Liberal Defectors Identified and Explored If Leach Is Remem- Bered

REviEWS (the equivalent to the local coun- If Leach is more could be made of Leach’s an e-book and in physical format cil). If he had resisted the tempta- part in Birmingham politics but as a reasonably priced, good-qual- tion to stick to Chamberlain, he remem- this should not deter the sam- ity, illustrated, print-on-demand temporarily succumbed to the lure pling of this work if only to gain paperback. of the socialist Independent Labour bered at all, the inspiration to bring other his- Party in the 1890s. Williams out- toric Liberals back to notice. The Tony Little is Chair of the Liberal Dem- lines the reasons for his joining the it is – as this book is available very cheaply as ocrat History Group. ILP more fully than his subsequent retreat back to Liberalism but hints book’s cover that again the politics are entangled with the religion. proclaims Leach participated with other – because Nonconformists in the campaign Liberal defectors identified and explored against the Tory 1902 Education he was the Act and his political career reached Alun Wyburn-Powell, Defectors and the Liberal Party, 1910– an apex when, in the first general only MP to 2010: A Study of Inter-Party Relations (Manchester University election of 1910, he defeated the Press, 2012) charismatic but mysterious socialist lose his seat Victor Grayson who had captured Review by Dr J. Graham Jones Colne Valley in a 1907 by-election. for being Still energetic but in his sixties, it he author earned his carefully examines the many dis- would have been no surprise that of unsound spurs as the author of a parate reasons and motives behind Leach served as a chaplain dur- Tcompetent, generally the various changes of politi- ing the First World War and, given mind, a dis- well-received biography of Liberal cal allegiance. The time-scale of what we know of war time hospi- leader Clement Davies published in the volume is long, ranging from tal conditions even in England, still tinction one 2003 (reviewed in Journal of Liberal politicians like Charles Trevelyan less a surprise that for a caring man History, no. 43 (Summer 2004), pp. and Arthur Ponsonby (and politi- the mental strain proved too much. instinctively 39–41). The present volume is based cal maverick E. T. John in Wales) He died in 1917. on his doctoral thesis presented who defected from their party at Inevitably, most MPs become feels should in the University of Leicester and the end of the First World War, to no more than backbenchers but the supervised by Dr Stuart Ball. The Emma Nicholson who joined it career path that took them to West- have been author’s original plan was to under- from the Conservatives in 1995 and minster can itself throw a spotlight much more take doctoral research on Gwilym Sir Anthony Meyer who emulated on the nature of the political cul- Lloyd-George, a project soon sadly her example in 2001. Many names ture that sustained them. We tend common. jettisoned in the light of the inad- familiar to students of the party are to know far more about the very equacy of the surviving source considered here – Freddie Guest untypical leadership of the Lib- materials, and replaced by an ambi- and Reginald McKenna, Sir Alfred eral Party when it was the natural tious strategy to examine all those Mond and E. Hilton Young, Edgar party of government than we do MPs who defected from, or into, Granville and Wilfrid Roberts. about the rank and file. J. B. Wil- the Liberal Party (later the Liberal Many fascinating sidelights are pre- liams’ book is therefore much to be Democrats) between 1910 and 2010. sented on these famous names, and welcomed. Dr Wyburn-Powell travelled the author clearly has an eagle eye Williams is the great grandson far and laboured hard in the various for the telling quotation to enliven of the Rev. Charles Leach and his archives to gather his fascinating and illustrate his captivating anal- book shows both the possibilities material. His numerous research ysis. One senses at times that the and limitations of a family history trips have certainly yielded fruit necessity to limit the size of the approach to biography. From the to enrich his truly pioneering, book no doubt precluded him from notes, he does not appear to have groundbreaking study. His main including further gems. had access to any great wealth of theme is that there was ‘an endur- The present reviewer savoured family papers or letters but instead ing cultural compatibility between the accounts of the Welsh Lib- has mined the public records – in the Conservatives and the Liberals/ eral politicians including those particular the provincial press, Liberal Democrats’ which finally on Clement Davies (masterly, church records, Leach’s own writ- led to the formation of a coalition as might be expected from this ings and Hansard. As more of this government following the 2010 author), Gwilym and Megan Lloyd documentation becomes available general election. Such a rapport, he George, David Davies, Llandi- online, the scope for investigating insists, ‘had not been the case with nam, and Sir Rhys Hopkin Morris. the lives of other backbench Liberals the relationship between the Liber- Megan’s slow gravitation towards is opened wider. For the nineteenth als/Liberal Democrats and Labour’ the Labour Party, a long, tortuous century this could supplement (back cover). During the century process, might perhaps have been the work of the History of Parlia- covered by this study, a total of 116 traced in a little more detail. More ment Trust which, I believe, is now Liberal MPs defected; there is a attention might have been given working on the period 1832–68. helpful listing of them in a table on to more minor, though still sig- Williams seems more com- pp. 8–10. nificant, Welsh Liberal figures like fortable with the church history All of these politicians are W. Llewelyn Williams, who fell than with the politics of the late considered in varying detail in out big-time with Lloyd George Victorian period, I suspect that the main text where the author over the necessity to introduce Journal of Liberal History 82 Spring 2014 49 REviEWS hope by 1922 (p. 192). He pinpoints really ‘offered’ the leadership of the Lloyd George, ‘due both to his per- party in 1945 (p. 135)? He was cer- sonality and to his politics’, as the tainly considered for it at least. primary reason for most subsequent Lord Davies did indeed ‘tr[y] to defections (ibid.). The Labour Party exert an excessive influence over under Ramsay MacDonald, he his successor Clement Davies’ (p. argues, did little to court actively 120). But the key point is not made dissatisfied Liberal politicians who here that, to his eternal discredit defected to the other parties mainly and shame, he blatantly attempted as a result ‘of the breakdown of the to have his personal nominee W. Liberal Party organism’ (p. 194). Alford Jehu ‘installed’ under his Those who defected to the Con- personal patronage as his successor servative Party were far more likely as the Liberal candidate for Mont- to remain in their new political gomeryshire in 1927. Finally, the home than those who went over to author claims that the ageing Lloyd Labour, many of whom later came George ‘lost his way after the 1931 to rue their decision. Factors caus- debacle’ (p. 155), but fails to note his ing or increasing the rate of defec- ‘New Deal’ proposals and the set- tions are discussed in the final pages ting up of the Council of Action for of the conclusion. Peace and Reconstruction in 1935 It is, of course, an easy task for – a damp squib though these initia- the reviewer to list some niggling tives undoubtedly were. But these or petty criticisms. Describing are all very minor quibbles which Clem Davies as widely considered do not detract in the least from the ‘a short-term stand-in leader’ in value and relevance of Dr Wyburn- 1945 (p. 84) misses the key point Powell’s timely study. that the defeated former party The bibliography, though use- leader Sir Archibald Sinclair was ful, is highly selective, does not then widely expected to return to refer at all to newspapers or to some the House of Commons at a by- of the sources already referenced in election, or at the very latest at the the helpful endnote references. As conscription in 1916, and Sir Henry next general election, and then was the case with the author’s biog- Morris-Jones, who defected to the resume the reins of leadership from raphy of Clement Davies, impor- Simonite Liberals in August 1931 Davies. Cardiganshire did not tant articles in Welsh academic and became thereafter a prominent witness four consecutive parlia- journals have not been consulted long-term member of the National mentary elections ‘where the only and would have provided valu- Liberal group at Westminster. candidates were Liberals’ between able additional detail. For all those The chapters are packed with 1921 and 1924 (p. 68). A Conserva- interested in the history of the Lib- fascinating, often newly discov- tive (or possibly Unionist) candi- eral Party, however, this impres- ered, detail, thoroughly and lov- date in the person of the Earl of sive book will be a good read from ingly culled from the source Lisburne stood there in November cover to cover and will prove most materials and presented clearly and 1923, thus allowing Rhys Hopkin useful as an authoritative, lasting, logically. Throughout, the text is Morris to capture the division as an accurate work of reference.

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