Martin Pugh - Lloyd George

PROFILES IN POWER

General Editor: Keith Robbins

ELIZABETH I

Christopher Haigh

LLOYD GEORGE

Martin Pugh

LLOYD GEORGE

Martin Pugh

First published 1988 by Longman Group Limited

Published 2013 by Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

Copyright 1988, Taylor & Francis.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Notices

Knowledge and best practice in this field are constantly changing. As new research and experience broaden our understanding, changes in research methods, professional practices, or medical treatment may become necessary.

Practitioners and researchers must always rely on their own experience and knowledge in evaluating and using any information, methods, compounds, or experiments described herein. In using such information or methods they should be mindful of their own safety and the safety of others, including parties for whom they have a professional responsibility.

To the fullest extent of the law, neither the Publisher nor the authors, contributors, or editors, assume any liability for any injury and/or damage to persons or property as a matter of products liability, negligence or otherwise, or from any use or operation of any methods, products, instructions, or ideas contained in the material herein.

ISBN 13: 978-0-582-55268-5 (pbk)

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

Pugh, M. D.

Lloyd George. (Profiles in power)

1. Lloyd George, David 2. Prime ministers

Great Britain Biography

I. Title II. Series

941.0830924 DA566.9.L5

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Pugh, Martin.

Lloyd George/M. D. Pugh.

p. cm. (Profiles in power)

Bibliography: p.

Includes index.

ISBN 0-582-02387-4

ISBN 0-582-55268-0 (pbk)

1. Lloyd George, David, 18631945. 2. Prime ministers Great Britain Biography. 3. Great Britain Politics and government 18371901. 4. Great Britain Politics and government 19011936. 5. Great Britain Politics and government 19361945. I. Title. II. Series: Profiles in power

(London, England)

DA566.9.L5P78 1988

941.0830924 dc19

[B] 8726360

CIP

The seventh of December 1986 marked the seventieth anniversary of David Lloyd Georges accession to the premiership. This event, however, did not appear to arouse much attention, let alone inspire celebration, amongst the politically aware in this country. Despite the fact that any of the three main parties in Britain could, conceivably, have taken Lloyd George as its leader and one of them did each of them has, in the decades since 1922, generally thought it prudent to distance itself from him. It is not without significance that the association during the 1980s between Social Democrats and Liberals has awakened some sympathetic interest in him. But, with this exception, Lloyd George has been allowed to slip unimpeded into history, and his reputation into the hands of historians. Unlike the politicians, they have, especially during the last twenty years, gone a long way to establishing him as the greatest constructive statesman of twentieth-century Britain.

It is, therefore, a pleasure to be asked to write on such a figure for a wide audience and to acknowledge the help and encouragement of the series editor, Keith Robbins, as well as the efficiency of Longman in seeing the book through. The target they set proved to be a more difficult one than it had seemed at first. Lloyd George was, after all, involved in almost every major political question in twentieth-century Britain up to the Second World War. To contain him and his career within the space of 70,000 words was to try to squeeze a particularly lively genie into his bottle. However, this volume is intended as a synthesis not as a work of fresh research, though the book does reflect a good deal of work done over the years on the Lloyd George papers at the House of Lords Record Office (and previously at the Beaverbrook Library), and in the National Library of Wales.

The mass of published work on Lloyd George from which the author has benefitted is proceeding at several levels. We have had a number of detailed monographs and essays analysing particular aspects of Lloyd Georges career. On the biographical front John Grigg began to put Lloyd George in a fresh and challenging light in 1973 with the first of three volumes which have, so far, taken his life to 1916. More recently Bentley Gilbert has begun to publish another multi-volume biography. Obviously the present work is on an entirely different scale. The last short biography of Lloyd George was Kenneth Morgans which, over the 14 years since it was published, has been a blessing to many students of the subject. Clearly a good deal of work has been done both on Lloyd George and on the issues with which he was involved since then; and in any case the present author takes a different view of his subject to Dr Morgan.

As is only appropriate in a series entitled Profiles in Power I have devoted some attention to the methods and techniques employed by Lloyd George when in office for an unusually long and uninterrupted period from 1905 to 1922. I have also attempted to interpret his politics and his career in terms of a coherent political tradition stretching from Joseph Chamberlain to the present day. Nor, since this is a biography, have I neglected his personal life; indeed, I would regard both his childhood experience and his married life as being of considerable significance for his public career, though, again, I have not approached these aspects in the same way as many other writers. Even as this manuscript was being completed the Lloyd George family was in the process of placing more personal material concerning Lloyd George with the National Library of Wales, and it seems safe to conclude that he will continue to be a fascinating subject for revision and debate for years to come.

Martin Pugh

Slaley, Northumberland

From the perspective of late-twentieth-century Britain, David Lloyd George is a difficult man to place in social terms. His lifes progress from Davy Lloyd, the cottage-bred boy, to the titled magnificence of Earl Lloyd George of Dwyfor makes a fascinating story; but such labels sit uncomfortably upon him. It was an unusual cottage that nurtured Lloyd George, and an unlikely hereditary peerage to which he attained in old age. If we are to understand the youth climbing the social ladder in late-Victorian Wales we must surely put aside the simplicities of English social class; for he can hardly be fitted neatly into any obvious category.

Davids father, William George, who died when David was only 17 months old, was by profession an elementary-school teacher who rose to become a headmaster at schools in Pwllheli and Manchester. However, in 1864 ill health forced him to abandon teaching in Lancashire to return to Pembrokeshire where he adopted his familys traditional occupation of farming. Argumentative, politically aware, latitudinarian in his religion, and perennially attracted by the opportunities offered by England, William George had much in common with his elder son. But he differed in being of a sombre, thoughtful turn of mind, and he displayed a far less buoyant personality.