Champion of Liberalism Helen Langley Honor Balfour and the Liberal Party an Archival Perspective Will Pinkney C
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For the study of Liberal, SDP and Issue 78 / Spring 2013 / £6.00 Liberal Democrat history Journal of LiberalHI ST O R Y Champion of Liberalism Helen Langley Honor Balfour and the Liberal Party An archival perspective Will Pinkney C. E. Montague, Liberal war writers and the Great War Peter Urbach The Reform Club’s Jubilee Ball End of an era Tudor Jones ‘Reluctant’ or Liberal collectivists? The Social Liberalism of Keynes and Beveridge Ruth Polling Mothers of Liberty How modern Liberalism was made by women Liberal Democrat History Group 2 Journal of Liberal History 78 Spring 2013 Journal of Liberal History Issue 78: Spring 2013 The Journal of Liberal History is published quarterly by the Liberal Democrat History Group. ISSN 1479-9642 Liberal history news 4 Editor: Duncan Brack History Group plaque; PhD in political history; Archiving the ‘Red Guard’; The Deputy Editor: Tom Kiehl Liberal Party, Unionism and political culture Assistant Editor: Christine Headley Biographies Editor: Robert Ingham Reviews Editor: Dr Eugenio Biagini Honor Balfour and the Liberal Party 6 Contributing Editors: Graham Lippiatt, Tony Little, An archival perspective; by Helen Langley York Membery C. E. Montague, Liberal war writers and the Great 20 Patrons Dr Eugenio Biagini; Professor Michael Freeden; War Professor John Vincent Will Pinkney examines the war writings of a Liberal author Editorial Board Letters to the Editor 25 Dr Malcolm Baines; Dr Ian Cawood; Dr Roy Douglas; D. S. Macdonald (David Steel); Immigration (Sandy S. Waugh); Roy Jenkins and Dr David Dutton; Prof. David Gowland; Prof. Richard Lloyd George (Alan Mumford); C. L. Mowat and Lloyd George (Rufus Adams) Grayson; Dr Michael Hart; Peter Hellyer; Dr Alison Holmes; Dr J. Graham Jones; Dr Tudor Jones; Tony Little; Prof. Ian Machin; Dr Mark Pack; Dr Ian Packer; The Reform Club’s Jubilee Ball 26 Dr John Powell; Jaime Reynolds; Dr Andrew Russell; The end of an era; by Peter Urbach Dr Iain Sharpe ‘Reluctant’ or Liberal collectivists? 32 Editorial/Correspondence The Social Liberalism of Keynes and Beveridge, 1922–1945; by Tudor Jones Contributions to the Journal – letters, articles, and book reviews – are invited. The Journal is a refereed publication; all articles submitted will be reviewed. Liberal history quiz 2012 41 Contributions should be sent to: The questions (answers in the next issue) Duncan Brack (Editor) 54 Midmoor Road, London SW12 0EN Report 42 email: [email protected] Mothers of Liberty: how modern Liberalism was made by women, with All articles copyright © Journal of Liberal History. All Helen McCabe, Jane Bonham-Carter and Lynne Featherstone; report by Ruth rights reserved. Polling Advertisements Reviews 44 Full page £100; half page £60; quarter page £35. Bowers, Nick Clegg: The Biography, and Gerard, The Clegg Coup, reviewed by Discounts available for repeat ads or offers to readers (e.g. discounted book prices). To place ads, please Duncan Brack; Pickard, The Member for Scotland: A Life of Duncan McLaren, contact the Editor. reviewed by Ewen A. Cameron; Daly and Hoppen (eds.), Gladstone: Ireland and Beyond, reviewed by Iain Sharpe Subscriptions/Membership An annual subscription to the Journal of Liberal History costs £20.00 (£12.50 unwaged rate). This includes membership of the History Group unless you inform us otherwise. Non-UK subscribers should add £10.00. Institutional rate £50.00, including online access. As well as printed copies, online subscribers can access online copies of current and past Journals. 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May 2013 Chair: Tony Little Honorary President: Lord Wallace of Saltaire Journal of Liberal History 78 Spring 2013 3 LIBERAL HisTORY NEWS SPRing 2013 Nick Clegg unveils History Group plaque Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat as well. And the Liberal Democrats would like to thank all those peo- leader and Deputy Prime Minister, are still a party proud of represent- ple whose generosity and help made braved a bitterly cold night earlier ing a wide coalition of views, rep- tonight’s event possible’. this year to unveil a plaque com- resenting the country as a whole.’ memorating the founding of the The plaque was the brainchild Liberal Party more than 150 years of the Liberal Democrat History ago. Report by York Membery. Group, whose members contrib- The plaque – the brainchild of uted generously to the cost of mak- of the Liberal Democat History ing and erecting it. And while Group – was put up on the build- bureaucratic red tape delayed its ing in King Street, St James’s, Lon- installation (the original inten- don, which now occupies the spot tion had been to put it up in 2009, at which the famous meeting took 150 years after the Willis’s Rooms place on 6 June 1859 which is gener- meeting), Clegg was fulsome in ally held to mark the foundation of his praise of the Group, saying: the Liberal Party. ‘I would like to congratulate the Most historians date the Lib- Liberal Democrat History Group eral Party’s origin to the meeting which has done so much to raise at Willis’s Rooms, when Whigs, funds for this sign of our party’s Peelites and Radicals united to rich history.’ bring down Derby’s Conservative Earlier Cllr Robert Davis, Dep- government, changing the face of uty Leader of Westminster Council British politics forever. Among – which sponsors the Green Plaque those attending were Lord Palm- scheme – and of its ruling Conserv- erston, John Bright and Lord John ative group, described the occasion Russell – and the meeting paved as ‘momentous’ and said: ‘When the way for the political ascendancy Palmerston, Russell and their Rad- of Liberal Prime Minister William icals, Peelites and Whigs coalesced Gladstone. around the issue of Italian reunifi- The plaque reads: ‘The Liberal cation, at this very location in 1859, Party was founded on this site on I am sure everyone expected the 6th June 1859.’ union to be a temporary one.’ The Lib Dem leader reminded Putting aside party differences, the thirty-strong crowd, which he went on to say: ‘For genera- included MPs and peers, among tions British political life has been others, that Liberal politicians came fluid, with numerous changes of together in 1859 to ‘bring down the government, factions and minority Conservative ministry of the time, administrations.’ while of course we are now in coa- ‘However, for what was then lition with the Conservative Party such a disparate union, the Liberal of our time’. Party has endured, helping to shape He half-jokingly referred to the so much of British politics since. Peelites of the mid-19th century as And the timing of this unveiling ‘being comparable to the Orange could not be more appropriate, as Bookers of today’, and the Radicals as its successor – the Liberal Demo- people like Journal of Liberal History crat party – once more finds itself in Editor Duncan Brack! government.’ Speaking outside the modern After the unveiling, those office block, Almack House, which attending the event adjourned now stands on the site of Wil- to the nearby Reform Club for a lis’s Rooms, the DPM went on to reception. observe: ‘Much has changed since Speaking after the event, Dun- [1859] but much has endured and can Brack said: ‘It’s been a long road remained consistent over the ages but we got there in the end – and I 4 Journal of Liberal History 78 Spring 2013 PhD in the political history of It’s their view that, while aca- turmoil, the formation of the Lib- early twentieth century Britain demics have their part to play, they eral Unionists not only split the Applications are invited for a fees- are inevitably going to depend pri- Liberal family, with immediate only PhD studentship in the field of marily on dusty old documents and electoral impact, but it caused a the political history of early twenti- press cuttings, along with the occa- reappraisal of what it meant to be a eth-century Britain. The successful sional interview, whereas partici- Unionist. applicant will be expected to make pants at a national and local level in One hundred years on from the use of the JH Whitley collection YL activity during these years may Unionist merger, Newman Univer- in the University of Huddersfield have something a little bit more sity College and the Liberal Demo- archives. accurate to offer. crat History Group held a one-day JH Whitley was a prominent ‘It’s better to contribute to the seminar to examine some of the Liberal politician; in 1917, he was telling of our own history than to key changes in the political culture appointed to chair a committee to leave it to academics with no per- of this period, against the back- report on ‘the Relations of Employ- sonal knowledge of what happened, ground of the formation of the Lib- ers and Employees’ in the wake of and why’, they say.