting the creation of the Port of London Authority, and was also often called upon to mediate trade disputes - settling a cotton strike on the day after Mair's funeral, for example.
But to return to the 12th of April. Frank Owen, in Tempestuous Journey: Lloyd George, His Life and Times writes:
"Long and hard indeed Lloyd George had been labouring in these latter months. In the press of his work, he had found solace, or at least for a time, forgetfulness. He seemed to become again the same kind of man that he had been, though larger. A great tomorrow was promised to Lloyd George.
But the sorrow abided within. The evening of the day in April that he went to Buckingham Palace to see the King, on becoming Chancellor of the Exchequer, he wrote to his brother, William, describing the kindly welcome he had received.
"But I walked home through the rain crying, because I knew my little Mair would not be there to receive me."
A very welcome arrival this week - Paul Spackman's Lloyd George - Welsh Radical, World Statesman, published by Barnthorn Publishing. The first full-length "life" for many years, it is the result of seven years research, and aims to give a more holistic portrait of the politician and the man.
Paul's approach is to "explore the specific and distinctively Welsh roots and influences" that shaped Lloyd George. He highlights the social reforms that laid the foundations of the Welfare State, Lloyd George's vital replacement of Asquith in the Great War, his treatment of Germany at Versailles, the Irish settlement, and the years after his all from power, with his development of creative and practical policies to address the great problems of the 1920s and 1930s. Lloyd George's legacy - and popular misconceptions of it - are re-examined, and Dame Margaret's important role is given proper attention.
It's a big book - over 700 pages, but then Lloyd George, for all his physical shortness, was a big man. Aneurin Bevan called him "a bigger man than Churchill", and in his parliamentary tribute "the most iridescent figure that ever illumined the British political scene". I shall read it with great pleasure and interest.
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
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".
A new biography of David Lloyd George will be released soon. Written by Paul Spackman and published by Barnthorn Publishing, it aims to correct oft-repeated misunderstandings and misconceptions of the true nature of the man and of his policies. I'm looking forward to reading it. You can read more about Paul, and his book, on Barnthorn's website.
Lloyd George's Last Vote
David Lloyd George cast his last vote in the House of Commons on 18 February 1943. It was against the government, and for the Beveridge Plan. It was a fitting end to his long Parliamentary career. Lloyd George's National Insurance Act 1911, along with a raft of other Liberal welfare reforms, had laid the foundations of the welfare state, providing protection from sickness, disability, and unemployment. Beveridge, who was to be elected as a Liberal MP in 1944, proposed extending and universalising the existing schemes. The Daily Telegraph described it as completing the revolution begun by Lloyd George.
Cymdeithas Lloyd George, the Lloyd George Society is a loose combination of like minds that meets in Wales for a weekend school on topical subjects, historical issues (particularly those relating to David Lloyd George) or interesting questions affecting Welsh life and culture, all from a liberal perspective.
You can book now for 2025's Lloyd George Weekend School in Llandrindod Wells Our venue this year is the Hotel Commodore.
February 22 & 23 2025 - Limited Spaces Left.
Full details on how to book and Programme for the School: on our website
Speakers include: Adam Price MS - Former Plaid Cymru leader and Shadow Justice Minister.
Ann Davies MP - Plaid Cymru MP for Carmarthenshire.
David Chadwick MP - Liberal Dem MP for Brecon, Radnor & Cwm Tawe
Mark Williams - Former Welsh Liberal Democrat MP for Ceredigion.
Michael Meadowcroft - historian & former Liberal MP.
Dr Luca Trent - Assoc. Professor, Swansea University.
Rev. Richard Walker - JMK Expert.
Dr Jonathan Kirkup - Senior Lecturer, Cardiff Uni.
Prof. Tony Claydon - Bangor University
Dr Charles Smith - Wales European Movement.
The Society website is https://lloydgeorgesociety.org.uk/, and our new social media accounts are:
X (formerly Twitter) – @LloGeoSocNew
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/groups/454477021058445
Bluesky – @lloydgeorgesociety.bsky.social
Please do follow us, and I hope to see you in February.
The next Lloyd George Society Weekend will take place on the weekend of 22nd February 2025.
Further details coming soon.
David Lloyd George died this day, the 26th of March 1945.
Countless words have been written about him, and he has defeated all his biographers - I think perhaps Peter Rowland's 1975 effort is the best. He really needed - needs - a Martin Gilbert to take him on.
I want today to concentrate on just a couple of episodes in his long and eventful life.
He was perhaps the most outspoken British opponent of the Boer War, speaking out against both its origins and its conduct. When he learnt of the concentration camps into which the British Army corralled Boer women and children he said "If I were to despair for the future of this country it would not be because of trade competition from either America or Germany, or the ineffectiveness of its army, or anything that might happen to its ships; but rather because it used its great, hulking strength to torture the little child".
On 18th December 1901 Lloyd George went to Birmingham to speak against the War. Why Birmingham? It was the power-base of Joseph Chamberlain, Colonial Secretary, responsible for starting the War and whose family firms, including Kynoch's, were not only major employers there but also made millions supplying both British and Boer with ammunition.
Some 50,000 (some estimates say up to 200,000) supporters of Chamberlain and the War turned out armed with knives, bricks, and hammers. Amidst cries of "Kill 'im! Kill the bloody traitor" the town hall was attacked and the platform rushed. Lloyd George tried to speak, but eventually had to retreat, disguised as a policeman. Every window in the town hall was smashed by the crowd, two people were killed, and Joseph Chamberlain "openly regretted Lloyd George's escape".
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| PC William Thomas's helmet and whistle, worn by Lloyd George in his escape |
Lloyd George was burnt in effigy in his constituency, his primary source of income (MPs were unpaid) the law practice of Lloyd George & George lost clients, and his family were ostracised. His son Richard was bullied so badly that he had to change school.
Lloyd George shewed great courage - moral and physical - in his opposition to the Boer War. He did so not out of any anti-British or even anti-Imperial sentiment, but out of a belief that Britain should be better. As Marvin Rintala put it "Sympathize with the enemy Lloyd George certainly did, because he was human, and ashamed of British behavior in South Africa he certainly was. Anti British he was not. He merely expected more from the Britain he loved. The British flag was not, in his view, Joseph Chamberlain's pocket-handkerchief".
The other is his burial.
In 1944 Lloyd George moved back to his childhood village of Llanystumdwy, and he died there on this day 1945. His old friend, colleague, and rival Winston Churchill had offered him a state funeral and burial at Westminster Abbey, among the great and good of the nation, the resting place of Kings and of the Unknown Warrior of the Great War - a fit end for "the Man who Won the War".
Lloyd George refused. Many years before he had chosen the place he wanted for his grave. It was to be a boulder on the banks of Afon Dwyfor, a place he had sat and played as a child. He once told Lucy Masterman "If we had kept the law about trespassing when we were children we would have had nowhere to play but a dusty strip of grass by the highroad" and she was to say that "I never remember during all our visit passing a 'trespassers will be prosecuted' notice without him remarking “I hate that sort of thing”".
His choice of burial place, and his attitude to "Keep Out" and "No Trespassing" signs say something to me about the man. As a young boy I lived in a little village on the north coast of Cornwall. We never concerned ourselves too much with such signs, and I hope that children still ignore them.
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| Lloyd George standing by the boulder under which he was to be buried |
As an avid reader of limited financial means I often find myself buying ex-library books from various websites. I understand that libraries have limited space and funds, and need to dispose of some books to free up the shelves and raise some money for new acquisitions.
But some of the books I've bought in this way make me stop and think about the way disposals are done.
My copy of Through Terror to Triumph, speeches by David Lloyd George in 1914 and 1915, has the bookplate of Manchester Central Library Reference Library - the Neville Laski Collection.
Neville Laski was a member of the Laski family of Manchester, chairman of the Manchester Victoria Memorial Jewish Hospital, secretary of the Manchester Jewish Community Council, and a host of other appointments including President of the Board of Deputies. His family were closely involved in Manchester's public life - his mother Sarah being a councillor and later alderman on Manchester City Council for many years, and a strong advocate for women, children, and the poor.
So the Neville Laski collection could represent a significant insight into the life and works of one of Manchester's notable sons. Alas, I can find no mention of it on the Manchester Libraries website, and indeed the only trace seems to be in booksellers' catalogues.
When a library disposes of a collection like this it breaks a link with the past - not only the library's past, but the past of the community. It erases a collective memory.
So what to do? At the least I would suggest keeping a catalogue of special collections, bequests, and the like. To know what was in the Neville Laski Collection - even if the books in it needed to be disposed of by Manchester - would enable anyone to recreate it in their own library - whether of physical books or electronic media. This is the sort of thing that volunteers can do - and do well. For example, the book cataloguing website LibraryThing has "Legacy Libraries" - catalogues of famous readers, authors, politicians, etc.
