For the study of Liberal, SDP and Issue 78 / Spring 2013 / £6.00 Liberal Democrat history

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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.

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Patrick Mitchell 6 Palfrey Place, London SW8 1PA; email: [email protected] Liberal Democrat History Group Payment is also possible via our website, www.liberalhistory.org.uk The Liberal Democrat History Group promotes the discussion and research of topics relating to the histories of the Liberal Democrats, Liberal Party, and SDP, and of Liberalism. The Cover design concept: Lynne Featherstone Group organises discussion meetings and produces the Journal of Liberal History and other Published by the Liberal Democrat History Group, occasional publications. c/o 54 Midmoor Road, London SW12 0EN For more information, including historical commentaries, details of publications, back issues Printed by Kall-Kwik, of the Journal, and archive and other research sources, see our website at: 18 Colville Road, London W3 8BL www.liberalhistory.org.uk. 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. eral Unionists, bringing together the establishment of the shop stew- Material collected will, with some of the most prominent young ards movement and the widespread permission, be added to the Liberal historians working on these issues. protest action against dilution. He archive held at the London School Dr Ian Cawood, Head of His- served as speaker of the House of of Economics, which already has a tory at Newman and author of a Commons in the 1920s. lengthy manuscript produced by new book on the Liberal Union- Research projects on any theme George, and may also be used for ists, had also arranged for Profes- relating to Whitley’s life and times the production of papers for this sor Jon Lawrence (Cambridge) and will be considered. The success- Journal and other publications. Dr Stuart Ball (Leicester) to act as ful candidate will be expected to Anyone wishing to participate rapporteurs. help publicise and organise events should, in the first instance, contact The audience, which included related to the Whitley collection. George Kiloh, 2 Old Blackfriars, MPs John Hemming and Bill Potential applicants are welcome to Marley Lane, Battle, Sussex TN33 Cash, then heard an introductory contact any of History’s specialists 0DQ; [email protected]. paper from Professor Robert Colls in modern British history (http:// (University of Leicester) on politi- www.hud.ac.uk/research/research- cal culture in Britain 1884–1914, strengths/history/) to discuss The Liberal Party, Unionism followed by a presentation from potential projects. and political culture in late Ian Cawood on the impact of the The University of Huddersfield 19th and early 20th century Liberal Unionists, 1886–1912. has a generous package of research Britain There followed papers from Dr development funds for research Graham Lippiatt reports on a Matthew Roberts (Sheffield Hal- students to enable attendance at one-day seminar organised by lam), on a ‘terrific outburst of conferences and public engagement Newman University College political meteorology’: by-elec- activities. History has about twenty and the Journal of Liberal History, tions and the Unionist ascend- research students and has an ener- on Saturday 10 November 2012, ancy in late Victorian England; getic and sociable research culture, at Newman University College, Dr James Thompson (Bristol) on in which the successful applicant Birmingham the Liberal Party, Liberalism and would be expected to participate. On 9 May 1912, at the Queen’s the visual culture of British poli- The studentship will begin on 1 Hall in London, the Liberal Union- tics c.1880–1914; Dr Kathryn Rix October 2013. ist Party merged with the Con- (History of Parliament Trust) on Application should be made servatives, finally abandoning their professionalisation and political through the university’s on-line historic connection with the Liberal culture: the party agents, 1880– application procedure at http:// political tradition in Britain. Yet 1914; and Dr James Owen (History www.hud.ac.uk/researchdegrees/ recent research has confirmed that of Parliament Trust) on Labour when the party was formed in 1886, and the caucus: working-class rad- apart from on the crucial dividing icalism and organised Liberalism Archiving the ‘Red Guard’ question of Irish Home Rule, it was in England. Three former officers of the as liberal in outlook and radical in Some of the papers from this National League of Young Liberals social policy as the Gladstonians. entertaining and stimulating day and the Union of Liberal Students The formation of the Lib- will be published in future issues of during the ‘Red Guard’ era, (Lord) eral Unionist Party took place at the Journal of Liberal History. Tony Greaves, George Kiloh and Left: Leader the same time as British politi- Peter Hellyer, have launched a pro- of the Liberal cal culture itself was in flux. The ject to try to collect archive mate- Democrats Nick gradual emergence of a mass elec- Apology rial and memories from surviving Clegg MP, and torate informed by a popular press, We would like to apologise for YLs of that era. Deputy Leader debates about the role of the state the late arrival of this issue of the The objective is to facilitate of Westminster in social policy, imperial upheav- Journal of Liberal History – it went research into the role of the YLs Council, Cllr als and wars all had their impact to press about six weeks later than within the Liberal Party from around Robert Davis, on politics. Parties got more pro- originally planned. 1965–1973 and the longer and broader speak at the fessional, labour more organised, We’ll catch up with the summer term impact both on the party and unveiling of the regional and religious identities issue (due out in mid July) and the more widely on British politics. plaque. sharpened. To accompany this autumn issue (mid September).

Journal of Liberal History 78 Spring 2013 5 Honor Balfour and the Liberal Party an archival perspective Well known in her day, Honor Balfour (1912–2001) is still remembered by politicians and commentators of a certain age. She was the first woman to chair the Oxford Unversity Liberal Club, she helped found Radical Action, and stood as an independent Liberal in the Darwen by-election of 1943, in defiance of the wartime truce. In a series of archival snapshots this article outlines the role of the Honor Balfour papers as a historical resource for the study of the Liberal Party’s history from the mid 1930s to the late 1950s. It focuses on some of the key events in the career of Honor Balfour as an activist and politician. By Helen Langley.

6 Journal of Liberal History 78 Spring 2013 Honor Balfour and the Liberal Party an archival perspective

he five sections chart: i) magazines; The Observer, and the her centenary year, offers an ideal her involvement with the BBC – to write about British poli- opportunity to re-examine it with TLiberal Party during her tics for both domestic and Ameri- the aid of the private papers that she student days in Oxford, includ- can audiences. Yet looking back bequeathed to St Anne’s College, ing her later activities in city poli- over her life in conversations with Oxford, on the assumption that they tics, and her work with the Basque the present writer in the late 1990s, would be deposited on long-term Refugees Relief scheme; ii) the her own assessments of her achieve- loan in the Bodleian Library The highpoint of the Darwen by-elec- ments were very modest. Perhaps collection was catalogued by her tion fought in 1943, in defiance of the failure to match the success good friend and Windrush (week- the wartime electoral truce; iii) of the Labour politician Barbara end) neighbour Diana Rau, now a her growing disillusionment with (later Baroness) Castle, an Oxford retired academic, who worked as a the party in the late 1940s; iv) the contemporary whose career ini- volunteer, making a weekly com- nuanced responses that this elic- tially followed a similar trajectory mute from London to Oxford to sift ited from her in response to Liberal – political activism, journalism, through, arrange and describe the election campaigns in the 1950s; parliamentary candidate in the papers, retaining Honor’s original and v) the final break with the Lib- 1945 General Election – had left a arrangement wherever possible. The eral Party in 1957. Throughout subliminal mark.3 She never saw finished catalogue has been available this period and into the early 1970s herself as a suitable subject for a to researchers since 2009.5 Honor Balfour, an astute observer biography, rejecting approaches Honor Mary Balfour was born of politics, continued to write and from prospective biographers, and on 4 August 1912 in Liverpool; her broadcast. Her assessment of Eric was scarcely less willing to endorse father, Robert, a merchant’s clerk Lubbock (later Lord Avebury)’s articles which put her centre stage. from sea-faring Balfour stock, was famous by-election victory at Orp- She did however on at least two a distant kinsman of the diplomat ington in 1962, and the prospects occasions grant access to her papers Sir John (Jock) Balfour,6 rather than for a widespread Liberal resur- for studies of Liberal Party his- of the Prime Minister A. J. (later gence, will be included in a future tory: to the American historian, first Earl of) Balfour, although archival study centring on Honor and biographer of Asquith, Stephen it would be this imagined link, Balfour’s distinguished career as a Koss, and to the British political wrongly made by her school, that journalist and broadcaster. historian, Mark Egan, for his article would encourage Honor to take Well known in her day, she is on Radical Action (which was pub- her first steps towards politics. Her still remembered by politicians and lished in this journal in 2009). father’s death in the First World commentators of a certain age. She Honor did though enjoy talking War shortly before the Armistice merited an entry in the Oxford Dic- about the times through which she was declared made a huge impact tionary of National Biography, written had lived and the host of fascinating on her life. by Dr. Mark Pottle.1 Most fittingly, people she had met. Fortunately for Her mother, Sarah Ellen, née her name lives on in the Fellow- this writer the reflections prompted Jenkins (1881–1965) was also Liv- ship in Politics2 that she endowed at by discussions about the future of erpool born and bred. Her father, St Anne’s College, Oxford. Honor the Honor Balfour archive broad- Brice Jenkins, had been a ship stew- Balfour was highly adept at spot- ened into friendship and ultimately ard, Robert’s a ship’s carpenter. ting up-and-coming politicians, agreement that an article might be Brice Jenkins’ father had been a and she was also professionally written.4 mariner but interestingly his (con- well-placed – as a journalist for the But in her own way Honor Bal- Honor Balfour siderably younger) wife’s father was American Time-Life International four lived a remarkable life and 2012, (1912–2001) a flannel manufacturer.7

Journal of Liberal History 78 Spring 2013 7 honor balfour and the liberal party: an archival perspective

With little money Honor and rivalry between Lady Violet and Two leaflets drink watered down wine with her mother were obliged by neces- Lady Megan Lloyd George, in pas- from the Oxford meals) she was invited to partici- sity to become a partnership, which sionate defence of their fathers’ by-election pate in her school debate, organ- proved enduring. It was a strong respective achievements, was still campaign, 1937. ised by the history mistress around relationship. Honor’s personality palpable. The one on the the time of the 1924 General Elec- was very different from her moth- left was printed tion. Initially she was nominated er’s but she remembered her as ‘the in red. MS. to speak for the Conservatives (on truest and most wonderful mother’8 First political steps Balfour dep.47. the basis of her very distinguished Honor never married. Independ- A gifted ballet dancer and musi- Honor Balfour namesake), but a reading of all three ence, resourcefulness and tenac- cian, Honor Balfour could have papers. Bodleian parties’ election pamphlets led her ity were thus bred into her from pursued either talent profession- Library, Oxford. to opt for the Liberal Party. What an early age, and these traits can be ally. But her ambitions lay else- Reproduced with it was in the manifesto which made traced throughout her long life. where. At an early age she wanted the permission her choose the Liberals is unclear. Honor’s was a life largely to be either the Viceroy of India of St.Anne’s But whatever it was survived the recorded in her papers: she kept a or a journalist. Looking back over College, Oxford. Liberals’ calamitous performance at great variety of documents, which the years Honor could not think the polls.12 shed light on most of her inter- initially of anyone who had been ests.9 But evidence of her wit and a great influence on her: she had humour has effectively disappeared ‘made her own way’. But then she Oxford with her death. It is as though she remembered the geography teacher Having passed her Higher School had never sat with fellow journal- at Blackburn House. Miss C. A. Certificate before her seventeenth ists in the Establishment Club, a Friend, known to her pupils as birthday Honor was too young to seed bed of 1960s’ satire, contrib- ‘Chummy’: ‘a wonderful and pro- apply to Oxford, as she intended to uting ideas for sketches inspired found teacher’ who, when Honor do. In the interval she enrolled for by events of the week.10 In old age was ‘around the age of twelve or a year at Liverpool University to she was still a gifted mimic. Her thirteen, made [her] look at the study social science. To raise funds impression of Lady Violet Bonham world beyond books’.11 As a twelve for her studies at Oxford she taught Carter (later Baroness Asquith of year old with an inquisitiveness music locally. Displaying her char- Yarnbury), with whom she shared and maturity bordering on preco- acteristic initiative she wrote to many meetings of the national ciousness (on holiday in France she several women’s colleges for their executive of the Liberal Party, sum- had persuaded her mother to allow entrance examination papers moned up a milieu in which the her to emulate French children and and used them to practice before

8 Journal of Liberal History 78 Spring 2013 honor balfour and the liberal party: an archival perspective applying to what is now St Anne’s Honor was resolved to be a in Oxfordshire. Among those she College. political journalist, but the oppor- turned to for assistance were her Originating as The Society of tunities were then few, especially friend Patrick Early, son of the Home Students,13 St Anne’s pro- for a woman. Picture Post – a new famous Witney-based blanket mak- vided for those young women magazine set up by (Sir) Edward ing family. His father provided an whose slender means would other- Hulton ‘to out-Spectator the Specta- empty farmhouse and mattresses wise have denied them access to an tor’15 lay in the future. She would as a stopgap measure, and Patrick Oxford education. Its non-residen- join the editorial staff recruited became Chairman of the Aston tial basis was the main attraction for by the editor, Stefan Lorant, the House branch. Honor, having ini- Honor: she ‘couldn’t bear the idea only woman on the small team – a tiated moves to deal with the cri- of being cooped up’; it also solved reward for her risk-taking and a sis, became Vice Chairman of the the problem, and the associated validation of her skills. After grad- Mayor of Oxford’s Spanish Relief cost, of maintaining two homes. uation she became the music critic Fund, and member of the Oxford Honor’s mother would instead for the Oxford Times, ‘to earn my Spanish Democratic Defence Com- join her in Oxford. Deterred from crust’, occasionally contributing mittee. Her skills as a platform applying to read music after being ‘specials’ on other topics. She was speaker, honed in the University’s told that the Professor of Music also a tutor for the local Workers’ Liberal Club and the Women’s was said to be a misogynist, Honor Educational Association. Politi- Debating Society, were deployed opted to read English, switching cally she was active in the League too. Much of the material in Hon- shortly afterwards to read the rela- of Nations Union as well as the Lib- or’s papers describing the Basque tively new degree, Politics, Philos- eral Party. It was probably because refugees initiative is printed. ophy and Economics (PPE). of these political commitments Among the relatively few letters is that Honor found herself in the one from 1938 when the Abingdon Boars Hill home of the prominent division of the Liberal Association University and city politics Liberal academic Professor Gil- donated £10 8s.1d. towards Basque Honor went up to Oxford in Octo- bert Murray16 and his wife, Lady relief, praising her for her ‘untir- ber 1931, graduating BA in 1934. Mary when the latter’s nephew, ing work’ on behalf of the Basque Her degree classification was mod- Wilfrid Roberts, rang in late May children.19 est, reflecting the amount of time 1937 with the news of the arrival that she expended on activities in the UK of Basque refugee chil- other than study. One of these dren and their teachers, fleeing the Darwen and the national arena extra-curricular pursuits resulted Civil War in Spain. (In the mining Honor’s involvement with Radi- in her election to the Presidency area around Bilbao the largely com- cal Action, as a founder member of of the University’s Liberal Club, munist trades unionists’ families the group in November 1941, and which gave her a different kind feared reprisals by Franco’s occupy- her stand against the electoral truce of ‘first’: she became the first ever ing forces.)17 Roberts was Liberal in 1943, have already been exten- woman to be elected to any of the MP for North Cumberland, and a sively described by Mark Egan.20 University’s political societies. She member of the parliamentary com- Honor’s papers – and the author’s also founded the Women’s Debat- mission to Madrid. He was also conversations with Honor – were ing Society. Guest speakers in 1933 a future member of the wartime key sources, even though so few of included Vera Brittain.14 Judging Radical Action group. her outgoing letters for 1943 sur- from the letters of congratulation Lady Mary passed the Basque vive. Her own personal papers on extant among her papers Honor refugee challenge to Honor. For the topic expanded greatly in the was an excellent platform speaker, her the timing could hardly be less 1970s when she stepped in to house, despite her claims to the contrary. Honor Bal- propitious: she was campaigning possibly only temporarily, Lancelot Her connection with the Liberal in the local elections as the Liberal Spicer’s numerous files: Spicer was Party, which began with her Presi- four lived a candidate in the East Oxford ward. one of the originators of Radical dency of the Oxford University It was a campaign fought with the Action, and its chairman.21 Liberals, would last until she finally remarkable support of the Labour Party, here Reading her early postwar cor- broke with the Party over twenty represented by her friends from respondence suggests that, although years later. life and her university, Frank Pakenham, later both of her electoral campaigns The University Liberal Club was Lord Longford and Richard Cross- in Darwen were unsuccessful, she her springboard to ex officio member- centenary man the future cabinet minister. It retained political influence in the ship of the party’s National Organi- would be through Pakenham that region. Certainly this influence sation, which from 1942 brought year offers an Honor went to work for Sir Wil- was considerable enough to induce with it a place on the National ideal oppor- liam Beveridge, in the early war Barbara Castle to write during the Executive; and it offered an entrée years,18 a role which may well have 1959 General Election of the value also into local politics. January tunity to re- infused her stance later as a member of Honor’s endorsement in encour- 1935 found her as temporary secre- of Radical Action, and which fed aging Liberal voters to switch their tary of the Oxford City Liberals. examine it into both her 1943 and 1945 election allegiance to her in the absence of a In October she fended off invita- campaigns in Darwen. Liberal candidate for Blackburn.22 tions to stand as a candidate in vari- with the aid Honor lost the Oxford elec- By 1959 Honor’s profile as a ous wards. The coverage in Bodley’s tion but there was little time for journalist and broadcaster may well collection for these years is patchy. of her private disappointment. Her energies have been more significant than any It gathers volume in 1937 with a dra- were directed towards organis- recollection of her own electoral matic convergence of events. papers. ing welfare for the Basque refugees campaigns, fought over a dozen

Journal of Liberal History 78 Spring 2013 9 honor balfour and the liberal party: an archival perspective years earlier. But her continuing of the deposit, of use of the tele- Register.27 In her election address influence does add an interesting, phone, and the hiring of halls. Honor noted that, to date, the war- longer term, dimension to the war The 1943 election was called time truce had seen 120 members time campaigns, and it is from this after the death on active service returned – a fifth of the House – perspective that the campaigns of of the incumbent MP, Captain through nominations, regardless of 1943, and to a lesser extent 1945, are Stuart Russell. A Conservative, any expression of the people’s will: revisited here. Russell had won the seat in 1935, the people, in effect, were simply Several batches of the papers unseating Sir Herbert (later 1st not consulted. have slips of annotated yellow Viscount) Samuel the leader of the In defiance of the official Liberal paper attached by Honor. Touch- Liberal opposition. To Darwen Party line she, and her good friend ingly the cheque stubs for the 1943 Honor Balfour brought her inter- and fellow Radical Action member, contest is annotated, ‘Mama’s £193 est in social matters evident since Donald Johnson, each contested gift to me. This was the last she had her pre-Oxford research in Liver- by-elections in December 1943. of her savings. It was the first sum pool and which was undoubtedly Both lost by the narrowest of mar- in the campaign on which I started strengthened by working for Beve- gins; Johnson, at Chippenham, by to fight. HB’.23 She also received ridge.26 A direct influence of a more 195 votes,28and Honor at Darwen a sizeable donation of £150 from personal kind may have filtered by a mere 70: 8869 to 8799. It was the Liberal politician and philan- Honor Balfour’s into her emphasis on old age pen- the closest election result since 1939. thropist Lord (David) Davies of election sions, although it would have been Bill Greig, from the Daily Mirror, Llandinam.24 address, Darwen uncharacteristic of Honor to have was even of the view that Honor Some of the notes may have parliamentary personalized, in the arena of public would have won if the campaign been intended by Honor as archi- by-election, 1943. policy, her experience as an only had been longer, and she would val aids for future users, or possibly MS. Balfour child of a war widow. certainly have been victorious if for the book George (later Lord) dep.46.Honor Professionally she was very there had been an up-to-date reg- Weidenfeld commissioned her to Balfour papers. aware, from letters sent to Pic- ister, since her appeal to the young write on the 1945–51 Labour gov- Bodleian ture Post, of the depth of discon- was much greater than that of her ernment.25 The files convey not Library, Oxford. tent – bordering on disgust – felt Government-endorsed Conserva- only the political rhetoric of the Reproduced with by soldiers and their wives at their tive opponent.29 campaign, the election addresses, the permission disenfranchisement because of Like other members of Radical speeches, leaflets and posters, but of St.Anne’s the government’s continued reli- Action, Honor Balfour emphasised also the practical minutiae: the cost College,Oxford. ance on an outdated 1935 Electoral the necessity of planning for the

10 Journal of Liberal History 78 Spring 2013 honor balfour and the liberal party: an archival perspective post war world; it was not enough indictment of the outdated electoral Honor was St Edmunds by-election in April just to focus on policies for win- register, and aptly demonstrated 1944. Radical Action was fielding ning the war.30 Implementing Bev- why Honor had felt compelled to profoundly Mrs (later Dame) Margery Cor- eridge’s plan for welfare reform, stand in the first place. bett Ashby and Honor was recip- published in December 1942, was Among the huge number of tel- disillusioned rocating the help she had received accorded special significance. In egrams and letters which flooded in from Ashby in Darwen. Hopkin- her own campaign the focus on after her narrow defeat were three with the Lib- son cited her campaigning while old age pensions drew positive especially interesting ones: first, technically on sick leave, and rather responses from potential voters.31 Frances Lloyd George, writing on eral Party: its than be sacked she had resigned.38 Yet another of her themes, the behalf of herself and David Lloyd The underlying cause, though, was necessity of women’s involvement George spoke for many when she leadership; Hopkinson’s style of management, in post war planning, attracted described it as a ‘moral victory’, and and his inability to put gender to women voters. She was an inspi- she assured Honor that she would its organi- one side when dealing with his rational speaker; her mastery of be successful next time; second, a sation, its talented subordinate. But Honor topics and ease in speaking from a postcard, sent on behalf of 116 elec- continued with her journalistic platform were remarked on in press tors who felt guilty because they programme. career and shortly afterwards was accounts. Petite, with a shapely fig- had not voted. The reason they recruited to Life magazine, later ure, dark hair framing her intelli- gave was that they all lived in dif- She was not transferring to Time, alongside gent heart-shaped face, and always ferent districts to those of 1939. But which she continued her freelance neatly turned out,32 Honor cut an if she needed help in the future they alone in this work. impressive figure. Like her con- could offer £3–5 each. ‘We, and As a parliamentary candidate temporary Barbara Castle, appear- many others realize that the best nor was it a in 1945 Honor still received let- ance was important for Honor – as man is down. We only wish you ters about old age pension rates, the indeed for all women who aspired to stand again’.35 Lastly, and both purely a gen- concerns of soldiers, and other out- to a presence in public life: they, less bizarre and far more presci- standing issues from her 1943 con- much more than their male coun- ent in the longer term, was a letter erational test. But the 1945 campaign would terparts, would be judged by their from A.H. Brown. Writing from prove very different. The Labour appearance. Hayling Island he suggested it was response. candidate, Captain R. Haines, Her efforts at Darwen may ini- better than Honor lost because as a came back from Greece to fight tially have suffered from the deci- journalist she would have far more the election. Accrington-born, he sion by a local paper, the Darwen power outside the House than 95 had left school at fourteen to work News, to boycott her campaign. per cent of the MPs inside it.36 in a mill. He became a reporter on Arthur Riley, the paper’s publisher, Of all the letters in the files con- the Manchester Evening News. Since had taken his lead from the Prime cerning the wartime Liberal Party 1938 he had been the Labour pro- Minister’s official letter in sup- however those exchanged with spective parliamentary candidate. port of Prescott, which claimed Captain George Grey, MP are the While away fighting he had kept in that Honor’s candidacy threatened most poignant. Grey was Liberal touch by newsletters. Honor was national unity. But the move back- MP for Berwick-on-Tweed, con- now fully endorsed by the Liberals; fired. The national press criticised tinuing a family tradition. A mem- she was regularly in the constitu- such an undemocratic act. Local ber of Radical Action, his letters, ency and was still highly regarded. Liberals, irritated by Sir Freder- written from England while serv- But all of this was not enough to ick Hindle, their president, signing ing with the 4th Battalion, Grena- withstand the dramatic polarisa- Prescott’s nomination papers, were dier Guards, are full of life, and tion between right and left that stirred into action.33 The local press promise. But he did not survive the occurred at this election, and which ban prompted donations from as far war, dying in the Normandy land- cost the Liberals so dearly. Honor away as Aberystwyth.34 ings. He is buried where he died, at came third, unable to repeat her More importantly, the Liberal a crossroads in Le Repas.37 Some- 1943 showing. Prescott retained News Chronicle rallied to her cause. what ironically, given Radical his seat from the Labour threat, Other newspapers which reported Action’s earlier stance, the Electoral which had totally supplanted that favourably on her campaign Truce ensured that in the by-elec- of the Liberals’, both in Darwen included the Manchester Guardian, tion caused by Grey’s death Sir and throughout the land.39 Had the Manchester Evening News and the William Beveridge was returned, she accepted the offer by Harold Daily Mirror. Even The Times wrote uncontested, as his successor. Laski in 1945 of a safe Labour seat flatteringly. Honor was deemed by Honor was selected as the offi- she would undoubtedly have made some of the press to have empow- cial Liberal Party prospective the ‘national impact’ projected for ered the electorate, giving them parliamentary candidate for Dar- her by Robert Ingham in his recent the opportunity to send a message wen in June 1944. She assiduously profile of Honor.40 to the government and the Tories, nursed the constituency, spending who were still regarded by many all her free time there. She was no of the electorate as the party of longer at Picture Post – after Lor- Disenchantment appeasement and of ‘guilty men’. ant’s departure for the United While researching this article it It was a message which one cor- States her position on the magazine was something of a surprise to respondent noted could have been became untenable. Relations with come across a batch of letters which even louder, but for the fact that the new editor, Tom (later Sir Tom) revealed just how conflicted in her Darwen’s electorate was mainly Hopkinson were strained. Mat- loyalties towards the Liberal Party middle-aged or older. It was an ters came to a head during the Bury Honor had become by the time of

Journal of Liberal History 78 Spring 2013 11 honor balfour and the liberal party: an archival perspective

the 1950 General Election. In the departure of Mr Meredith, the immediate postwar years Honor agent, a ‘forthright Liberal, & a was still attracting letters inviting worker who treats Liberalism as a her to stand as a parliamentary can- crusade.’43 didate. One can see why. Even if the Honor had retained her affec- ranks of the Liberal Party had not tion for Darwen’s Liberals but she been so badly depleted after 1945, began distancing herself from the Honor was a ‘stand out’ candidate, party nationally. Aubrey Herbert and not only because of her person- wrote to Honor to ask if, despite ality and political skills. She was telling him at the Bournemouth becoming known as a broadcaster Assembly that it would be ‘some on the radio at a time when very time’ before she would consider few young female voices were to be another candidature, she be per- heard, especially in current affairs suaded to become the candidate for programmes. Oxford, Alistair Buchan having Honor was profoundly disillu- resigned on his appointment to the sioned with the Liberal Party – its Economist magazine. Oxford, wrote leadership; its organisation; and Herbert, was ‘clamouring’ for her.44 its programmes. She was not alone The answer was firmly no. ‘I could in this, nor was it purely a genera- not be more convinced of the need tional response, or limited to the for Liberalism especially at this radical wing. Lady Violet Bonham time – but I cannot see it coming Carter, keeper of the Asquithian through our present Liberal Party flame, older, and on the right of policy or leaders.’45 the party,was sharply critical too The following year she was of divisions between MPs. Dis- approached again to stand, this enchantment with the party was time by W.R. (Robert) Davies, the widespread. Davies’ task, as leader, Directing Secretary of the Liberal of holding the party together has Party Organisation. A ‘really good been compared with that of Har- opportunity’ had unexpectedly old Wilson and the Labour move- occurred. The constituency was ment in the 1960s.41 Looking back not mentioned; only that it had ‘an over this phase of her life Honor excellent record’. Unfortunately described how she had seen her the Liberal candidate had been journalistic role. It was to act as instructed by his doctor to stand a conduit, explaining the Brit- down.46 The answer was again no. ish to her American readers, and Honor wrote that, while the offer adapting, often simplifying, her was appreciated: journalistic style in the process. For visiting American politicians, I fear circumstances do not and other influential visitors, she permit me to take part in this arranged informal lunches and din- Election. I shall have to be an ners (the White Tower’s restaurant onlooker, making my commen- being one of her favourite venues) tary and survey, but otherwise where they could meet their Brit- taking no part in the annual ish counterparts. In her own way activities. In many ways, I regret she helped to cement the Anglo– this of course; yet I feel the rea- American relations. She could son for my inactivity is very reflect with satisfaction on what much worthwhile. For if I am she achieved. For arguably through to continue having my inter- her journalism – both for Life and pretations of the British politi- as a freelancer – she may indeed cal scene accepted by American have exercised more influence than readers, I must remain non parti- many politicians.42 san. And it is so urgent to try and After the 1945 defeat, Darwen keep Anglo–American relations Top: Letter from Honor Balfour to Aubrey Herbert,1948. (where Honor remained a mem- clear at this time, that I am for- MS. Balfour dep.1. Honor Balfour papers. Bodleian ber of the Association) is rarely tunate, as a British journalist, to Library, Oxford. Reproduced with the permission of St. mentioned in her correspondence. find my comments accepted by Anne’s College, Oxford. The first such instance is not until American colleagues … in the 1948. It is a ‘thank you’ letter from hope that my small efforts may Bottom: Letter, from Honor Balfour to Roy F.Leslie, a prize winner at the Darwen Divi- be of some use in this direction.47 Liberal candidate for Darwen in the 1951 General sion Liberal Spring Fair, to which Election.MS. Balfour dep.2.This is a green carbon copy. Honor had contributed a food par- The General Election held on 23 MS. Balfour dep.2. Honor Balfour papers. Bodleian cel. The writer, a volunteer helper February 1950 returned the Labour Library, Oxford. Reproduced with the permission of St. in both of Honor’s election cam- Party to government with a slightly Anne’s College, Oxford. paigns, regretted the imminent decreased share of the vote (46.1 per

12 Journal of Liberal History 78 Spring 2013 honor balfour and the liberal party: an archival perspective

cent to 1945’s 47.8 per cent) and a taste but to vote Labour at the next Honor Balfour, Election in February. Never reduced number of MPs (315 instead General Election. As you know, the first woman have I found such difficulty in of 1945’s 393). The number of Lib- my leaning was never towards the president of making a speech that was both eral MPs fell from 12 to 9, despite Tories’. She closed the letter by the university honest and convincing as I did fielding 475 candidates (up from reciprocating his personal good Liberal Club, when I was speaking in sup- 306 in 1945); and even though they wishes and sending her greetings to remained a Vice- port of Carey-Evans, the Liberal were contesting many more seats, him and his wife.50 President until candidate for my own division their percentage of the vote only she resigned here in London. I realized as I rose to 9.1 per cent from 9 per cent from the party was speaking from his platform, in 1945.48 Epiphany on an election in February 1957. that the Radical beliefs which A few months later The Man- platform This photograph I hold no longer have a chance chester Evening News reported that Judging from a letter written a few was probably to operate effective through the Honor Balfour would vote ‘Social- months later, in September 1950, taken at the present Liberal Party. With all ist’ in the next General Election. Honor wanted her voting inten- Oxford Union their faults – and they are largely The story was picked up by the tions to remain a private matter. It when (Sir) the same faults as they’ve always local press in Darwen. It prompted was sent in reply to a letter, which Robin Day (1923- been – the men and the women the victor of her two election cam- does not appear to have survived, 2000), standing of the Labour Party seem to paigns, Stanley Prescott, MP, to from her successor as Liberal can- first left, was cherish our radical beliefs more write regretting her choice but didate for Darwen, James Booth. President of the sincerely and effectively than do hoping all was well with her per- On Time-Life International headed Union, Trinity our Liberal chiefs. sonally, and sending best regards notepaper the closely typed letter Term,1950.MS. from his wife and himself.49 reveals her inner struggle. It was Balfour dep.98. After sentences describing the In her reply Honor adopted a Honor Balfour struggle within the Labour Party position some distance from that most difficult to answer [his papers. Bodleian between the forces of Radicalism outlined to Robert Davies. She too letter].Because the fact is that I Library, Oxford. and Socialism, with Radicalism the had read the press report seen by have concluded that our Liberal Reproduced with likely victor the longer the Party Prescott: ‘The fuller context might Party and the times in which the permission remained in office, she returned to have explained that I’m still a Lib- we live are not in keeping with of St.Anne’s her own political beliefs. ‘Philo- eral, but that I am one who is a crit- each other. I have been fighting College, Oxford. sophically and economically, I am ical supporter of the Government. against this realization for some time still as Liberal as ever’ but the ‘polit- In present circumstances, I see [emphasis added].But it became ical effectiveness of these convic- no alternative for Radicals of my strong during the General tions can only be achieved to-day

Journal of Liberal History 78 Spring 2013 13 honor balfour and the liberal party: an archival perspective through the continuance in office of been for a very long time; there With no supporters in their constituen- a Labour Government.’ She had not is a good deal that would auto- cies to vote for them. The future joined the Labour Party, and her matically follow from the pres- chance of Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, disillusionment with her old party ence of a leader and a Candidate later Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, did not ‘detract one jot from the in the Division. forming a in Huyton was one beneficiary. fineness of individuals of that party. The letter, dated 12 October 1951, A decision of this kind is essentially After detailing the area’s industries, government and addressed ‘To … all Liberal an individual one and … it involves and the politics of local mayors – Voters’ continues:’ Your atten- relinquishing any political ambi- every single one a Liberal – Davey the role of tion is invited to the following let- tions one might have had’, but she invited her to come down to see for ter to Mr HAROLD WILSON argued ‘I am more at peace in my herself. They were keen to work the Liber- from Miss HONOR BALFOUR, own mind if I choose my political with her to make her the ‘first lady als was ‘to famous Liberal ex-Candidate.’ path privately and honestly’ than MP for Cornwall.’52 With no Liberal candidate if she were to continue publicly Apologising for the twelve day steady this standing ‘some people … had been and actively to support an organi- delay in replying to Davey’s letter advising Liberals not to vote at sation in which she no longer had – a delay she attributed to ‘a spate country in all.’ This advice disturbed Honor confidence. of work’ – Honor began by say- ‘deeply’. She felt she ‘must raise my It was a private letter, she made ing how ‘really most honoured’ hard deci- voice against it … Not to use one’s clear, written only because Booth she was to receive their invita- vote is deliberately to betray our was her successor at Darwen, where tion, especially from an area with sions that democracy. Liberals of all people she had so many friends, and with such a long Liberal tradition and should realize this – and, however whom she had shared so many where, as in her two Darwen con- will have to difficult the decision where there struggles. On personal grounds she tests, there would be ‘loyal Liberals is no candidate of their own, they wished him every success when he with whom to work; people with be taken in cannot and must not escape it.’ fought again. ‘I know the Darwen strong personal associations’. But If she had to make such a choice Liberals are Radicals, your success decline it she must. The reasons the month she would unhesitatingly ‘choose would further the Radicalism in advanced however make no men- Labour’. The Labour government which I believe.’51 For the 1951 Gen- tion of the loss of faith adumbrated ahead’. was not perfect but she gave it eral Election she would write an nine months earlier to James Booth. credit for its solid achievements; open letter of support for the new Instead she points again to her a record infinitely better than the Liberal candidate at Darwen, Roy ‘immers[ion] in Anglo–American Tory (Honor seldom used ‘Con- F. Leslie, who had previously con- work’. Her ‘Parliamentary aims’ servative’) record after 1918. tested Colne Valley in 1950. She were ‘no longer active’, for one She appealed through ‘Harold’ wrote of ‘We of the Liberal Party’. could not pursue the two things to her ‘Liberal friends in Huyton’, Her heart appeared to be pulling simultaneously without it being to urging them to ‘rally behind and her back to her old allegiance, at the detriment of both. So she had help return Labour.’ Honor’s inter- least in Darwen. The high wire bal- ‘decided for the foreseeable future vention was significant. Writing to ancing act seemed set to continue. anyway I shall not again enter Par- thank Honor, Wilson commented It could not be sustained indefi- liamentary conflict … I am so sorry that her letter had ‘caused quite a nitely however. In 1955 it would to have to refuse it, for I admit stir’ in the local press. Instead of bring opprobrium. my instincts certainly leapt at the defeat (expected because of the Honor could have been a parlia- thought.’53 national trend) his majority had mentary candidate herself, had she Without other supporting doc- increased by 400.54 In Darwen, been able to accept the invitation of umentary evidence in her papers where the Liberals were fielding the Falmouth & Camborne Divi- – for example diary entries, or cor- their new candidate Roy Leslie, sion Liberal Association. How they respondence with others on the Honor wrote yet another letter of fixed on her name may possibly be topic – it is impossible to know endorsement for publication, but explained in other archives. Here whether Honor’s instincts had this time for the Liberal. the chief value of the letter sent to really leapt at the thought of con- her home address in London on 4 testing a Liberal seat again. Was the I cannot let a Liberal challenge June 1951 by A.G. Davey, the Dep- delay in replying due to more inner in Darwen go by without writ- uty Chair of that association, is its wrestling; to talking the offer over ing to offer my warmest wishes. analysis of the constituency where with friends? Or was the letter an You made a bold bid for our Nigel Nicolson was the Conserva- overly polite refusal – verging on radical traditions last time in the tive candidate. the uncharacteristically disingenu- Colne Valley, and it is hearten- ous –sent to party loyalists in a Lib- ing to all Liberals to see you once Strong personalities have at all eral heartland. The collection is again taking up the sword … times made their mark on Cor- silent on the matter. It is a major tragedy for British nish electorates. Liberalism is Fortunately the coverage of political development that our looking for leadership more Honor’s stance during the 1951 voting system has reduced Lib- than anything else. We believe General Election is good. The file eral Parliamentary representa- that a good leader could here which contains the exchange with tion to its slender proportion. In transform the whole position. It A.G. Davey reveals that Honor the last General Election 364,370 would be fair to say that the Lib- took the unusual step of writ- Liberals registered their votes in eral organisation has not been ing open letters for at least three 65 divisions in North West Eng- good; it is better now than it has Labour candidates urging Liberal land – yet we had not one seat

14 Journal of Liberal History 78 Spring 2013 honor balfour and the liberal party: an archival perspective

in the Commons for this area. a tough fight (emphasis added).Would relations with the Conservatives. It is the antithesis of democracy you be a dear & ring me Black- Not ‘wish[ing] to make specific thus to disenfranchise thousands burn 6964 (transfer charge)? Here’s points – for such an argument of men and women. And at a hoping.’57 would be endless’, Honor returned time of anxious problems such From Honor’s pencil annota- fire against her critics fiercely con- as we are experiencing at this tions to the handwritten letter demning those Liberals ‘who have moment, the nation is in vital from Castle we know that she was drifted from the true faith. It is need of the openminded courage ‘Unable to speak for you but send- both sad and tragic … what savage which even our enemies concede ing message Monday provided no castigation would be hurled upon is a characteristic of the Liberal Liberal’. them by (the spirit of) David Lloyd Party. Honor‘s endorsements of Labour George’ he would remind them candidates were not limited to the ‘that it was the Tory Party which With no chance of forming a gov- north western constituencies of would have strangled at birth the ernment the role of the Liberals was people she had known for years. very Liberal reforms that contem- to ‘steady this country in the hard Xenia Field (later Noell) the Labour porary Tories are attempting to decisions that will have to be taken candidate for Colchester, and Ber- cash in; that it was the Tory party in the month ahead’. Because they nard Bagnari in Tonbridge also that appeased Hitler until it was too were contesting fewer seats there had her letters of public support. late, despite Liberal warnings … was ‘even greater urgency to pull in In the case of the deeply grateful and that it has been the Tory Party every Liberal vote wherever a Lib- Mrs Field, who signed off her tel- whose tactics have persistently eral is fighting. I know from grate- egram with ‘love Xenia’, Honor’s flaked off layers of Liberals from ful experience how loyal and ardent choice may have been influenced by their own true party to their own Darreners (sic) can be’.55 friendship as much as the likelihood advancement … as they are again A week earlier it had looked as of success or location.58 attempting to do in this issue of though Honor would be endorsing Honor’s independent politi- Pembrokeshire’. the Labour candidate for Darwen. cal thinking proved too much Perhaps it was ‘too late for But at the last minute the Liberals for some Liberal Party members. some erstwhile Liberals to be saved had secured Leslie. Acting quickly Strong criticism by R. D. Ott- from Tory wiles … but for those Honor contacted Darwen’s Labour ley, the Honorary Secretary of the in whom the old flames of indi- organiser, Ronald Haines, who Lewisham Liberal Association,59 of vidual justice and opportunity still promptly replied: ‘Your telegram her endorsement of Labour candi- burn[ed]’ she hoped that it was not, received stop unreservedly with- dates was a foretaste of what was to and ended by recalling a conver- drawn plan to issue leaflet. I am be directed at her in 1955 in the run sation with Lloyd George on his honouring our bargain [made in up to the General Election in May, eightieth birthday in which he had Scarborough at the Labour Party which was called by the new leader said: “whatever happens always be conference where Honor was of the Conservatives, Anthony a radical”. That is your answer.’60 reporting events].’ He followed this Eden, later 1st Earl of Avon. Even Honor held true to that advice. up with a letter of the same date, more significantly her actions 1956–57 were watershed years 8 October, repeating the assur- would be used by Jo Grimond to for her relations with the Liberal ance about the leaflet and promis- minimise the impact of her resigna- Party. For some while efforts had ing not to make any references in tion from the party in 1957. been made to entice her to join the public to any statement reportedly Not all the correspondence sur- Labour Party. Sir Dingle Foot was made by her to support Labour in vives about the earlier 1955 furore, the major mover in the strategy the constituency at this election. ‘It but there are newspaper cuttings which would have seen three sen- is something of a tragedy that the from The Western Telegraph, based ior Liberals join the Labour Party Liberal Association have decided in Haverfordwest, that relate to the at the same time to maximize the to enter the contest, first because controversy that Honor entered impact of their defections: Lady it will undoubtedly split the pro- into over the election in Pembro- Megan Lloyd George, Honor, and gressive vote, and secondly because keshire. This may have risen, ini- Foot himself. Honor was actively it does not give Leslie a fighting tially, from her endorsement of involved in discussions to coordi- chance to conduct a proper cam- Desmond Donnelly. He had won nate defections to the Labour Party paign in support of his candidature, the seat for Labour in the 1950 Gen- where they hoped optimistically though I gather he is an enterpris- eral Election, defeating Gwilym to counter the Bevanites’ influ- ing young man.’56 Lloyd George, later 1st Viscount ence. But it did not go to plan. Lady Barbara Castle, facing a dif- To Honor her Tenby, who had stood as an Inde- Megan left before the 1955 Gen- ficult contest in Blackburn, also independent pendent Liberal in alliance with the eral Election, diluting the effect of sought to enlist Honor’s support. Conservatives. the others leaving. Honor could ‘I was delighted to read your spir- stance, espe- From the cuttings, and a poor not make the leap and sign the let- ited appeal to vote Labour. Is there quality copy of Honor’s lengthy ter drafted by Foot. For her Clause any chance of persuading you to cially marked letter written from the Press Gal- IV of the Labour Party’s constitu- come and speak for me here or at lery, House of Commons, on 8 tion, its historic commitment to any rate to send me a personal mes- since1950, April 1955, to the editor, for pub- nationalisation, was an insuperable sage? There is no Liberal fighting lication and in riposte to letters barrier. Later she recalled being in Blackburn East this time and made perfect published from readers, it appears ‘horrified’ by Lady Megan’s pre- there are 2,600 votes going begging that Honor was engaged in a highly mature departure.61 In the letter which may be vital in what is proving sense. charged debate about the Liberals’ Foot eventually sent on 9 July 1956

Journal of Liberal History 78 Spring 2013 15 honor balfour and the liberal party: an archival perspective to the Labour Party leader, Hugh Honor Bal- middle’ over Suez.64 Their (pub- been high: he was too much of the Gaitskell, only the names of Foot, lished) exchange of letters at the ‘old country house era’; ‘he wasn’t Wilfrid Roberts, by then no longer four’s papers time of her resignation in Febru- with the people at all’.67 This fail- an MP, and Philip Hopkins were ary 1957, and Honor’s related cor- ing, compounded by what Paul included in the letter applying to are a win- respondence with other Liberals Addison has described as Church- join the Labour ranks.62 about whether it was better to pre- ill’s tendency to treat Sinclair ‘like dow through sent a united front over the selec- a subaltern and social companion’ tion, even if it risked undermining rather than a wartime coalition The break which we the Party’s basic principles, are dou- partner68 must surely have fed into Jo Grimond became leader of the bly interesting. The additional and, Radical Action’s frustrations with Liberals in November 1956. He was can access, in some part, new elements of the Sinclair’s leadership and Honor’s immediately plunged into mar- in varying Suez story shed yet more light on resolve to break the electoral truce shalling the Party’s response to the one the great defining benchmarks in 1943. British government’s conduct of the degrees of of Britain in the twentieth century. David (now Lord) Steel and Suez crisis, then in its final stages. Viewed with the earlier letters nar- Paddy (now Lord) Ashdown The Liberals had been divided over depth, over rating Honor’s gradual disengage- emerged as the two leaders who whether to lend their support to the ment from the Liberals, they also Honor admired most: Steel dealt Eden government but Grimond, forty years of raise questions about how we, as ‘admirably’ with his ‘uphill task’; to his credit, put the party firmly individuals, perceive ourselves and Ashdown was a ‘strong leader of in the opponents’ camp. He would Liberal Party how others react to our self-image. vision and courage’.69 She did not, go on to lead the Liberals out of the Honor was surprised, even on this occasion, comment on the doldrums, presiding over a series of history. stung, by Grimond’s reference revival of the Liberal Party in the spectacular by-election successes as (which in a letter to Miss Mather late 1950s and early 1960s but at the the Macmillan era of government she termed ‘inaccuracies’) that for time she was sceptical. In her arti- faded. But it would be his stance some years she had been ‘inactive’ cles for Life she warned her read- over the Carmarthen by-election as a Liberal, doing nothing more ers that, however well the Liberals in 1957, in the aftermath of the than pay her subscriptions to the did in elections, however many Suez crisis, which would convince party. No. She had ‘gone to the Labour candidates they forced into Honor that she must cut all her for- Oxford University Liberal Club third place, they would not dis- mal links with the Liberal Party. [where she was still a Vice Presi- lodge Labour from its overall posi- Forty years later she described how dent] from time to time and done tion. Protest votes were not to be Grimond, a ‘good thinker, good a few minor things of that nature confused with genuine belief in the writer … with a certain charisma’ and just being a vocal Liberal in the party, even as the Liberals edged up made what she considered his ‘great political and journalistic circles in which again towards double figures in the error of judgement’ in supporting I mix … [emphasis added] itself House of Commons. Shortly after John Morgan Davies. denies the allegation’.65 Worse how- Eric Lubbock’s famous win in 1962 The by-election had been called ever was the way Grimond had at Orpington, Honor asked him in following the death of the MP, Sir described her writing letters of sup- a short radio interview whether he Rhys Hopkin Morris, in Novem- port to Labour candidates. These thought the level of constituency ber 1956. The tiny band of Liberal ‘few selected instances’ were only organisation could be replicated MPs was reduced to five. Lady ‘where there had been no Liberal can- across the country. He said yes; Megan Lloyd George was put for- didate’. This was ‘a vitally essential’ but Honor may not have shared his ward as the Labour candidate (in distinction; the omission of which optimism.70 itself an interesting development she interpreted as ‘prevarication’ by Honor Balfour’s papers are a in the story of the planned defec- Grimond.’66 To Honor, her inde- window through which we can tion by the trio outlined above). pendent stance, especially marked access, in varying degrees of depth, The selection by the local Liberals since 1950, made perfect sense. To over forty years of Liberal Party of Davies, a supporter of the gov- others however, in both the Lib- history. Her independent streak, ernment’s Suez policy, placed Gri- eral and Labour parties, it could be and her anti-Tory stance (which did mond in a dilemma. He opted to perceived differently. Even in the not carry over into her friendships support him. As he later wrote to less stridently ideological politics of with up-and-coming Conserva- Honor in a letter for publication: ‘I the time it may have been too sub- tive politicians, but was espe- have never believed that Suez was tle for (some) Liberals. It was also cially marked during elections), the only political issue before the politically useful to (some) Labour strongly influenced the relation- country nor the most important. candidates. ship. In the Honor Balfour Papers’ It is certainly not the issue in the description of one person’s (albeit Carmarthen by-election’.63 one exceptionally well-placed Labour won the seat with a Conclusion person’s) intense engagement and majority of 3,069 (Jennie Davies Honor’s retrospective assessment of then gradual disillusionment, they stood for Plaid Cymru; the Con- Grimond was part of a wider con- convey more than just a com- servatives did not put up a candi- versation about the Liberal Party’s mentary on the party’s past, to be date ). For Honor, Grimond had leaders, starting with the first she consulted with other collections made the wrong call, forfeiting an had known, Sir Archibald (Archie) held elsewhere. Some of the issues ‘opportunity to make the Liberal Sinclair. From the outset (she had explored, such as Radical Action’s position clear when the country first met him as an undergraduate) concern that the Liberals would and families were cut down the her expectations of him had not retain their separate identity after

16 Journal of Liberal History 78 Spring 2013 honor balfour and the liberal party: an archival perspective the wartime coalition ended; how Mark (later Baron) Bonham Carter, articles on private papers as historical Liberals defined themselves in rela- himself a notable by-election victor resources, and houses and gardens with tion to the Conservatives; and with his win at Torrington in 1958. political associations. what does ‘being a radical’ mean There is also the recent accession of – have uniquely contemporary a smaller collection, the papers of resonances. Philip Fothergill. But above all the As a historical resource for the collection is the archival legacy of Acknowledgments and history of the Liberal Party and a remarkable woman whose mod- copyright permission the Liberal Democrats the col- esty belied her role in making his- The writer is indebted to Dr Mark lection takes its place alongside tory, not just once or twice, but on Pottle and Diana Rau for their other major Bodleian collections numerable occasions as a student, extremely helpful comments on for the period – the papers of Roy an aspiring politician, and as a jour- a draft of this article. Additional (later Baron) Jenkins,71 a current nalist and broadcaster. information provided by Dr David cataloguing project and a topic Smith, St. Anne’s College, Oxford, in the 2012 modern papers semi- Helen Langley is curator of modern and Joanna Matthews, was also nar series;72 the Bonham Carter political papers in the Department of very useful. Responsibility for the archive73 which includes the papers Special Collections, Bodleian Library, final version rests entirely with the of both Lady Violet and her son Oxford. She is the author of several writer.

Bibliography

Books David Butler and Anne Sloman, British Political Facts, 1900-79 (London: Macmillan, 1980 (5th edition). F.S.W. Craig, British Parliamentary Election Results, 1918-1948 (London: Macmillan, 1977). Roy Douglas, Liberals: The History of the Liberal and Liberal Democrat parties (London: Hambledon, 2005). David Dutton, A History of the Liberal Party (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004). Liberal Democrat History Group (ed)., Mothers of Liberty. Women who built British Liberalism (London: Liberal Democrat History Group, 2012). Andrew Thorpe, Political organisation in Second World War Britain (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009). Philip M. Williamson, ed.,The diary of Hugh Gaitskell, 1945-1956 (London: Jonathan Cape, 1983).

Online articles Egan, M., ‘Radical Action and the Liberal Party during the Second World War’ http://www.liberalhistory.org.uk/uploads/63_Egan_Radical_Action. pdf Wyburn-Powell, A., ‘Liberal Post-War By-Elections, The Inverness Turning Point’, http://www.liberalhistory.org.uk/uploads/53_Wyburn-Powell_ Inverness_by-election.pdf Langley, H. ‘Bright Honor’ Oxford Today,14 March 2002, p. 52 https://www.oxfordtoday.ox.ac.uk/

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Paul Addison, ‘Sinclair, Archibald Henry Macdonald, first Viscount Thurso (1890–1970)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/36108, accessed 16 March 2012]. Francis Boyd, ‘Davies, Clement Edward (1884–1962)’, rev. Mark Pottle, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/32736, accessed 16 March 2012.] Ian Bradley, ‘Grimond, Joseph , Baron Grimond (1913–1993)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2005 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/41346, accessed 16 March 2012] Stefan Buczacki, ‘Field, Xenia Noelle (1894–1998)’,Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb. com/view/article/69295, accessed 25 June 2012]. Kenneth O. Morgan, ‘George, Lady Megan Arfon Lloyd (1902–1966)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2011 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/34572, accessed 4 August 2011] Mark Pottle, ‘Balfour, Honor Catherine Mary (1912–2001)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Jan 2005 [http://www. oxforddnb.com/view/article/75651, accessed (4 August 2011]

Unpublished material Honor Balfour papers, Bodleian Library http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/scwmss/wmss/online/modern/balfour-honor/balfour-honor.html Cassette recordings and notes of conversations with Honor Balfour, 1997-99.These are presently in the author’s possession. If the sound quality can be improved by transferring them into digital format they will subsequently placed in the Bodleian Library.

Journal of Liberal History 78 Spring 2013 17 honor balfour and the liberal party: an archival perspective

For permission to quote 8 MS.Balfour dep.31. Notice in p.101. between Spicer and Anthony from the collection, and from The Times,12 July 1966, on the 13 In 1942 The Society of Home Penny June–July 1974 (MS. letters written by Honor Bal- anniversary of her mother’s Students became St. Anne’s Balfour dep.68) indicate con- four, I am grateful to St Anne’s death. ‘Mama’ signed Honor’s Society; it has been a college cern for the future of his College, Oxford, owners of the birthday and Christmas cards since 1952. papers, regarded as Radical both the collection and Honor’s as ‘Mommie and Daddie’. 14 MS. Balfour dep 1.6 October Action’s official archive. copyright, and to the Bodleian Looking back Honor could 1933. Vera Brittain’s daughter Honor and Penny had sug- Library. Permission to quote not see much of her mother’s is Baroness (Shirley) Williams. gested approaching the Library from the letters written by Bar- personality in her own but 15 Conversation, 25 July 1997. of the Reform Club (the bara Castle and Harold Wilson assumed she had ‘imbibed’ 16 Professor of Greek, Oxford Liberal Party deemed unlikely was kindly provided by their something by being an only University founding mem- to have the resources). In his respective literary executors. child and spending so much ber of League of Nations final years Spicer lived not far Efforts to identify the own- time with her. Conversation, Union (LNU). Lady Mary from Honor so it would have ers of copyright in other letters 19 May 1999. was the daughter of the 9th been easy to transfer the papers from which sizeable extracts 9 Honor was very discrete about Earl of Carlisle. Honor had for safekeeping after his death. were quoted were unsuccessful. her relationships. Her papers been honorary secretary of 22 MS. Balfour dep.3. Letter from include bills for wines pur- the Merseyside junior LNU. Barbara Castle, 24 October 1 Mark Pottle, ‘Balfour, Honor chased (she was a connoisseur The Murrays were noted 1959. There was no Liberal Mary (1912–2001) Oxford and kept an excellent ‘cellar’). social hosts. The telephone candidate in 1955 or 1959. Dictionary of National Biography, Her art collection included conversation was recounted After apologising for delay Oxford University Press, Jan several Graham Sutherlands. to the writer, 9 November in sending thanks (her secre- 2005 [http://www.oxford dnb/ Henry Moore was another 1998. Honor recalled Lady tary has been ill) she noted ‘As view/article/75651, accessed 4 friend. Music was a lifelong Mary as ‘fey’. Roberts’ con- you rightly surmised it was August 2011]. passion; she helped to finance tribution included persuad- very useful in mobilising the 2 In accordance with Honor’s events at the Cheltenham ing the Foreign Secretary, Liberal Vote’. wishes the post of the Honor Music Festival. Anthony Eden (later 1st Earl 23 MS. Balfour dep.46, candidate Balfour Fellow in Politics was 10 For example there is no ref- of Avon) that government elections. Today’s approxi- established. erence to her in Humphrey assistance would be unneces- mate value would be £5,542.96 3 Although Honor of course Carpenter, That Was Satire sary. Additional information, – (based on the National knew of Barbara Castle, they That Was, Beyond the Fringe, the 19 April, 2 August 2012, from Archives’ online historical cur- did not associate, and pur- Establishment Club, Private Eye, Joanna Matthews, Roberts’ rency converter for 2005 (the sued different paths: Honor That Was The Week That Was daughter. latest available), and on a 1940 Balfour in conversation (London: Victor Gollancz, 17 The ship landed at comparison). with the writer, 25 July 1997. 2000). The club was like ‘the Southampton on 27 May 1937. 24 Mark Egan, p.9. Coincidentally Honor’s papers prefects’ room’. John Bird, The refugees were initially 25 Conversation 17 April 1998. in the Bodleian are stored just Richard Ingrams and the late taken to a makeshift camp near The book was never finished, metres away from those of Ned Sherrin, were among Eastleigh. During the next work stopped when Honor’s Baroness Castle. those recalled by Honor, who few weeks they were allocated mother became ill and died 4 The projected article, The Time added typically that none of to various ‘colonies’ financed in 1965. The ring binders of of her Life, was nearing com- them would remember her. and run by volunteers, trades notes made in the 1970s includ- pletion at the time of Honor Conversation, 11 November unions and other organisa- ing press reports of speeches Balfour’s death. It informed a 1998. tions (www.basquechildren. by leading political figures short piece for Oxford Today: 11 Conversation, 17 April. 1998, org). Fundraising for the in the 1945 national cam- ‘Bright Honor’ 14 March 2002, prompted while going through Oxford contingent was incor- paign may be some of Honor’s p. 52. her appointment diaries (now porated into Honor’s election working papers. MS. Balfour 5 Available at www.bodley. catalogued as MS. Balfour campaign. dep.64/1-4. ox.ac.uk/dept/scwmss/wmss/ dep.72–73).Vijaya Lakshmi 18 Conversation, 9 November 26 This period cannot be dated online/modern/balfour- (Nan) Pandit, Indian politi- 1998. Although described as exactly. Honor described how honor.html cian and diplomat, was the ‘editing’ Beveridge’s papers she and her mother moved 6 Their paths did not cross until only other person singled out it may have been more of a to Oxford after they were they met in the Washington as a major influence. Honor research role. Harold Wilson bombed out of their London Embassy in the late 1940s. His valued her ‘wordly wise, level- provided statistical advice to home. Frank Pakenham found profile was so like her father’s headed’ personality. Beveridge, and at tea-time Beveridge a difficult man to it made Honor gasp when she 12 Honor spoke only of collecting Lady Beveridge used to ask work for and was very keen first saw him reflected in a the three parties’ literature. Honor to take some cake to that she take over from him mirror. Conversation 12 December ‘that nice quiet man’. Honor which she eventually did. 7 MS.Balfour dep.31 contains 1997. A ‘disorganized rab- had known Wilson since uni- Conversation 9 November copies of birth, marriage and ble’ was how Lloyd George versity (additional informa- 1998. death certificates obtained described the party’s appear- tion, Diana Rau, 9 August 27 Many of the wives worked during Honor’s researches in ance. Focusing on temperance 2012). in factories. Sixty years later 1953. Mary Burd, her mater- and free trade did nothing to 19 MS.Balfour dep.1. 1 April 1938. Honor was still moved by nal grandmother, born at attract non-unionised rural 20 Mark Egan, pp. 5–17. recalling the sense of injustice Abermule, Montgomery, was workers – the group of vot- 21 Fortunately many of Honor’s expressed in the letters sent to twenty-two when she married ers David Dutton describes 1943 incoming letters (often Picture Post. Conversations, 25 the thirty-three year-old Brice as their ‘best hope’. Dutton, handwritten) survive. July 1997; 12 December 1997. Jenkins. A History of the Liberal Party, Correspondence exchanged 28 The by-election was caused by

18 Journal of Liberal History 78 Spring 2013 honor balfour and the liberal party: an archival perspective

the death of the Conservative permitted freelance work but 51 MS. Balfour dep.2. Letter 21 asking her to join Labour, but MP, Victor Cazelet. David decided to resign anyway. For September 1950. she remembered that there (later 1st Viscount) Eccles some while she had been con- 52 MS. Balfour dep.2. was ‘something she couldn’t won 8310 votes, Johnson, signed to the office attic writ- 53 MS. Balfour dep.2. 16 June quite swallow’ about him; 8115. Johnson later joined the ing obituaries: it was time to 1951. moreover he never understood Conservatives, serving as MP leave. Conversation, 25 July 54 MS. Balfour dep.2. Letter from her ‘point of view’. Though for Carlisle from 1955 to 1963 1997. Mrs Corbett Ashby Harold Wilson, 9 November friendly – sometimes lunch- and sitting as an Independent polled 9,121 to G.M. Keatings’ 1951. ing at Bertorellis with him and Conservative from 1963 to 11,705 votes, losing by 2,584. 55 MS. Balfour dep.2 Letter 15 his wife Dora (later Baroness) 1964. 39 Prescott secured 41.4 per cent October 1951.We know from Gaitskell – she definitely 29 Letter, 18 January 1944. MS. with 13,623 votes; Haines 34.3 a letter, 22 October 1951, from admired him less than the ris- Balfour dep.46. per cent (11,282 votes) and Leslie‘s agent, Edward White, ing Conservative politician Iain 30 MS. Balfour dep.46. This Honor 24.3 per cent (7,979 that she also sent him a dona- Macleod. These personal res- drew an approving letter from votes). Her result was part of a tion but the amount is not ervations may have also influ- Liverpool University Liberal pattern: over 40 per cent of the mentioned. enced her decision. Society’s guild of undergradu- Liberal candidates came third. 56 MS. Balfour dep.2. Letter from 63 MS. Balfour dep.116. Folder ates written by the Honorary Prescott retired from parlia- Ronald Haines, 8 October 1951. 1. First of two letters (12, 25 Secretary, E. Rex Warner. ment in 1951; he committed 57 MS. Balfour dep.2. Letter from February 1957) from Grimond. 31 MS. Balfour dep.46. For suicide in 1962. Barbara Castle, 9 October 1951. Honor formally resigned from instance Mrs Lucas of the 40 Robert Ingham’s biographi- 58 Mrs Field lost by 3,846 votes the party on 23 February, simul- Chorley branch of the cal essay in Mothers of Liberty, to the Conservative candi- taneously informing and resign- National Old Age Pensioners p.53. The offer is intriguing. date, C.G.P. Smith, slightly ing from the Darwen Liberal Association who hoped all Honor did not mention it in increasing his 1950 majority. Association and the Oxford OAPs would vote for her: conversations with this writer. Gerald Wellington Williams University Liberal Club. Letter 11 December 1943. Presumably her strong objec- held Tonbridge for the 64 Conversation 12 December Under Beveridge’s reforms tion to the party’s commit- Conservatives with a majority 1997 (with ‘synopsis’ made by universal pensions, partly ment to nationalisation was a of 10,268. Diana Rau). Lady Megan had funded by individual contri- major factor in her rejection. 59 MS. Balfour dep.2.Letter from been Liberal MP for Anglesey butions, would increase; they 41 Dutton, p.154. Jane Bonham Otley [October 1951]. Honor between 1929 and 1951. would not be means tested. Carter, in Mothers, ibid., had written to rally Liberal sup- 65 MS. Balfour 116, folder 1. Some women at the national pp.42–43. port for the Labour candidate, Letter, 14 March 1957, replying party level would have liked to 42 Conversation, 17 April 1998. Trevor Williams. to Miss Mather. have helped Honor at Darwen, 43 MS.Balfour dep.1.[Mr] 60 MS. Balfour dep.2. Letter in 66 Ibid. but their allegiance to the offi- Shorrock added that he had reply to those received after her 67 Conversation, 12 December cial line was stronger: see the bought a book of Darwen letter of 31 March published. 1997 apologetic letter from Miss Division Liberal Association’s Lloyd George, a younger son of 68 Paul Addison,‘ Sinclair, H. Harvey, Women’s Liberal raffle tickets in her name; he Earl Lloyd George, later became Archibald Henry Macdon- Federation, 17 December 1943. wanted to see how, if she won, a Conservative; he was Home ald, first Viscount Thurso 32 Being ‘spruce’– to use Honor’s locals responded to her name. Secretary from 1954–57. (1890–1970)’, Oxford Dictionary word – but not ‘dressy’ was 44 MS. Balfour dep.1.Letter from 61 It was not until the Labour of National Biography, Oxford part of her professional iden- Herbert, 11 August 1948. It has party under Tony Blair’s lead- University Press, 2004; online tity. She wore skirt suits (usu- proved difficult to establish ership revised Clause IV in edn. Jan 2008 http://www. ally dark-coloured), some- more about Herbert other than 1995 that Honor could counte- oxforddnb.com/view/arti- times adorned with a brooch. he was a journalist. Buchan nance joining the Labour Party, cle/36108, 16 March 2012] High-heeled court shoes and wrote for The Observer. Later but even then she held back. 69 Conversation, 12 December often a hat (she bought them he ran the International. Lady Megan’s friendship with 1997. in threes) completed the look. Institute for Strategic Gaitskell may have added to the 70 MS. Balfour dep.30. Imper- For the evening, lace, silk Studies. From 1972–76 he was pressure to make her move, but fect copy of transcript [March or brocade dresses. She vis- Montagu Burton Professor not its actual timing (Dingle 1962].The fact that Orpington ited her Spanish hairdresser of International Relations at Foot was away). Conversation, adjoined Macmillan’s own con- in Kensington three times Oxford. 14 November 1997. In his arti- stituency of Bromley added a week. Conversation 12 45 MS. Balfour dep.1.3 September cle on Honor, Robert Ingham, extra piquancy to the win, December 1997; photographs 1948. op.cit., p.53, suggests she also appearing to underlie the Con- in MS.Balfour dep.94. 46 MS. Balfour dep.1.Davies’ let- felt responsible, by introducing servatives vulnerability to the 33 Mark Egan, pp.8–9. ter, 23 November, 1949 Lady Megan to Labour’s general Liberal resurgence. 34 Ethel Silburn sent a small 47 MS. Balfour dep.1.24 secretary, Morgan Phillips. See 71 www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/bod- donation. MS.Balfour dep.46. November 1949 also in the same study J. Graham ley/library/special/projects/ 35 MS. Balfour dep.46. 48 David Butler & Anne Sloman, Jones’ biographical essay on roy-jenkins 36 MS. Balfour dep.46. British Political Facts, 1900–79 Lady Megan, p.51. 72 http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/ 37 http://battlefieldsww2.50megs. (London: Macmillan, 1980 62 Philip M. Williamson, ed., bodley/library/special/semi- com/grey_memorial.htm (fifth edition)). The Diary of Hugh Gaitskell, nars/authorship,-memory-and- 38 Honor, recovering from flu, 49 MS. Balfour dep.2.2 May 1950. 1945–1956 (London: Jonathan manuscripts-2012 went to Bury St Edmunds and 50 MS. Balfour dep.2. Writing on Cape, 1983), p.415. During a 73 http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/ wrote a piece in the Observer 12 May 1950, from her home conversation on 17 April 1998 dept/scwmss/wmss/online/ which Hopkinson saw. Honor address 25 Royal Crescent, Honor recalled her friendship modern/bonham-carter/bon- maintained her contract London W11. with Gaitskell. He was always ham-carter.html

Journal of Liberal History 78 Spring 2013 19 C. E. Montague, Liberal war writers and the Great War C. E. Montague, in Disenchantment (1922) and his essays, novels and short stories of the 1920s, was one of the most prolific early critics of the way the Britain waged the First World War militarily, politically, and morally. The works we most closely associate with prose ‘war literature’ are those published from 1928, for example by Robert Graves and Siegfried Sassoon. In the past, historians associated Montague with these ‘anti-war’ writers, whose work they often accused of naivety and romanticism in its treatment of war, prejudicing public opinion against the conflict. By Will Pinkney.

20 Journal of Liberal History 78 Spring 2013 C. E. Montague, Liberal war writers and the Great War et Montague was part Liberal war writers faced resist- of twentieth century warfare as of an older generation ance in print from Conservatives they supposedly were when ‘the war of writers that criticised who insisted, amid the social strife turns out to be like war, and not like Y 4 aspects of Britain’s participation in of the early 1920s, that the cost of Lady Butler’s paintings’. Dan Tod- ‘the war to end all wars’ from the the war did not justify wholesale man criticises Barnett’s caricature standpoint of veteran Liberal jour- social change in the peace. The war of how middle class writers were nalists. Their work highlights the correspondent Colonel Repington affected by their experiences.5 The controversial and politicised debate claimed that he coined the term ‘military historian’s view’ of Mon- in the early 1920s over the under- ‘First World War’, denying the war tague and others obscures how pre standing and commemoration of a unique or exceptional bearing on and post-war political life influenced the war in British public life. domestic politics by suggesting that their writings and impedes our Montague was one of a num- there may be more in future.2 Mon- understanding of the early political ber of influential Liberals who tague and others condemned liter- influences on public conceptions of were quick to publish war reminis- ary depictions of the war like the the war in British society. cences in the early 1920s, including self-exculpatory account published The context of Liberal politics in Philip Gibbs of the Daily Chronicle, by the controversial Field Marshal the pre-war years had a direct bear- one of Britain’s most widely-read Lord French and Repington’s mem- ing on Montague’s presentation and influential war correspond- oirs of a Unionist aristocracy that of the war in the 1920s. He found ents, and H M Tomlinson of the had sacrificed few of its material himself a ‘war writer’ in middle Daily News. Montague described comforts. The politics of its writ- age, already head leader writer for the war to readers as an exercise in ers primarily defined the Liberal the Manchester Guardian, the Lib- comradeship across class and sec- canon of war literature, but it also eral mouthpiece, and established tarian boundaries. Joining up in contained celebrations of the sac- writer of didactic novels for mid- 1914, A J P Taylor considered that rifices made by all ranks and criti- dle-class readers on brotherhood Montague personified ‘the zest and cisms of the generals and Coalition with the working classes. Asquith’s idealism with which nearly three government politicians, both ideas government faced bitter Union- million Englishmen had marched of central importance to British ist opposition over Irish home rule, forth to war’.1 His commitment to public understanding of the war culminating in a shocking break- the ostensibly liberal purpose of ever since. down of military discipline in the the war gave an edge to his criti- However, historians have since months before the outbreak of war cisms of the reactionary politics of downplayed the role of politics in in Europe.6 In August 1914, Mon- the peace, and fuelled his desire to the formation of public attitudes tague took the rare position among shape public understanding of the towards the war. The historiography former ‘pro-Boers’ (opponents of conflict. He felt it had been a lost of war memory has only recently the Boer War) of supporting Brit- opportunity to heal class divisions admitted the effect of the ‘evolv- ish intervention in Europe, justify- at home and to achieve comity of ing mnemonic culture’ of the years ing it in the Manchester Guardian as nations, wasted by the class preju- after 1918 on the way the war was the culmination of an existential dice of the army and the terms of remembered.3 Historians neglected struggle between liberal democracy the Versailles treaty. While the Lib- the domestic political arguments and ‘Prussianism’. He described the eral Party was gravely wounded by in Montague’s writings in particu- purpose of the war in terms from wartime infighting, Montague and lar by treating literary critics of the the Liberal lexicon: an affirma- other professedly Liberal writers war as romantics disillusioned by tion of public service and a moral adapted the classless ethos of pre- the experience of war itself. A J P foreign policy, forging ‘new patri- war Liberalism to influence public Taylor and Corelli Barnett compare otism’ without class ‘selfishness’.7 understanding of the war as a noble Montague’s disillusion to that of the Charles Edward The white heat of war, he believed, aim paid for with the lives of ordi- war poets, implying that he was as Montague would strengthen national unity by nary, usually working-class men. shocked by the unchivalrous nature (1867–1928) undermining class consciousness

Journal of Liberal History 78 Spring 2013 21 c. e. montague, liberal war writers and the great war and religious bigotry. Montague’s would define the manner in which In the reac- Off The Map (1927), among others, first criticisms of the conduct of the he presented the ‘meaning’ of the writing primarily on the wartime war were aimed at the War Office war to readers in the 1920s. tionary experiences of British and Irish for its sectarian recruiting policies Aged forty-seven Montague fighting men. in Ireland. dyed his white hair brown to enlist, political Though there were varying Though Liberals were divided a story retold in the international opinions on the war’s justifica- on the question of intervention in press. Though Oxford-educated, atmosphere tion within the stable of Liberal August 1914, both enthusiasts like he enlisted without commission war writers, its apparently lib- Montague and those more scepti- and was accepted into a volun- of 1919, Mon- eral purpose meant that they had cal Liberal war writers who came teer ‘Kitchener’ battalion, the 24th generally supported it in print. to support a ‘just war’ both staked ‘Sportsman’s’, Royal Fusiliers. tague felt The leitmotif of the Liberal literary their support on the achievement of Montague lost his moustache to a that the war response to the war and the peace liberal war aims. Montague’s pro- grenade he dropped during train- was that politicians and diplomats Boer colleagues like L T Hobhouse ing, and spent three weeks at the aims of 1914 had betrayed the hopes of the men and the Manchester Guardian’s leg- front before his health gave way. who had volunteered in 1914. They endary editor C P Scott opposed Scott, his father-in-law, had him as he under- articulated and amplified wider intervention, which seemed to assigned to Intelligence. From discontent among Liberals that the them to undermine European pro- June 1916 he worked as a press cen- stood them war’s exceptional cost had not been gress and civilisation. In World in sor and propaganda writer, escort- recompensed by a peace to distin- Conflict (1915) Hobhouse expressed ing visitors including H G Wells, had been guish it from imperialist or dynas- his disgust that ‘force had a greater George Bernard Shaw, J M Barrie tic squabbling. In Disenchantment, part to play than we had allowed’.8 and the press baron Lord North- betrayed. Montague quoted General Sir Ian However, while the war exposed cliffe to the front. The visitors were Hamilton’s belief that the Ver- fault lines between Liberal think- left in no doubt as to Montague’s sailles treaty contained ‘Not a line ers over foreign policy and the use physical bravery when he brought … to show that those boys … had of force, future Liberal war writers them dangerously close to artil- been any better than the emper- could at least hold their noses when lery fire. Field Marshal Douglas ors; not one line to stand for the war was declared, and were even Haig was bemused by ‘our white- kindliness of England’.14 In foreign enthusiastic about defence of the haired lieutenant’s’ zeal for service, and domestic policy, the Coalition ‘liberal comity of modern Europe’.9 surprised that ‘the Radical paper’s seemed to Montague to represent When a new liberal Europe did not anti-militarist should have joined an illiberalism alien to British tra- materialise in the peace, their frus- up at once’.12 Contrary to Barnett’s dition: ‘You finish the long race, tration informed their retelling of suggestions about his experiences, and only then you find out that the lofty aims forfeited. Montague left France in 1918 with “you” who has won it is not even Montague was concerned with only the growing suspicion that ‘the the same “you” who once had it to using the war to define English British nation’s greatest chance of win … Prussianism, in its own fall, national identity in Liberal terms, distinction in all its history would has infected its executioners.’15 To a claim that would become even be thrown away’ in the peace.13 Montague, the failure to achieve a more controversial after the war as However, in the reactionary liberal peace settlement and domes- commentators debated the moti- political atmosphere of 1919, Mon- tic polity was a condemnation of vation of British combatants. The tague felt that the war aims of 1914 the nation’s moral stature. struggle to wrest control of patri- as he understood them had been His response was to propagate a otic rhetoric from the Tories was betrayed. The Versailles treaty had Liberal interpretation of what the already a longstanding feature of levied astronomical reparations war had been fought for, as a con- Victorian and Edwardian Liberal on the war’s losers, encouraging demnation of post-war politics. rhetoric in the era of high empire.10 the famine and political extrem- In doing so, his criticisms of the Facing claims by the Tories and the ism wracking central and eastern peace treaty and of politicians, and anti-war clique to represent ‘the Europe. Republican violence in his demand for greater respect for nation’ in a time of crisis, Montague Ireland was met with the brutality those who had fought, helped shape argued the case for war by associat- of the Black and Tan paramilitar- the way the war was perceived in ing intervention with historic Eng- ies, whilst labour unrest gripped Britain. In the unsettled atmos- lish identity, weaving Gladstonian British industry as ex-servicemen phere of the early 1920s, amid mass foreign policy into a narrative of a re-entered the depressed economy. unemployment and working class shared European liberal heritage: Montague was further embittered discontentment, anti-war Liber- the war was ‘Garibaldi’s cause in by the collapse of the Liberal Par- als like Norman Angell criticised Italy … Gambetta’s in France, and ty’s claim to moral authority, split democracy and the working classes it would be a strange countryman between the former Prime Minis- as threats to, rather than expressions of Hampden’s whom it would not ter Asquith and the Coalition gov- of, liberal England.16 By contrast, thrill’.11 Montague’s political faith ernment leader Lloyd George. He Montague recounted the war as a was idiosyncratic and romantic, but had not retained his pre-eminent battleground between conserva- his belief in the case for war would position on the Manchester Guard- tism and liberalism in which Brit- remain fundamentally unchanged ian and did not believe, as Scott did, ish society had failed to address the over time. The importance of class- in the possibility of a Liberal resur- class divisions that he blamed for less participation in patriotic ser- gence. He turned to essays with post-war illiberalism and the revo- vice and the defence of republican Disenchantment and to further fic- lutionary Left. Alienated from the and democratic values in Europe tion in Rough Justice (1926) and Right bickering Liberal Party, Montague’s

22 Journal of Liberal History 78 Spring 2013 c. e. montague, liberal war writers and the great war rallying cries of liberal national Liberal war writers drew less volunteers and allowed what had identity, public service and human- of their political sentiment from originally been seen as a ‘conflict ity, derived from his pre-war poli- their experiences of war, as Bar- between idealism and brutality’ to tics, were redirected to defend nett suggests, than from pre-war become a ‘crime against human- ex-servicemen without jobs or Liberalism, which Barnett holds ity’. 25 The cynicism displayed by homes, who found themselves vili- had essentially failed them. As he the aristocracy recalled in Colonel fied as ‘Bolsheviks’ by the Right and had done before the war, Mon- Repington’s memoirs galled Tom- ignored by the Liberals.17 Montague tague contested Conservatives’ linson and Montague and sparked was quick to point out that strik- use of the language of patriotism controversy about the war record ers, socialists and even IRA volun- and national identity, and attacked of the ruling classes, which Mon- teers had previously been British the partisan use of state appara- tague claimed had been common in servicemen and were not served by tus like the military. He cried foul the New Army in 1914.26 Sir John the reactionary tone of the post- when Ian Hay, a Kitchener volun- French’s unchivalrous attacks on war parliamentary classes. In Ten teer and author of the popular war Kitchener and the New Army pro- Years After: A Reminder (1924), Philip book The First Hundred Thousand voked Montague to criticise the Gibbs noted how wartime phrases (1916), wrote a pamphlet for the ‘honest, plodding … ungifted tac- like ‘homes for heroes’ and ‘a world Board of Trade entitled ‘The New tics’ of the Regulars that he felt had safe for democracy’ had been aban- Hundred Thousand’, which appro- starved the army of new ideas.27 doned by Coalition and Conserva- priated the memory of wartime Barnett criticises Montague for tive governments in peacetime.18 national struggle for use in peace- such statements that passed ret- Montague and other Liberal time against striking miners.23 He rospective judgement on the war war writers were prolific partici- also denounced Churchill’s attempt and showed little sympathy for the pants in the contemporary debate to use the Territorials to widen generals. However, this evaluation over the collective character of ex- Britain’s military intervention in ignores the didactic purpose of Lib- servicemen, defending them from revolutionary Russia. To varying eral war literature: even faulty gre- charges that they had been bru- degrees, Liberal war writers were nades, Montague felt, had ‘moral talised by war, resulting in demo- distanced from the party, but influ- reverberations’. bilisation riots and accusations of enced public understanding of the Montague’s writings and their Bolshevism in the press and Com- war in distinctively Liberal terms. reception are evidence of the resur- mons. The writer Henry de Man Gibbs felt that Labour’s victory in gence of liberal values divorced warned of the damage done to the 1924 was attributable to the fail- from the Liberal Party in the set- working class mind in war, con- ure of Conservatives and Liberals tling polity of the 1920s. Disen- travening the Edwardian Liberal to sense anger ‘among ex-soldiers chantment was well received on assumption of man and society’s who had not received reward for the Liberal and Socialist Left on forward progress.19 Gibbs described service’. Yet Montague and Gibbs its publication in February 1922, this as a ‘foul libel’, and argued that asserted that working class ex-ser- praised by Gibbs, Tomlinson, Ber- most soldiers had never accepted vicemen constituted a peace party nard Shaw, John Masefield and the normality of killing.20 Mon- that believed in ‘anti-militarism Wells. The most successful early tague presented ex-servicemen in and world peace … democratic lib- books on the war were generally his writings as heroic and humane erties’ and ‘more pay for less work’, conventional military overviews representatives of a national iden- all phrases which echoed pre-war like Kipling’s The Irish Guards in tity defined by liberal values. He Liberal campaigns.24 Liberalism the Great War (1923). Tomlinson described to H M Tomlinson how Montague’s infused the Labour Party while felt that the wooden literary depic- he sympathised not with ‘intel- overlapping with the moderate tion in the immediate post-war lectual reasons’ for patriotism, writings and Conservative leader Baldwin’s out- years of the ‘Nobodies’, working- a ‘blasted “rough island story”’. look. Montague reflected both the class soldiers, who had won the Instead, ‘my England is … the their recep- dissipation of the Liberal vote and war would ‘disgrace pantomime’.28 crowd at a League football match the wider dissemination of Liberal While Disenchantment had sold … and the look of the common tion are evi- assumptions. He supported both under 10,000 copies by autumn soldier in France … that special Baldwin and Labour as forces that 1927 − far fewer than the celebrated kind of good-temper and humour dence of the addressed the question of what was books to be published the next and relating decency that the man owed to ex-servicemen. year − it was recognised by con- of the working classes has here’.21 resurgence Criticism of the generals became temporary critics as being one of Montague’s sympathetic repre- particularly important to pub- the most respected and influential sentation of working class soldiers of liberal val- lic understanding of the war in works of its kind.29 The impor- foreshadowed the wider acceptance ues divorced later decades, but was formatively tance to Left and Right of adapt- in the 1920s of ‘peaceableness’, and influenced by Liberal viewpoints. ing public memory of the war to particularly the peacefulness of the from the Lib- Contrasted with working class political needs is encapsulated in working class, as a facet of English- decency in Liberal war literature Montague’s recollection of how his ness. Gibbs echoed a common per- eral Party in is the theme of aristocratic bun- more conservative wartime col- ception that the peaceful resolution gling and inhumanity that defeats league John Buchan, author of The of the General Strike in 1926 was the settling the enthusiasm of working and 39 Steps, halted Montague’s plan the product of working class moral middle class volunteers. Philip to write a school textbook on the character and good humour, which polity of the Gibbs’s Ten Years After attacked war in 1923, telling him that he had weathered the national crisis as it the bloodiness of contemporary already begun one himself at Stan- had endured during the war.22 1920s. tactics that wasted the ardour of ley Baldwin’s invitation.30

Journal of Liberal History 78 Spring 2013 23 c. e. montague, liberal war writers and the great war

The critical debate that met The assump- a sea change in British politics: that The importance of Liberal Liberal war literature was to an a pre-war ‘Arcadia’ was destroyed political thought in the forma- extent a proxy battle between par- tion that by ‘a horror that was transitory, tion of understanding of the war ties. Conservative commentators, though bad enough’.36 However, is not fully recognised in Hynes’s sensing that Coalition government Liberal- the commercial success from the account. Alex King has drawn with Lloyd George would not long late 1920s of novels critical of the attention to the implications of serve their interests, began ‘appro- ism’s decline cost of the war suggests that the Hynes’s argument, that ‘anti-mon- priating part of the new story of the tastes of the reading public were ument makers’ like Gibbs only war emerging and using it to blame meant that increasingly sympathetic to what reacted against permanent expres- the declining Liberals’. Orlo Wil- had been the Liberals’ argument: sions of war memory and did not liams, a Conservative and major Liberal writ- that profiteers and imperialist shape them, left lamenting the fail- in the Middle East, railed in the ers had no adventurers had squandered war- ure of an irrelevent political philos- Times Literary Supplement against time sacrifices and the peace. ophy.40 Rather, Liberal war writers the perceived wisdom of the sol- ideas to offer Historians of Liberal war lit- made positive claims to influence dier-writer’s critical viewpoint as erature, though, have tended to war memory, in literature and pub- early as 1919, almost a decade before the post- describe the books as a counter- lic ceremony. Illustratively, Gibbs Remarque, Sassoon and Graves cultural undercurrent that existed and Montague both wrote prolifi- published novels that were taken war world solely in relation to dominant con- cally on war memorials: Montague by many to represent ‘the truth’ servative interpretations of the war wrote in the Manchester Guardian in about the war.31 To defuse the Lib- ignores the as a war like any other. Clearly, support of Lutyens’s Cenotaph and eral claim that soldiers had been conservative critics did not regard the controversial decision to forbid ill-used, Williams asserted that Dis- debt that the books as an undercurrent, but individualised headstones in Brit- enchantment told ‘what everybody a dangerous grab by Liberals for ish war cemeteries to avoid class knows’ about the war, and sug- influen- moral authority. distinctions among the dead. The gested that Montague and Tomlin- Montague has been contextu- ubiquity of simple war memorials son were bound to be disappointed tial early alised in the ‘inky war’ between and classless commemoration of the by their experiences, given their conservative and Liberal writ- dead in British public life is lasting lofty notions of for what the war accounts of ers.37 However, the most influen- evidence of how far Liberal values had been fought.32 Robert Lynd in tial interpretation of Liberal war moulded the way the British public the New Statesman gave Montague the war owed writers is that of Samuel Hynes, understood the war. the double-edged compliment of which obscures the crucial politi- The debates over the public being ‘a soldier of chivalry, [who] to pre-war cal dimension. Hynes argues that commemoration of war dead, over hated all those who were doing Liberalism. books like Disenchantment were criticism of British strategy, and their best to make him a soldier of attempts to expose a ‘reality’ in the peace, provoked comment from shabby spite’.33 Political opponents the war distinct from the ‘value- across the political spectrum, from duelled over the actual importance bearing abstraction’ contained in art and literature without party in wartime of the ideals attributed such forms of commemoration as politics, from religious organisa- to combatants in Liberal litera- ‘buildings or statues or soldiers’ tions, from debate within rural and ture, with Conservatives claiming graves’, which Hynes assumes rep- urban communities and elsewhere. that Liberal writers imposed their resent ‘celebrations’ of the war. Yet the early post-war years were idealism on those who had not, Hynes understands the debate over an identifiable moment of Liberal in reality, found the war’s finale the legacy of the war to be between cultural influence when pre-war disillusioning.34 ‘a conservative culture that clung Liberal ideals, no longer so closely Yet the suggestion that ex- to and asserted traditional values, associated with the struggling servicemen had been ill-used by and a counter-culture, rooted in party, influenced the changing way generals and politicians became rejection of the war and its prin- the war was described in print, and less controversial in the 1920s and ciples’, that included Montague subsequently perceived and com- 1930s, finding expression in the and Gibbs.38 Yet Gibbs and Mon- memorated. Montague longed Oxford Union’s resolution in 1933 tague did not reject the war or its for his books to place the war in to refuse to take up arms for King principles; and while Gibbs and its British and European context, and Country. This interpretation Tomlinson did express a desire to alongside Marlborough and Wel- of the combatants’ experience drew expose the ‘truth’ about the hor- lington’s campaigns, and for Disen- heavily from Liberal common- rors of war, Montague was scepti- chantment to be ‘a book that could places of the post-war era. It was cal about presumption by writers to be read for ever’ as a testament widely believed among Liberals suggest what the war ‘really’ sig- to liberal European values.41 Yet that Liberalism and ‘classless’ poli- nified and anticipated the wave of the assumption that Liberalism’s tics had been smothered between ‘prickly’ books about the war that decline meant that Liberal writers Socialism, Conservatism, unem- was to come.39 While Liberal war had no ideas to offer the post-war ployment and high income tax. The writers were divided on whether or world ignores the debt that influ- embattled self-perception of middle not they were exposing the ‘truth’ ential early accounts of the war class readers, argues Alison Light, of what they had seen as journal- owed to pre-war Liberalism. Our encouraged pride in war literature ists or otherwise, they were largely understanding of war literature in the status of the ‘disenfranchised united by their opposition to Coali- and remembrance would benefit and dispossessed’.35 Contemporary tion and Conservative policies, and from more fully acknowledging the conservative critics denied that the their desire to draw attention to the influence of contemporary political war should have been understood as condition of ex-servicemen. ideas on lasting traditions.

24 Journal of Liberal History 78 Spring 2013 c. e. montague, liberal war writers and the great war

Will Pinkney read history at Pem- officers resign at the perceived Reminder (London: Hutchinson Wars: Experience, Memory, and the broke College, Cambridge, writing danger that they would be called & Co., 1924), p. 63. First World War in Britain (Cam- a Masters dissertation on the Liberal in to enforce home rule. 19 Jon Lawrence, ‘Forging a Peace- bridge: Cambridge University Party, literature and the legacy of the 7 Manchester Guardian, 21 Septem- able Kingdom: War, Violence, Press, 2004), pp. 190, 185. First World War. He is currently a ber 1914. and the Fear of Brutalization in 32 Orlo Williams, review of Dis- graduate associate at Ofcom. 8 L T Hobhouse, World in Conflict Post-First World War Britain’, enchantment, by C E Montague, (London: T. Fisher Unwin Ltd, The Journal of Modern History 75 Times Literary Supplement, 16 This article was first published 1915), p. 6. (2003), pp. 557–589, at p. 562. February 1922; Watson, Fighting in the RUSI Journal (Vol. 155, 9 Manchester Guardian, 24 Novem- 20 Philip Gibbs, Realities of War Different Wars, pp. 190–91. No. 5, October/November ber 1914. (London: William Heinemann 33 Robert Lynd, review of Disen- 2010) and is republished cour- 10 Paul Readman, ‘The Liberal Ltd, 1920), pp. 432–33, 447, chantment, by C E Montague, New tesy of the editor. Party and Patriotism in Early 450–52. Statesman, 18 February 1922. Twentieth Century Britain’, 21 C E Montague to H M Tomlin- 34 Watson, op. cit, p. 190. 1 A J P Taylor, English History 1914- Twentieth-Century British History son, undated, November 1923, 35 Alison Light, Forever England: 1945 (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 12 (2001), pp. 269–303. quoted in Elton, op. cit., pp. Femininity, Literature And Con- 1973), p. 95. 11 Manchester Guardian, 5 Septem- 257–58. servatism Between the Wars (Lon- 2 Samuel Hynes, A War Imagined: ber 1914. 22 Lawrence, op. cit., p. 565. don and New York: Routledge, The First World War and English 12 Sir Muirhead Bone, quoted in 23 Manchester Guardian, 20 April 1991), p. 47. Culture (London: The Bodley Oliver Elton, C.E. Montague: 1920. 36 Williams’ review of Waiting for Head, 1990), p. 261. A Memoir (London: Chatto and 24 Philip Gibbs, Ten Years After, p. Daylight by H M Tomlinson, 3 Stephen Heathorn, ‘The Mne- Windus, 1929), p. 140. 134. Times Literary Supplement, 6 April monic Turn in the Cultural His- 13 War diary entry, undated, Octo- 25 Ibid., pp. 34, 41. 1922, quoted in Watson, op. cit., toriography of Britain’s Great ber 1918, quoted in Elton, op. cit., 26 Montague, Disenchantment, p. 135. p. 191. War’, Historical Journal 48 (2005), p. 222. 27 Manchester Guardian, 30 April 37 Grieves, op. cit., p. 35. pp. 1103-1124, at p. 1107. 14 C E Montague, Disenchantment 1919. 38 Hynes, op. cit., p. 283. 4 Corelli Barnett, ‘A Military His- (London: Chatto and Windus, 28 H M Tomlinson, Waiting for 39 Montague in Sir Muirhead torian’s View of the Great War’, 1922), p. 187. Daylight (London: Cassell and Bone, The Western Front, Vol. I Essays by Divers Hands XXXVI 15 Manchester Guardian, 27 June 1919. Company Ltd, 1922), p. 94. (New York: G H Doran, 1917), p. (1970), pp. 1–18, at p. 13. 16 Norman Angell, The Public 29 Keith Grieves, ‘C.E. Montague 3; Montague, op. cit., p. 51. 5 Dan Todman, The Great War: Mind: Its Disorders, Its Exploitation and the Making of Disenchant- 40 Alex King, Memorials of the Great Myth and Memory (London: (London: Noel Douglas, 1926), ment, 1914-1921’, War in History War in Britain (Oxford: Berg, Hambledon and London, 2005) pp. 21, 211. (Vol. 4, 1997), pp. 35–58, at pp. 1998), pp. 6–7. pp. 8–9, 21. 17 Manchester Guardian, 29 May 55, 36. 41 War diary entry, 4 November 6 The Curragh Incident in March 1919. 30 Ibid., p. 58. 1918, quoted in Elton, op. cit., p. 1914 saw a number of British 18 Philip Gibbs, Ten Years After: A 31 Janet Watson, Fighting Different 224.

Letters D. S Macdonald telephone to party HQ in Lon- the Conservatives’ Aliens Bill (Journal of Liberal History 77), Ian Reading David Dutton’s fas- don: ‘Macdonald, Galloway in the House of Commons on Packer repeats the comments cinating account of Liberalism here’. He also nearly killed sev- 18 July 1905: Hattersley attributes to Roy in Dumfriesshire in Journal of eral of us with his erratic driv- ‘The hardest working man, Jenkins about Lloyd George. Liberal History 76 I was struck ing, when he mistook a single the most laborious and intelli- But was Lloyd George ‘a politi- by his references to a ‘D.S. oncoming headlight to be a gent man, the man most likely cian he disliked so heartily’? Macdonald’ in the 1930s. This motorbike and it turned out to make a good citizen if he Lord Hattersley does not must surely have been the same to be a tractor. He was a truly settles here … has no chance to give us the date or context of elderly man who in 1959 was unforgettable and dedicated come into this country unless the comments. Was it over a agent to the Hon Simon Mac- fighter for Liberalism. he has money in his pocket. But claret-fuelled lunch or in more kay (now Lord Tanlaw) in the David Steel the worthless man, the scamp, serious discussion? If this was by-election in Galloway when the lazy man … can come in if the substantial view of Jenkins, we secured a creditable second he has money in his pocket.’ the author of major biogra- place. Eight student Liberals Immigration policy Dr Sandy S. Waugh phies of Gladstone, Churchill from Edinburgh University, of I would counter what Nick and, most relevantly, Asquith, whom I was one, spent a good Clegg has suggested about it might contribute to an assess- deal of time campaigning there. requiring a cash deposit from Roy Jenkins and Lloyd ment of LG. But in his only D.S. Macdonald con- certain visa applicants by quot- George significant review of LG The( ducted it from his house, and ing what Sir Henry Camp- In his review of Roy Hatters- Chancellors), Jenkins rates him I recall him barking down the bell-Bannerman said about ley’s biography of Lloyd George / continued on p. 31

Journal of Liberal History 78 Spring 2013 25 THE REFORM CLUB’S JUBILEE BALL THE END OF AN ERA

26 Journal of Liberal History 78 Spring 2013 THE REFORM CLUB’S JUBILEE BALL THE END OF AN ERA

The ball held at the n itself, the ball was a remark- Thus, the Prince of Wales, his eldest able and memorable event. The son, Prince Albert Victor, and the Reform Club in IGraphic1 thought it would prob- Queen’s cousin, the Duke of Cam- London on the balmy ably be remembered as one of the bridge, Commander-in-Chief of the chief entertainments of the year. British Army, attended by Earl and night of Wednesday 15 For The Lady’s Pictorial2 it surpassed Countess Spencer and the Duchess of anything yet seen in that season of Manchester, felt able to honour the June 1887 to celebrate Jubilee festivities, and presented a entertainment with their presence. Queen Victoria’s spectacle so splendid that it would Indian nobility was represented be long remembered in the annals too: the Rao of Kuch; Maharajah Jubilee, as well as of London Society. And The Times3 Holkar; Maharajah and Mahara- thought it had eclipsed all the his- nee of Kutch Bihar; Maharajah Sir being the Club’s own torically important entertainments Pratap Singh, the famous warrior; fiftieth anniversary, that had hitherto taken place in the Nawab Asman Jah Bahadur, Prime clubhouse. Minister of Hyderabad; and the was a watershed in the The ball, which cost the Club Thakur Sahibs of Morvi, of Limri over £600,4 was attended by more and of Gondal. The Lord Mayor of history of the Club, than 2,000 members and guests, London, the United States’ Minis- comprising the most celebrated in ter, and most of the foreign ambas- marking the moment, politics, fashion, the stage, literature, sadors to the Court of St James in the contemporary music and art. They arrived to a were also in attendance. blaze of light that lit up the whole of The genial neutrality that the assessment of The Pall Mall and were waited upon by a Reform Club loyally observed for small army of footmen who ushered the Queen’s Jubilee was signalled Times, when it gave up them up the steps into the Saloon, too by the presence of prominent its role ‘as a militant where they were greeted by the pop- figures from both sections of the ular Club chairman, Mr Inderwick, recently fractured Liberal Party, Liberal organisation’ QC. The Saloon was illuminated now out of power, as well as by The Jubilee Ball as if by brilliant sunlight, masses of leaders of the current Conserva- and became ‘to a at the Reform palms and coloured flowers deco- tive government.7 So Lords Her- great extent neutral.’ Club – the Club rated the space, and members of schell, Hartington, Granville, and Chairman greets the band of the 2nd Life Guards, Rosebery, Sir Charles Russell, Peter Urbach traces the royal party; resplendent in their red coats, dis- and Joseph Chamberlain shared ‘Buffalo Bill’ coursed gay military strains.5 the Club’s hospitality with Con- The Reform Club’s (pony tail and The occasion was unique in the servative Cabinet ministers: Earl evolution from a goatee beard) history of any London political Cadogan (Lord Privy Seal), Lord in the middle club, in that party distinctions were Halsbury (Lord Chancellor), Lord Liberal political foreground; for the first time set aside, so allow- Stanley (President of the Board of Henry Irving and ing the presence of royalty, whom it Trade), W. H. Smith (First Lord of to a liberal social Ellen Terry at the would have been highly improper the Treasury), Henry Matthews institution. left (The Graphic, to mix up in any proceedings tinc- (Home Secretary), Sir Henry Hol- 25 June 1887). tured with the colour of party.6 land (Colonial Secretary), Charles

Journal of Liberal History 78 Spring 2013 27 the reform club’s jubilee ball: the end of an era

Ritchie (President of the Local stay at Gibraltar), sat in the garden first fifty years. It was established Government Board), A. J. Balfour quite a long time watching the ball initially as the principal social (Irish Secretary), Viscount Cross through the open windows. and administrative arm of the (Secretary for India), and Edward They were no doubt also cap- reforming party – a coalition of Stanhope (Secretary for War). tivated by the elegantly dressed Whigs and Radicals that eventually Lions of the stage were also pre- ladies, an aspect of the evening that became the basis of the Liberal sent: Henry Irving, who was pilot- The Lady’s Pictorial analysed closely. Party – in the wake of its triumph ing about Kate Terry and her sister Lady Berwick looked extremely in securing the passage of the Great Ellen; the actor-managers Mr and effective, as usual; Baroness de Reform Bill in 1832. Mrs Kendal and Mr and Mrs Squire Worms, who wore a beautifully The Reformers did not act Bancroft; and Colonel Cody, who made white gown and a great many immediately to form a club. The as ‘Buffalo Bill’ was taking London splendid jewels, was literally ablaze huge majority that they won in the by storm with his Wild West show. with diamonds; Miss Ellen Terry general election of December 1832 Art was represented by Sir John wore a picturesque gown of deep under the new electoral rules had Millais, John Tenniel, and Arthur amber brocade made with puffed induced a degree of complacency Stockdale Cope and by the directors sleeves and a high Medici collar; that their opponents did not share. of both the National Gallery and Mrs Bottomley Firth a low black The Tories rose more quickly to the the South Kensington Museum. gown; and Mrs Warren de la Rue challenges presented by the Reform ‘One of the Guests’ reflected that a gown of pale green brocade and Act, especially its requirement such a list on such a full night (for exquisite diamonds. Pretty Miss that a register of electors be com- it was the night of Lady Salisbury’s Fortescue appeared in white and piled for every constituency. They reception at the Foreign Office and pearls, looking all the better for her worked hard to encourage their many other entertainments) was a American tour. The Misses Hep- own supporters to register, and did remarkable and refreshing sign of worth Dixon were dressed alike in all in their power to frustrate the the times.8 pale lilac silk and tulle, with bou- registration of Reformers by rais- The occasion was unique in quets of mauve rhododendrons, ing legal challenges wherever pos- a second respect, as The Graphic Opposite page: while Mrs Holland, the wife of the sible against their eligibility. The noted. Although ladies had occa- Punch (18 June member for Brighton, was in green effectiveness of these efforts was sionally entered the club, they had 1887) devoted and pink and carried a bouquet demonstrated at the next general never before danced within its pre- a full page made entirely of reeds and grasses. election, held early in 1835, when cincts. The Coffee Room, with to whimsical So much for contemporary the government’s majority was its slippery polished floor, made a sketches accounts of the Jubilee Ball, whose greatly reduced. capital ballroom. Again, flowers, intended to picturesque phrases I have plundered The Carlton Club, which the palms and ferns were used for deco- illustrate the wholesale in order to convey the Tories had established in 1832, did rative effect, music was provided by Reform Club’s breathless excitement that the event duty as their party’s headquar- the remaining portion of the red- Jubilee Ball aroused. ters and centre of operations. The coated musicians, and the windows and to lines The Times, however, repeat- Reformers learned the lesson from had been removed altogether, in of doggerel edly struck a more serious note as their opponents’ success and in order to keep the dancers compara- (one stanza is it reflected on the social and politi- May 1835 they launched their own tively cool. State chairs had been reproduced here) cal significance of the ball: ‘Lib- central organisation – the Reform placed at the top of the ballroom aiming political erals cannot help feeling that the Association – under the leader- from where the Indian visitors were darts at William event marks decisively the close ship of Joseph Parkes, and with the amused spectators of the scene. Gladstone of the militant phase of reform solicitor James Coppock employed Maharajah Holkar, gorgeous in and his former … The Reform Club, which was as full-time election agent. The turban and jewels and accompanied Cabinet established … as a militant Liberal Association was superseded in May by a numerous suite, watched the colleagues. organisation … has become to a 1836 by the Reform Club. The dancers for a considerable time. Gladstone great extent neutral.’ And in a sec- Club was intended to act as a cen- The Library was reserved for a was no longer ond article, published on the same tral base for the reforming parties, splendid supper for all except the a member of day: ‘The pugnacious political the equivalent of the Carlton Club, royal party, which was served pri- the Club at this spirit which animated the original whose premises were next door in vately in the Card Room, while date and was members of the Reform has given Pall Mall, and to provide a meeting other club rooms were thrown open not among the place in their successors to a spirit place for men of a liberal, reform- as lounging places for the weary. guests. of tolerance or indifference. They ist outlook. James Coppock was its But the great success of the even- agree to differ among themselves first secretary.10 The Club’s politi- ing, preventing it from turning Terpsichore at as well as with their political oppo- cal function was further underlined into a terrific crush, was the garden. the Reform Club? nents. The club has sobered down.’9 by the large number of Whig MPs To the irreverent it suggested a café Verily, The Club had indeed changed. who soon joined the club – 237 out chantant in the Champs Elysée, with ‘Twill puzzle Political divisions that might have of a total of 385. its small tables and groups of men Party now to foot destroyed it were being set aside, From then, the Reform Club in evening dress, strings of col- it merrily, and it was starting to loosen its served as home to the Whig and oured lamps, and refreshments sup- Although ‘tis exclusive ties to the Liberal Party. later to the Liberal Party, as a place plied from a huge tent. The Prince clearly obvious at for numerous party meetings, and of Wales, the Duke of Cambridge a glance as a base for political grandstand- and Prince Albert Victor (who bye GLADSTONE has The first fifty years ing. For example, the banquet for the bye, looked more of a ‘masher’ led us all ‘a pretty Let us consider the course that Lord Palmerston in July 1850 was than ever, much bronzed after his dance’. the Reform Club took during its the party’s way of confirming

28 Journal of Liberal History 78 Spring 2013 the reform club’s jubilee ball: the end of an era publicly its confidence in him and In February 1875, the Reform further, while others felt had gone his foreign policy after the Don was the venue for a general meeting far enough. But nothing divided Pacifico affair. And in March 1854, of Liberal members of parliament Liberals so sharply and caused the Reform Club laid on a ban- to elect a successor to Gladstone as more dissension than Gladstone’s quet for Vice-Admiral Sir Charles leader. desire to grant Home Rule to Napier to celebrate his appointment A notable event in 1879 occurred Ireland. At the beginning of 1886, to the command of the Baltic fleet when the Reform Club entertained Lord Hartington and Joseph and to enable the government to the Earl of Dufferin shortly before Chamberlain led a breakaway re-emphasise Britain’s alliance with he took up his post as ambassador faction of Liberal members of France and Turkey against Rus- in St Petersburg. The Liberals were parliament in rebellion against the sia. One commentator remarked out of office at this date and uneasy policy, so much so that by allying that ‘The dinner decidedly smelt of that one of their number had been themselves with the Conservatives gunpowder.’11 appointed by one of their oppo- these ‘Liberal Unionists’ helped The Reform’s political role was nents, namely, Disraeli, especially ensure Gladstone’s defeat in the reiterated in May 1862 by a circular as Gladstone had lately begun a general election of June 1886. to members announcing the inten- ferocious assault on the govern- These political divisions reso- tion to establish a voluntary asso- ment’s Eastern policy which Duf- nated in clubland. The recently ciation among the members of the ferin was now bound to defend. formed National Liberal Club Club, to ‘promote Unity of Action The banquet gave the Liberal Party opened its imposing new clubhouse among the Liberal Party’ and to an opportunity to trumpet Duffer- to some 6,000 members in June ‘assist in the Conduct of Election in’s achievements as Governor Gen- 1887, a few days before the coun- Petitions, and in the Prevention eral of Canada, and afforded him try celebrated the Queen’s Jubilee, of Bribery and Corruption’. The the opportunity to declare publicly but by the end of the following following year, in another circu- that although he was now an agent year the two sections of the Liberal lar, the Committee recommended of the Conservative government in Party concluded that they could that ‘apartments in the Club should foreign affairs, he remained a Lib- not coexist there and, led by Lord be made use of, as heretofore, for eral in domestic politics. Hartington, 400 Liberal Unionists political purposes, in order that the seceded en masse. head quarters of the Liberal party Things developed differently may be known and understood The Home Rule split at the Reform, where disagree- to be in the Reform Club, where Over the years, political ment over Irish policy was more advice may be available in cases disagreements and tensions evenly balanced. Before decid- where liberal constituencies may appeared within the party and, ing how to mark its own jubilee, seek it’.12 These initiatives led to the hence, within the Reform Club, efforts were made ‘to introduce formal establishment of the Reform not least on electoral reform, harmony amongst the rival sections Club’s Political Committee in 1869. which some wished to advance of the Liberal party in the club,’ in

Journal of Liberal History 78 Spring 2013 29 the reform club’s jubilee ball: the end of an era

years, the old political allegiances and controversies were stirring again in the Reform. They stirred, for example, on the occasion of the ‘Gladstonian’ banquet at the club in March 1892 to celebrate the success of ‘Progressive’ candidates at the county council elections. Many grandees of the Liberal Party were invited to attend, as well as Liberal members and candidates. The Times’s correspondent expected that the event would provoke ‘great indignation amongst the Unionists of the club, who consider that their forbearance has been grossly imposed upon.’16 And indeed it seems to have done just that, for six club members let it be known ‘on behalf of a large number of … fellow-members’ that they dissociated themselves ‘from all complicity in proceedings which violate the usages and comity of club life.’ And they protested against ‘the inference, perhaps not unnatural in these circumstances, that the Reform Club has … been turned into a Separatist caucus.’17 Controversy also arose over the Liberal Party meeting to elect a new leader – in the event, Camp- bell-Bannerman – that took place on 6 February 1899 in the same club room where Gladstone’s succes- sor had been elected party leader in 1875. And those former times were further evoked by the invitations, the hope that ‘both sections of the member put it, so that an umbrella Campbell- which employed exactly the same party will take part in the jubilee would have covered both.’14 Bannerman wording as had been used to sum- celebration.’ To this end a special Reform Club records confirm addressing the mon members of the parliamentary dinner was given in late April 1887 Lucy’s account. A portrait of Har- meeting of the party twenty-four years earlier.18 for leading Liberal Unionists and tington was in fact commissioned by Liberal Party that Members of the Opposition Home Rulers.13 the committee and completed, and was held at the bench who were anxious ‘to see the At about the same time, the one of Gladstone (who refused to Reform Club in glories of the Reform Club revived rivalry between the two sections sit for the commissioned artist) was July 1901 (The as the acknowledged headquarters of was played out in a less direct, purchased, the costs of each being Illustrated London the Liberal party,’ considered their rather comical, gentlemanly way. met out of the guineas that members News, 13 July cause to have received a great stimu- Sir Henry Lucy described what had subscribed. Today, Hartington 1901). lus from the success of the meeting. happened: ‘Just after the split in the and Gladstone hang fraternally side But the return of the Club to a polit- Liberal party opened, the Dissen- by side in the clubhouse.15 ical role continued to be controver- tient Liberals at the Reform set in The two Liberal factions within sial, and hostility was voiced by ‘a foot a scheme to present the Club the Reform Club had evidently small Radical faction’ and by ‘the with a portrait of Lord Harting- found a modus vivendi which, by large Liberal Unionist section in the ton. Thereupon the Home Rulers mid-1887, gave it the appearance club, including some of the wealthi- opened a subscription for a por- of political neutrality, sufficient at est and most influential members, trait of Mr Gladstone. Subscription any rate for both royalty and repre- many of whom have welcomed the was limited to a guinea, the list, of sentatives of all the political groups apparent supersession of the political course, open only to members. An to feel able to accept the Club’s hos- by the social element.’19 interesting and occasionally excit- pitality to celebrate its own and the The most significant Liberal ing race followed. Lord Harting- Queen’s Jubilee. Party meeting at the Club after this ton having got the start, kept it for was in July 1901, during another, a few weeks. But the Gladstoni- major party crisis. On this occa- ans doggedly forged ahead, till the A brief political revival sion the Liberal Imperialists and two favourites were running neck But political neutrality proved the pro-Boers managed to paper and neck, finishing, as a sporting hard to maintain, and within a few over their bitter differences on the

30 Journal of Liberal History 78 Spring 2013 the reform club’s jubilee ball: the end of an era legitimacy of the war in South The Reform Club had weath- 7 The Times, ibid. Africa by means of ‘resolutions ered the storms of two major 8 The Times, letter, 21 June 1887. which convey the smallest amount schisms and numerous lesser divi- 9 The Times, 16 June 1887. of logical meaning,’ followed by a sions in the Liberal Party. But it 10 Philip Salmon, Electoral Reform at unanimous vote of confidence in One of them had managed this only by gradu- Work. Local Politics and National Parties Campbell-Bannerman.20 ally casting off its historic political 1832–1841 (Royal Historical Associa- The ‘sedative concoction’ that had objected role, opting instead to continue as a tion/Boydell Press, 2002). was mixed at the meeting seems to social club, though still retaining a 11 The Times, 16 Mar. 1854. have satisfied the party, but many in advance liberal character. 12 The Reform Club Archive. club members were furious. One of 13 The Manchester Evening News, 19 Apr. them had objected in advance to the to the com- Peter Urbach is the Reform Club’s 1887. committee’s plan to exclude mem- Honorary Archivist. A former research 14 Henry Lucy, A Diary of the Salisbury bers from a club room for the pur- mittee’s plan chemist and lecturer, he has published Parliament 1886–1892 (Cassell & Co., pose of holding a political meeting to exclude Francis Bacon’s Philosophy of 1892). ‘which, presumably, will be largely Science (1987); a new translation and 15 Peter Urbach, ‘The Reform Club’s composed of Radical and pro-Boer members edition of Francis Bacon’s Novum portrait of the Grand Old Man’, members of Parliament,’ giving Organum (jointly with John Gibson, Reform Review, Winter 2009/10, pp. rise thereby to ‘the presumption … from a club 1994); and Scientific Reasoning: 4–5. that the Reform Club is the head- The Bayesian Approach (jointly with 16 The Times, 12 Mar. 1892. quarters of Radicalism in England, room for Colin Howson, third ed., 1996), as well 17 The Times, 15 Mar. 1892. which it distinctly is not.’ He urged as numerous academic articles. 18 The Times, 1 Feb. 1899. the committee for the sake of ‘the the purpose 19 The Glasgow Herald, 16 Feb. 1899. welfare … if not the existence’ of 1 The Graphic, 25 June 1887. 20 The Times, 10 July 1901. the Club to respect the feeling of of holding 2 The Lady’s Pictorial, 25 June 1887. 21 The Times, 5 July 1901. ‘the great majority’ of members and 3 The Times, 16 June 1887. 22 The Times, 13 July 1901. not grant facilities for any more a political 4 George Woodbridge, The Reform 23 Michael Sharpe, The Political such meetings.21 Club 1836–1978 (Reform Club, 1978). Committee of the Reform Club (Reform ‘Another Member of The meeting 5 The Lady’s Pictorial, 25 June 1887. Club, 1996), p. 72. Reform Club’ added that ‘the so- 6 The Times, ibid. called Liberal party in the House ‘which, pre- of Commons does not now, even approximately, represent the views sumably, will of the majority of the club. Far from it … The Liberal party, of be largely Letters which we used all to be so proud, composed continued from p. 25 was destroyed in 1886, and the party which now claims to repre- of Radical highly as Prime Minister, with no I was a history student at Swan- sent it has since become so discred- suggestion of hearty dislike. Nor sea University in the mid 1950s ited that the majority of the club and pro-Boer is there any such indication in Jen- where, to our immense benefit, have the strongest objection to it kins’ biography of Asquith. Professor C. L. Mowat spent a sab- being looked upon or used as the members It would be a pity if this com- batical year. I still recall with pleas- headquarters of that party.’22 ment were to be accepted as Jen- ure the inspiring lectures of a great These protests had their effect of Parlia- kins’ real judgement. Perhaps John historian – and the friendliest of and very few more Liberal Party Campbell, in his forthcoming biog- men. meetings took place in the Reform ment,’ giving raphy of Jenkins, will help. Although his excellent and very Club. The Club itself invited Alan Mumford popular book, Britain Between the Campbell-Bannerman in 1906 to be rise thereby Wars 1918–40, published in 1954, fêted by his fellow members on his did not deal directly with the LG– landslide victory over the Conserv- to ‘the pre- C. L. Mowat and Lloyd George Asquith split he makes it abun- atives in the recent general election, I much enjoyed the issue dedicated dantly clear that he sided with a meeting that was so popular that sumption to David Lloyd George (Journal Lloyd George. He contrasts Neville members had to ballot for a place. of Liberal History 77); it was inter- Chamberlain’s attitude to Church- Two years later the Liberal Party … that the esting, informative and, rightly, ill after his fall in 1940 to that of convened at the Club to welcome contentious. Asquith’s to Lloyd George after Asquith as its new leader, and as Reform Club If I was disappointed it was at 1916. Prime Minister, after Campbell- is the head- the lack of an article exploring LG’s His brief book on Lloyd George Bannerman’s death. And in Decem- role at the very start of the 1914–18 in the Clarendon Series, pub- ber 1916 Asquith summoned Liberal quarters of war, when he was Chancellor of the lished in 1964, underlined his pro- members of both Houses of Parlia- Exchequer. Such an article would be Lloyd George interpretation of the ment to the Club to secure a vote of Radicalism much appreciated by a wide reader- December 1916 split. I think his confidence in his leadership of the ship, particularly since the present outstanding publications should party and in Lloyd George as the in England, Governor of the Bank of England, at least have been acknowledged new Prime Minister. That was the Mervyn King, observed in 2008 when Chris Wrigley examined the last time that the Liberal Party held which it dis- that: ‘Not since the beginning of the much changed attitude towards any significant official meeting at First World War has our banking Lloyd George. the Reform Club.23 tinctly is not.’ system been so close to collapse.’ Rufus Adams

Journal of Liberal History 78 Spring 2013 31 ‘Reluctant’ or Liberal Collectivists? The Social Liberalism of Keynes and Beveridge, 1922 – 1945

At the 1945 British General Election, held in the wake of the Allied victory in Europe, the Liberal Party addressed the electorate in an assertive, heir social liberal creed but because, in their view, it would prescribed an extended role entail productive forms of state even confident, spirit. Tfor the State in both eco- activity that were compatible with Its election campaign, nomic and social policy, involv- liberal values – with the defence of ing commitments to a managed individual freedom and the pursuit chaired by Sir William market economy, to the goal of of rational progress in promoting full employment, and to a welfare the common welfare. Beveridge, promoted society. But this expansion of the Reflecting, then, those State’s role was justified by Keynes ideological influences, as well as a clear and radical and Beveridge not for its own sake, the prevailing climate of popular programme which involved, in several important respects, a broadly collectivist approach towards the nation’s acute economic and social problems. That approach was itself consistent with the kind of social liberalism which both Beveridge and Maynard Keynes, by 1945 the Liberal Party’s most influential policy intellectuals, had, in their different ways, advocated during the interwar and wartime years. Tudor Jones examines their approach.

32 Journal of Liberal History 78 Spring 2013 ‘Reluctant’ or Liberal Collectivists? The Social Liberalism of Keynes and Beveridge, 1922 – 1945

opinion, the Liberal manifesto Security and Full Employment, been destroyed or damaged beyond stressed the need for post-war the Liberal Party leads a frontal repair during World War II. Land social reform and reconstruction, attack on this Fear.1 development rights outside built- declaring that: up areas were to be ‘acquired for In addition, the Party advocated the public’ and ‘a periodic levy on mankind is a prey to Fear – fear a Ministry of Housing to oversee all increases in site values’ was pro- of poverty and want through a post-war housebuilding drive, posed in order to secure for the unemployment, sickness, acci- including an expansion of afford- community any appreciation in the dent and old age. With the able housing, in a country in which value of land that was due to com- Beveridge schemes for Social more than 500,000 dwellings had munal action.2 The Liberal manifesto also called for the public ownership of the coal-mining industry, depicted as ‘the key to the health of our basic industries and our export trade’, and therefore accorded the status of ‘a public service’. The rail- ways and electric power similarly should be organised as public utili- ties, and in general it was argued that where there was ‘no further expansion or useful competition in an industry’, or where an industry had become a private monopoly, it should become a public utility.3 In British industry Liberals believed in ‘the need for both private enter- prise and large-scale organisation under government control’, and, in deciding which form was nec- essary, identified as the tests to be applied in each particular case ‘the service of the public, the efficiency of production and the well-being of those concerned in the industry in question’.4 All in all, the Liberal election manifesto of 1945 was thus, as Alan Watkins later noted, ‘surprisingly leftist both in content and in tone’.5 Certainly, by 1945 a more collec- tivist strand of thought was widely evident within the Party. It under- lay both its economic and its social policy proposals, reflecting the

Journal of Liberal History 78 Spring 2013 33 ‘reluctant’ or liberal collectivists? the social liberalism of keynes and beveridge, 1922–1945 highly influential contemporary played a leading part.8 These con- movement – including Keynes, ideas of Maynard Keynes and Wil- sisted of, first, the Liberal Sum- Henderson, Layton, Muir and liam Beveridge. mer School movement, established Ernest Simon. To some extent, too, the shift to in 1921 and running from 1922 Rejecting the traditional antith- state collectivism in Liberal policy onwards; second, the Liberal peri- esis between individualism and col- and thought by 1945 was due to odical, The Nation, founded in lectivism, Britain’s Industrial Future the influence of a pressure group 1907 and managed by Keynes as offered radical proposals for state within the Party originally estab- active chairman from 1923 until intervention in the British econ- lished in 1941 under the name, the its absorption into The New States- omy without recourse to the ortho- Liberal Action Group, and renamed man in 1931; and third, the Liberal dox socialist remedies of large-scale Radical Action in 1943. It sought Industrial Inquiry, financed by state or collective ownership of to campaign for imaginative and David Lloyd George, and culmi- industry or central state economic radical policies for post-war social nating in Britain’s Industrial Future, planning. In addition to advocat- and economic reconstruction and, published in 1928, the key propos- ing joint consultation in industry more immediately, to question or als of which later appeared in We between workers and managers, challenge the Party leadership’s Can Conquer Unemployment and Can the Yellow Book put forward as its support for the wartime electoral Lloyd George Do It?, the pamphlets key proposal a Board of National truce between the three main par- that launched the Liberals’ 1929 Investment, which would oversee a ties. Founded by Donald Johnson, general election campaign. wide-ranging programme of state a doctor and publisher, Honor Bal- Like their Edwardian New Lib- investment in public works. This four, a journalist, and Ivor Davies, eral predecessors, these intellectual anticipated Keynes’s case in The another publisher, the group later movements and influences may be General Theory of Employment, Inter- included among its most prominent described as social liberal, rather est and Money, published eight years members the Liberal MPs, Clem- than classical liberal, in character To some later, for large-scale public invest- ent Davies, Dingle Foot and Tom since, while supporting a market ment as a crucial means of stimulat- Horabin. In 1942 Lancelot Spicer economy, they advocated a signifi- extent, too, ing economic activity and reducing replaced Donald Johnson as the cant measure of state intervention mass unemployment. group’s chairman. By the time of in modifying or supplementing the shift to The authors of Britain’s Indus- the dissolution of Parliament in market outcomes in order to reduce trial Future, published a few months 1945, six of the 19-strong Parlia- mass unemployment and to pro- state col- before the Wall Street Crash, suc- mentary Liberal Party were mem- mote social welfare.9 During the ceeded, as Ed Randall has observed, bers of Radical Action.6 1920s the Liberal Summer School lectivism in in ‘fashioning a Liberal programme Aiming to radicalise the party movement thus sought to build on for national recovery calibrated to in respect of its policy, strategy the foundations of Edwardian New Liberal policy needs of their own times’.14 Their and organisation, Radical Action Liberalism by recommending selec- most significant proposals were strongly supported the Beveridge tive state intervention in the cause and thought popularised a year later in the two Report and its far-reaching pro- of social reform whilst turning by 1945 was 1929 election pamphlets, Can Lloyd posals for social security after its away from the path of doctrinaire George Do It?, co-written by Keynes publication in December 1942. It state socialism.10 due to the and Hubert Henderson, and We also claimed credit for encouraging The Liberal Summer School Can Conquer Unemployment, pub- the party leader, Sir Archibald Sin- movement was, as Michael Freeden influence of lished in Lloyd George’s name.15 clair, and other senior party figures has observed, ‘the linchpin of lib- The latter document’s centrepiece eventually to support Beveridge’s eral and progressive thought during a pressure was its proposal for massive public proposals. It succeeded, too, in the 1920s’.11 Its leading lights were investment in road-building, hous- pressurising the Liberal leadership drawn partly from Manchester - group within ing, electrification and other pub- into fighting the forthcoming 1945 including Ramsay Muir, Ernest lic works. The Yellow Book, and General Election as an independ- Simon and Edward Scott - and the Party the documents that it generated, ent political organisation, and into partly from Cambridge – includ- thus reflected the major influence keeping free of any subsequent coa- ing Keynes, Hubert Henderson originally that Keynes had exerted during his lition arrangements once the war and Walter Layton. The movement period of closest involvement in the had ended.7 became particularly influential established politics of the Liberal Party, that But more significantly, the after Lloyd George assumed the is, between 1924 and 1929 – years ascendancy of Liberal collectiv- Party leadership in 1926. During in 1941 under in which he had set out, in Rob- ist ideas in 1945 could be traced that year he personally initiated ert Skidelsky’s words, ‘to supply it back to the currents of social lib- and financed the Liberal Industry the name, with nothing short of a new philos- eral thought that flowed during Inquiry which resulted in the pub- ophy of government’.16 the interwar years. In that period lication of Britain’s Industrial Future, the Liberal In ideological terms, Keynes of electoral decline and internal ‘the Yellow Book’ as it was popu- Action Group, saw the central task of this govern- strife, the Party had nonetheless larly known, in February 1928.12 ing philosophy, his version of social continued to display its intellectual That ‘formidable and … exceed- and renamed liberalism for the 1920s, as one of vitality. The years from 1922 to ingly interesting document’, as managing and reforming a market 1929, in particular, had witnessed the socialist thinker G.D.H. Cole Radical economy that was producing insta- the development and dissemina- described it in his review in The bility and high levels of unemploy- tion of Liberal ideas through three New Statesman,13 was to a large Action in ment in Britain and throughout overlapping institutional networks, extent the product of active mem- the rest of the industrialised world. in each of which Maynard Keynes bers of the Liberal Summer School 1943. Part of the theoretical basis for this

34 Journal of Liberal History 78 Spring 2013 ‘reluctant’ or liberal collectivists? the social liberalism of keynes and beveridge, 1922–1945

ambitious project had already been Keynes’s policy. However, he himself did to spaces left vacant by private laid in his 1926 essay, The End of not accept the philosophical basis enterprise’.25 Laissez-Faire (partly based on a 1924 contribu- of Edwardian New Liberalism, dis- Moreover, in The General Theory Oxford lecture), which provided daining it ‘as a typical example of Keynes firmly emphasised ‘the tra- both an incisive critique of unregu- tion to Brit- Oxford Idealist muddle’.20 His own ditional advantages of individual- lated capitalism and an attempt to empiricist philosophical leanings ism’, pointing out that: set out, in Bentham’s phrase, ‘the ish Liberal meant that his distinctive efforts to Agenda of the State’. In Keynes’s revise and update British Liberal- They are partly advantages of view, the latter ought to relate ‘to thought thus ism therefore ‘stemmed from a dif- efficiency – the advantages of those functions which fall outside provided a ferent background, and a different decentralisation and of the play the sphere of the individual, to intellectual style’.21 of self-interest … But, above those decisions which are made by movement Deeply influenced as a student all, individualism, if it can be no one if the State does not make at Cambridge by the philosophi- purged of its defects and its them’.17 away from cal ideas of G.E. Moore and Ber- abuses, is the best safeguard of In his major treatise of 1936, trand Russell, Keynes shared, as personal liberty in the sense that, The General Theory of Employ- classical lib- Skidelsky has noted, their distaste compared with any other system, ment, Interest and Money, Keynes for the idealist basis of the ethical it greatly widens the field for the later proceeded to specify the kind eral tenets belief, associated at Oxford with exercise of personal choice. It of economic ‘agenda of the State’ T.H. Green and his followers, ‘that is also the best safeguard of the which he considered appropriate towards the the good of the individual and the variety of life, which emerges for unstable times. Developing new good of the whole are intercon- precisely from this extended methods and ideas for effecting advocacy nected’. Keynes instead maintained, field of personal choice, and the the transition from ‘the economic with Moore, ‘that good states of loss of which is the greatest of all anarchy’ of the prevailing system of forms of mind could be enjoyed by indi- the losses of the homogeneous or of ‘individualistic capitalism’, he viduals in isolation from social totalitarian state.26 rejected the traditional socialist state inter- states of affairs’. More generally, policy instrument of state owner- too, Keynes and his Cambridge In The End of Laissez-Faire, too, ship of industry on the grounds vention contemporaries found ‘repel- Keynes had concluded his trench- that it would prove to be inefficient lent’ the ‘mixture of Hegelian and ant critique of the workings of and authoritarian.18 In its place, he compatible biological language’ in which the unregulated capitalism by mak- advocated more indirect yet, in his New Liberal thought of Green and ing clear his qualified support for judgement, more effective methods both with his followers was philosophically a market economy as a form of of controlling a market economy. liberal val- expressed.22 technical organisation, maintain- These would involve the use of fis- Developed, then, without the ing that ‘capitalism, wisely man- cal and monetary policy, and, in ues and with intellectual foundations of the aged, can probably be made more particular, government manage- Oxford-based New Liberalism, efficient for attaining economic ment of demand – by stimulating the achieve- Keynes’ own liberal ‘via media’ ends than any alternative system both investment and consumption nonetheless clearly involved the yet in sight’, even though ‘in itself – to levels at which full employment ment of what acceptance and advocacy of state it is in many ways extremely objec- could be attained. collectivist ideas and policies dur- tionable’. ‘The important thing for Ideologically, then, the eco- he consid- ing the 1920s and 1930s, and the government’, he maintained, ‘is not nomic approach of British social legacy of that intellectual process to do things which individuals are liberalism as developed by Keynes ered a more was later evident in Liberal think- doing already … but to do those during the 1920s, and as endorsed ing and policy-making. However, things which at present are not and advanced politically by Lloyd humane and both he and Beveridge have been done at all.’27 ‘The Agenda of the George, amounted, as Paul Addi- described, with some justification, State’ in the economic field should son has observed, to a ‘‘‘middle- more effi- by Vic George and Paul Wild- thus be concerned with remedying way” of imaginative reform within ing as ‘reluctant collectivists’.23 the technical faults of an unregu- capitalism’, offered as an alternative cient system Keynes’s ideological approach has lated market economy – the most both to the perceived economic ste- thus been portrayed as ‘a collectiv- serious of which, in his view, was rility of free-market Conservatism of managed ism not of principle, but of neces- its inability to ensure a sufficient and to the ‘socialist way of abolish- sity’, for while it involved widening level of demand to avoid depression ing capitalism’.19 capitalism. the field of economic activity in and unemployment. In the con- Keynes’s contribution to Brit- which state collectivist remedies text of the economic and political ish Liberal thought thus provided could be applied, it confined their instability of the 1920s and 1930s, a movement away from classical use ‘to issues where the normal Keynes, as J.K. Galbralth later liberal tenets towards the advo- solutions of private enterprise and observed, therefore ‘sought for cacy of forms of state intervention the free market’ had been unsuc- nothing so earnestly as to save lib- compatible both with liberal values cessful.24 Skidelsky has made a eral capitalism’,28 a point reinforced and with the achievement of what similar observation with a different by his biographer’s choice of the he considered a more humane and emphasis, characterising Keynes’s title of his second volume.29 more efficient system of managed ‘reconstructed liberalism’ as a creed After the fragmentation of the capitalism. In this respect his ideas concerned with ‘grafting techno- Liberal Party in 1931, and with it can be regarded as extending the cratic solutions to specific problems Lloyd George’s departure from the social liberalism of the Edward- on to an individualist stem’, and Party leadership, Keynes retreated ian era into the field of economic with ‘confining state intervention to Cambridge, convinced ‘that

Journal of Liberal History 78 Spring 2013 35 ‘reluctant’ or liberal collectivists? the social liberalism of keynes and beveridge, 1922–1945 politics having failed, the world By 1945, a School between 1922 and 1924,34 national health service.41 Indeed, could be saved only by thought’.30 but he was not involved with shortly after the Report’s publica- While remaining ‘a semi-detached year before Keynes, Henderson and others in tion in December 1942, a Liberal Liberal’,31 he believed that his ‘mid- the preparation of either Britain’s Party spokesman had stated that its dle way’ of a reformed capitalism Keynes’ Industrial Future or the documents underlying principles and objectives could best be advanced by aca- that launched the Liberals’ 1929 were entirely consistent with resolu- demic scholarship and through offi- death, the election campaign, being at that tions passed by the Liberal Assembly cial governmental channels rather time unsympathetic to the unor- in September of that year.42 than directly through the Liberal kind of social thodox ideas of expansionist pub- Furthermore, Beveridge’s Party. The fruits of his academic lic finance which they promoted.35 newly-found Liberal commit- endeavours emerged in 1936 in The liberal- Beveridge was later, in 1936, criti- ment was in tune with more deep- General Theory, the most influential ism that he cal of Keynes’ General Theory. He rooted ideological convictions economic treatise of the twentieth disliked, in general, what he con- since, as his biographer has noted, century. His contribution to public espoused, sidered to be Keynes’ reduction of he had always seen the Liberals as life, meanwhile, culminated in his the economic concepts of ‘unem- the ‘Party of ideas’ and of ‘national achievements as both leading eco- and which ployment’ and ‘demand’ to the interests’ – as opposed to the sec- nomic adviser to the British Treas- level of abstractions. In particular, tionalism of both Conservatives ury between 1940 and 1946 and as his economic too, he was unimpressed by Keynes’ and Labour’. In addition, the broad Britain’s most important interna- concept of ‘the multiplier’.36 and flexible character of Liberalism tional representative on economic theories epit- Beveridge’s unfavourable reac- as a political creed, and hence ‘the affairs, who shaped the institu- tion to Keynes’ General Theory, tensions’ within it ‘between indi- tional foundations of the post-1945 omised, had as well as to Sidney and Beatrice vidualism and collectivism, radical- international financial and trading Webb’s Soviet Communism, pub- ism and traditionalism … appealed system – including the World Bank, become one lished in the same year, intensi- to Beveridge’s own personal slant the International Monetary Fund fied, as José Harris has observed, upon the world’. He tended, too, and the General Agreement on Tar- of the most Beveridge’s ‘sense of estrangement ‘to idealize the Liberal past, and iffs and Trade. from current economic and politi- he looked back in particular upon In 1942 Keynes renewed his important cal thought.’ This in turn led to an Edwardian Liberalism as a golden formal connection with the Lib- ‘almost total withdrawal into politi- age of radical innovation’.43 eral Party when he became a Lib- intellectual cal agnosticism...which dovetailed All these factors, then, had eral peer, writing to Lord Samuel, with Beveridge’s growing convic- helped to reinforce his sense of party leader in the Lords: ‘in truth influences tion that academic social scientists affinity with the Liberal Party by I am still a Liberal, and if you will on Liberal should refrain from dabbling in 1944, when, in his own words, he agree, I should like to indicate that current politics’.37 had become ‘committed in mind to by sitting on your benches’.32 By thought and Such an attitude was already the adventure of putting Liberal- 1945, a year before his death, the firmly rooted since, during most ism on the map again as an effective kind of social liberalism that he policy. of the interwar years, Beveridge political force, for international as espoused, and which his economic had tended to adopt what Harris well as for domestic issues’.44 That theories epitomised, had become has described as ‘a self-consciously commitment had been confirmed one of the most important intellec- neutral stance on questions of in July of that year following the tual influences on Liberal thought party politics’, which he believed death in military action of George and policy. appropriate in view of both his Grey, the young Liberal MP for During the 1940s Sir William professional responsibilities and his Berwick-upon-Tweed. In Septem- Beveridge, social reformer, social respect for the role of the expert. ber 1944 Beveridge was adopted scientist, senior civil servant and That approach, albeit with under- as candidate to be Grey’s succes- university administrator, fostered lying Liberal sympathies, was sor, and was elected the following the spirit of Keynes’s social liber- reflected in his statement, when month as Liberal MP, unopposed alism in the field of social policy. successfully standing for the Vice by the Conservatives or Labour At the 1945 General Election his Chancellorship of the University of under the terms of the wartime ideas provided a further and, in the London in 1926, that ‘I am as nearly party truce.45 immediate post-war climate the non-political as anybody can be, In the subsequent General Elec- most powerful, influence on the but when I have any politics I am a tion, announced on 24 May 1945 radical and collectivist tone of the Liberal’.38 and to be held on 5 July, Bev- Liberals’ manifesto and campaign. By 1944, however, those vague eridge, whilst defending his own Beveridge had only become a Liberal sympathies had been seat of Berwick, also assumed the member of the Liberal Party in July strengthened. His own political responsibilities of chairman of the 1944. He had not done so before principles, as well as his cordial per- Liberal Party’s Campaign Com- because he considered member- sonal relations with Clement Davies, mittee.46 Morever, he had already ship of a political party inconsistent Herbert Samuel, David Lloyd provided, too, the intellectual basis with his professional roles of civil George and Dingle Foot, had drawn of the Liberals’ radical election servant and university teacher and him closer to the Liberal Party.39 platform in the form of, first, his administrator.33 Moreover, he had In addition, as Beveridge later pioneering report on social pol- had little formal connection with acknowledged, the Liberals were icy, Social Insurance and Allied Ser- the Liberal Party in the past. He ‘the first political party to accept the vices (1942) and, second, its sequel had, it is true, been briefly asso- Beveridge Report without reser- of 1944, Full Employment in a Free ciated with the Liberal Summer vations’, 40 including his plans for a Society. These documents provided

36 Journal of Liberal History 78 Spring 2013 ‘reluctant’ or liberal collectivists? the social liberalism of keynes and beveridge, 1922–1945

the focus for the Liberal campaign delivered in the form of cash ben- in capturing that spirit where oth- and embodied popular issues and efits, financed by equal contribu- ers had failed, or were on the point causes – freedom from both want tions from employees, employers of giving up’.51 and unemployment – to put before and the State, together with a pub- A number of key themes in the the voters in the most radical Lib- lic assistance safety net. In addition, British liberal tradition can be eral election programme since 1929. it proposed both the unification of identified within the Beveridge At the same time, the ideals under- the administrative systems of dif- Report.52 Among the most sig- lying those causes – social reform ferent aspects of social security, and nificant of these was the assertion and progress and personal freedom the standardisation of benefits and Beveridge’s that social security involved a co- – were enduring liberal ideals that contributions at flat rates for differ- operative partnership between could unify all sections of the Party. ent types of social need. … Report on the State and the individual.53 This The Beveridge Report itself had Three key assumptions underlay was a point that Beveridge was to its origins in a rather obscure inter- the proposed system of social insur- social insur- develop further in his work of 1948, departmental enquiry, set up in ance, each of which, in Beveridge’s ance was … Voluntary Action, the third and least June 1941 and chaired by Beveridge view, was inseparable from the known of his reports on social and himself, for co-ordinating social goal of the abolition of want. First, as Freeden economic reconstruction, in which insurance. The enquiry was gradu- accompanying the new system, he stated at the outset that: ally broadened in scope to become there should be a national health has com- a full-scale and, so it was to prove, service available to all. Second, The theme of this report is that ground-breaking examination of there should be state provision of mented, ‘a the State cannot see to the ren- British social policy. The resulting tax-financed children’s allowances. dering of all the services that are report, Social Insurance and Allied Third, there should be a com- highly liberal needed to make a good society.54 Services was published in December mitment to state action to reduce 1942, three weeks after the Allied unemployment. This third assump- document He went on to contend that: victory at El-Alamein.47 tion was developed further in Beve- Maynard Keynes, at that time ridge’s later report, Full Employment in terms of the State is or can be the master a high-ranking Treasury adviser, in a Free Society, based on his own of money, but in a free society had during the previous months independent enquiry. its ideologi- it is master of very little else. responded enthusiastically to Bev- The keystone of Beveridge’s The making of a good society eridge’s early draft proposals for his system of social insurance was the cal orienta- depends not on the State but on Report. The two met in London notion of universal entitlement, the citizens, acting individu- over several convivial lunches and which thereby conferred equal- tion, as if ally or in association with one dinners at various West End clubs, ity of status upon citizens. In the another.55 and these meetings were important case of social security, the basis Beveridge to Beveridge, as Harris has noted, of entitlement was the principle had emerged With an emphasis consistent, as ‘both in enhancing the financial via- of contributory insurance, which Harris has noted, with the liberal bility of his report and in smooth- Beveridge believed would protect from outside idealist philosophy of T.H. Green, ing the way for its reception in and foster individualist values of Beveridge believed that this inter- official circles.’48 Keynes described personal responsibility and inde- the march dependent relationship between the the final draft of Beveridge’s pendence, thrift and self-respect. individual, the State and the vol- Report as ‘a grand document’, and In the case of healthcare, the basis of time to untary sector would not only fos- conveyed to him his hope ‘that the of entitlement was the principle ter social solidarity but also enable major and more essential parts of it of citizenship, which entailed the become individual citizens ‘to exercise both might be adopted substantially as possession of both social rights and their feelings of altruism and their you have conceived them’.49 collective responsibilities for com- suddenly democratic rights.’56 In addition, The Beveridge Report pre- mon needs. and more in tune with the liberal sented a vision of society’s battle In spite of Beveridge’s lack of and totally utilitarian tradition, the Report against the ‘five giants’ of want, formal commitment to Liberal- underlined Beveridge’s high regard disease, ignorance, idleness and ism in the interwar period, and his immersed in for the role and character of the squalor. Its particular focus was on former, deliberate party-political professional administrator as a the struggle against want and, to neutrality, his Report on social some radical disinterested specialist or expert, a lesser extent, against disease and insurance was nonetheless, as reflecting his own underlying unemployment, and hence on the Freeden has commented, ‘a highly implications belief in the efficiency of a benevo- development of social security and liberal document in terms of its lent central State, serviced and health-care policy, but as the docu- ideological orientation, as if Beve- of progres- guided by a technocratic elite and ment stated: ridge had emerged from outside the sive liberal- promoting the common good. march of time to become suddenly A second, overtly social liberal Want is one only of the five and totally immersed in some radi- ism, which theme that pervaded the Report giants on the road of recon- cal implications of progressive lib- was the reformist belief that the struction and in some ways the eralism, which liberals themselves liberals abolition of want entailed some easiest to attack. The others are could not voice’. In spite of his degree of redistribution of income. Disease, Ignorance, Squalor and loose connection with British Lib- themselves Indeed, his plan as a whole was Idleness.50 eral thought in the interwar years, described by Beveridge as ‘first and his Report was ‘in a circuitous way could not foremost a method of redistribut- The Report provided a compre- … the very spirit of progressive lib- ing income so as to put the first and hensive system of social insurance eralism, and Beveridge succeeded voice’. most urgent needs first, so as to

Journal of Liberal History 78 Spring 2013 37 ‘reluctant’ or liberal collectivists? the social liberalism of keynes and beveridge, 1922–1945

make the best possible use of what- comprising ‘a blend of left-liber- and ‘brave new world’ connota- ever resources are available’.57 The alism and centrist-liberalism’.61 It tions. He preferred instead to refer contributions of those in regular thus combined the two main ten- to either a ‘social service state’67 employment and in good health dencies of British Liberal ideology or ‘welfare society’. The latter would thus help the unemployed in the interwar period: the former was ‘a phrase he was proud to have and the chronically sick. stressing community, social justice coined’,68 implying, as we have seen, Third, however, and reflecting and social welfare, together with a wider partnership between indi- more the classical liberal tradition, greater state intervention in pursuit viduals, voluntary organisations the Report also emphasised its belief of those ideals; the latter stressing and the State in the promotion of that the pursuit of social security personal freedom, individuality welfare, with the State by no means was linked to liberal-individualist and private property.62 always the best provider. notions of individual freedom, ini- In assessing the Beveridge The Beveridge Report of 1942 tiative, enterprise, personal respon- Report’s practical political The Report was one of the two pillars of the sibility and voluntary effort. As impact, Addison has described reflected lib- Liberals’ radical programme of 1945 Beveridge stressed at the outset: it as ‘the blueprint of the post- for post-war social and economic war welfare state in Britain’, eral think- reconstruction. The second pillar The State in organising secu- providing the foundations and was his independent report of 1944, rity should not stifle incentive, underlying principles of the Attlee ing, and Full Employment in a Free Society. Its opportunity, responsibility; in Government’s social legislation central concern was how to abolish establishing a national mini- of 1945-48. As for Beveridge’s themes in unemployment without infringing mum, it should leave room and personal contribution to that essential civil and political liber- encouragement for voluntary achievement, his Report was ‘a Beveridge’s ties, which, in his view, were ‘more action by each individual to pro- brilliant coup by one man, which precious than full employment vide more than that minimum at once synthesized the pressures political itself ’.69 The protection of those for himself and his family.58 for a more progressive capitalism, essential liberties – freedoms of and jolted all three parties into outlook speech, expression and religious A few months before the pub- accepting the resulting formula worship, freedoms of assembly lication of the Report, he had as the basis of a new post-war that were and association, freedom of choice expressed the same view when consensus’.63 For acting, as Harris, of occupation, and so on – would writing to the chairman of the too, has noted, in the role ‘of a recurrent therefore preclude ‘the totalitar- Board of Education on the subject synthesizer and publicist rather ian solution of full employment of child allowances. ‘Social insur- than that of an innovator’,64 through- in a society completely planned ance in a free society’, Beveridge Beveridge had proved a skilful and and regimented by an irremovable wrote, ‘must, I think, to a large persuasive advocate of social policy out his life, dictator’.70 extent consist of putting peo- ideas, launched in favourable both in its Beveridge had earlier insisted, ple into a position to meet their circumstances, who succeeded as we have seen, that his system responsibilities rather than remov- in winning over the country’s rejection of of social insurance needed to be ing their responsibilities entirely.’59 political and administrative elites supplemented by state action to Finally, the Report reflected lib- into acceptance of those ideas, sectional achieve and maintain full employ- eral thinking, and themes in Bev- including those who were initially ment – by which he meant not eridge’s political outlook that were opposed or sceptical – notably, interests as total abolition of unemployment, recurrent throughout his life, both the establishments of both the but a margin of unemployment of in its rejection of sectional interests Conservative Party and the senior a basis for not more than three per cent. His as a basis for public policy-making civil service, and sections of the own private enquiry was there- and in its suspicion of producers’ Labour Party.65 public pol- fore designed to achieve the goal organisations and preference for The circumstances in which of full employment, defined in voluntary associations of various Beveridge had applied those per- icy-making that manner, thereby slaying the kinds, such as friendly societies, suasive skills as an advocate and giant of idleness, just as the report consumers’ organisations or philan- publicist were uniquely favour- and in its of 1942 had aimed to slay the giants thropic and mutual aid movements. able since, as his biographer has of want and disease. The outcome This preference was further under- observed, ‘his mingled tone of suspicion of of his endeavour, Full Employment lined in his third report, Voluntary optimism, patriotism, high prin- in a Free Society was published in Action, in 1948. As Harris has there- ciple and pragmatism exactly fit- producers’ November 1944, five months after fore emphasised: ted the prevailing popular mood’.66 the appearance of the Churchill That reality was subsequently organisa- Government’s Full Employment Beveridge’s commitment to reflected in the public response to tions and White Paper of June 1944. It is clear planning must be set against his Report, with national sales of from Cabinet papers that the gov- his spirited defence of personal 100,000 copies within a month of its preference ernment’s official commitment to freedom and against his publication. the goal of full employment, and emphasis on voluntarism and on Beveridge’s reputation as princi- for voluntary hence to publication of its White the crucial role of a wide variety pal architect of the British welfare Paper, was intensified by aware- of intermediate organizations.60 state needs, however, to be quali- associations ness in Whitehall of the develop- fied in one important respect. He ment of Beveridge’s own resolute In its overall ideological approach, himself disliked the term ‘welfare of various undertaking.71 the Beveridge Report has been state’ because of its paternalistic Beveridge had not become characterised by Freeden as implications and its ‘Santa Claus’ kinds. converted to Keynes’s economic

38 Journal of Liberal History 78 Spring 2013 ‘reluctant’ or liberal collectivists? the social liberalism of keynes and beveridge, 1922–1945

theories, including his ideas of The descrip- citizens either singly or in asso- Party won only 12 seats, in scat- expansionist public finance, until ciation, and to leave to those tered rural constituencies through- after publication of the Beveridge tion of other agencies that which, if out Britain, polling 2.2 million Report of 1942, as Harold Wilson, they will, they can do as well or votes with only a 9 per cent share of who had been Beveridge’s research Keynes and better than the State.75 the total national vote. Beveridge assistant at Oxford in the late 1930s, himself, an MP for barely seven later confirmed when Labour Beveridge In this respect, then, it may be said, months, had been, together with Prime Minister.72 By 1944, there- as with Keynes, that Beveridge was Sir Archibald Sinclair and Sir Percy fore, adopting a broadly Keynesian as ‘reluctant to some extent a ‘reluctant collec- Harris, among the Liberals’ most approach to the problem of unem- tivist’. As George and Wilding have high-profile electoral casualties. ployment, Beveridge was propos- collectiv- observed: Beveridge’s own declared com- ing a new kind of annual budget ists’ appears, mitment to ‘the adventure of put- that used taxation, public borrow- His liberal principles led him ting Liberalism on the map again ing and deficit-financing to con- as we have to seek to stress the limitations as an effective political force’,80 had trol levels of public expenditure, which he believed should be ended in profound disappointment business investment and consumer seen, to applied to government action, as his party became the victim of demand. Advocating a high degree while on the other hand, his its various shortcomings, as well of central direction of the econ- be largely passionate concern about social as of new developments. Among omy without recourse to large- ills led him at times to the view those factors could be cited the scale nationalisation, Beveridge’s justified. that many less essential liberties Liberals’ financial and organisa- programme for maintaining full could rightly and reasonably be tional weaknesses, together with employment involved state invest- sacrificed to their abolition.76 their lack of connection with any ment in nationalised industries major social class or sectional inter- such as transport and power; public In a collection of his articles and est group. But highly significant, spending on a wide range of ‘non- speeches entitled, Why I am a Lib- too, were the advent of a new vot- marketable’ goods and services, eral, published shortly before the ing generation without any inher- such as roads, hospitals, schools and 1945 General Election, Beveridge ited Liberal tradition, and, boosted defence; state subsidies for food and gave further ideological shape to by the support of that new section fuel; and state regulation of pri- his social and economic policy pro- of the electorate, the surging rise vate investment and consumption posals, depicting them as corner- to political maturity of the Labour by means of monetary and fiscal stones of a radical, interventionist Party. In stark contrast, the Liberal policy.73 programme that would liberate Party’s eventual, tentative recov- Beveridge readily acknowl- Britain from the ‘giant evils of ery was not to be even faintly dis- edged the state-collectivist and cen- Want, Disease, Squalor, Ignorance cernible until the winter of 1955-56. tralist nature of this programme of and Idleness enforced by mass Subsequently it was more clearly measures, declaring that: unemployment, which have dis- apparent following Jo Grimond’s figured Britain in the past’.77 Like accession to the Liberal leadership Full employment cannot be won Keynes, Beveridge presented his in November 1956, which heralded and held without a great exten- version of social liberalism – which both a revival of his Party’s for- sion of the responsibilities and he referred to as ‘Liberal radical- tunes and a reinvigoration of Brit- powers of the State exercised ism’ – as an enlightened middle way ish Liberalism. through organs of the central that avoided the errors both of free- Government. No power less market individualists and of col- than that of the State can ensure lectivists ‘who desire extension of Conclusion adequate total outlay at all times, state activity for its own sake’.78 His The description of Keynes and or can control, in the general approach would certainly involve Beveridge as ‘reluctant collectiv- interest, the location of industry an extension of the responsibilities ists’ appears, as we have seen, to be and the use of land. To ask for and powers of the state into social largely justified. The social liber- full employment while object- and economic policy areas, using alism which they both espoused ing to these extensions of State ‘the organised power of the com- involved a major extension of the activity is to will the end and munity’ to purge the country of its power and responsibilities of the refuse the means.74 social ills and thereby to ‘increase State into the fields of economic enjoyment of liberty’.79 But state and social policy. But for Keynes Yet in spite of the range of state- intervention of that kind was thus the ‘Agenda of the State’ would interventionist proposals in the justified not for its own sake but relate to ‘those functions which report, Beveridge also continued to rather by the enhancement of per- fall outside the sphere of the indi- adhere to liberal-individualist and sonal liberty, in its positive sense as vidual,’81 and which needed to be voluntarist beliefs. This was evi- the widening of opportunity, and exercised by the State in order to dent in his statement that: by the promotion of the common rectify market failures. For Bev- welfare that it would make possible. eridge, too, statist measures were The underlying principle of Beveridge’s dominant influence proposed only, he stressed, for the Report is to propose for on the Liberal Party and its election ‘those things which the State alone the State only those things campaign in 1945 was not, however, can do or which it can do better which the State alone can do or to be rewarded by the fruits of elec- than any local authority or than which it can do better that any toral and political success. At the private citizens either singly or in local authority or than private 1945 General Election the Liberal association.’82

Journal of Liberal History 78 Spring 2013 39 ‘reluctant’ or liberal collectivists? the social liberalism of keynes and beveridge, 1922–1945

The state-collectivist meas- The exten- the Labour Party: From Gaitskell Money (London: Macmillan,1936), ures that lay at the heart of their to Blair, Modern Political Thinkers pp. 377–383 policy prescriptions stemmed, it sion of state and Ideas: An Historical Introduc- 19 Paul Addison, The Road to 1945: Brit- is true, from their shared belief in tion, and, most recently, The Revival ish Politics and the Second World War the efficacy of a benevolent state activity of British Liberalism: From Gri- (London: Quartet Books, 1975), p. 35 guided by policy intellectuals mond to Clegg. 20 Skidelsky, op.cit., p. 134 such as themselves. But theirs was which they 21 ibid. nonetheless, as George and Wild- 1 Liberal Party General Election Mani- 22 Skidelsky, op.cit., p. 224. On Keynes’ ing have suggested, ‘a collectivism advocated festo, 1945, in Iain Dale (ed.), Liberal early philosophical influences, see not of principle, but of necessity.’83 was for both Party General Election Manifestos 1900- Robert Skidelsky, John Maynard For the extension of state activity 1997 (London: Routledge/Politico’s, Keynes. Vol. 1: Hopes Betrayed, 1883– which they advocated was for both Keynes and 2000), pp. 62–3 1920 (London: Macmillan, 1983), Keynes and Beveridge an essential, 2 ibid., p. 63 Ch.6 (pp. 133–160) pragmatic response to the debilitat- Beveridge 3 ibid., pp. 66, 65 23 Vic George and Paul Wilding, Ideol- ing economic and social ills of their 4 ibid., p. 654 ogy and Social Welfare (London: Rout- time. It was not, however, intrin- an essential, 5 Alan Watkins, The Liberal Dilemma ledge and Kegan Paul, 1976), Ch.3 sically desirable, as in the social- (London: MacGibbon and Kee, 1966), 24 ibid., p. 54 ist view, but rather was considered pragmatic p. 38 25 Skidelsky, John Maynard Keynes. by them to be a necessary means 6 See R.M. Sommer, ‘The Organisa- Vol.2: The Economist as Saviour, p. of enlarging effective freedom, of response to tion of the Liberal Party, 1936–60’, 222 For this interpretation, see, too, promoting the common good, and PhD thesis, University of London, Freeden, op.cit., pp. 166–171 of developing a more humane and the debilitat- 1962, p. 77 26 Keynes, The General Theory, p. 380 stable form of managed capitalism. 7 See Robert Ingham, ‘Radical Action’, 27 Keynes, The End of Laissez-Faire, pp. Keynes and Beveridge were thus ing economic in Duncan Brack and Ed Randall 52, 46–7 advancing the case for a liberal as (eds.). Dictionary of Liberal Thought 28 J.K. Galbraith, American Capitalism well as largely pragmatic version of and social ills (London: Politico’s, 2007), pp. 327–9; [1952] (London: Penguin, 1962), p. collectivism that could draw upon Sommer, op.cit., pp. 56–77 194 a British social liberal tradition of their time. 8 See Robert Skidelsky, John Maynard 29 Skidelsky, John Maynard Keynes: The stretching back to the late-Victo- Keynes: The Economist as Saviour, 1920– Economist as Saviour (1992) rian and Edwardian eras and which It was not, 1937 (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1992), 30 ibid., p. xxviii had been developed more recently however, p. 222 31 ibid., p. 21 in the Yellow Book of 1928. 9 For a concise, introductory discus- 32 Quoted in Robert Skidelsky, John In broader ideological terms, intrinsically sion of social liberalism as an ideo- Maynard Keynes. Vol.3: Fighting for the social liberalism of Keynes logical tendency, see Duncan Brack, Britain, 1937–1946 (London: Macmil- and Beveridge reflected, too, their desirable, as ‘Social Liberalism’, in Brack and Ran- lan, 2000), p. 265 belief that there was not a rigid dall (eds.), op.cit., pp. 386–9 33 See William Beveridge, Why I am antithesis in British Liberal thought in the social- 10 See David Dutton, A History of the a Liberal (London: Herbert Jenkins, between individualism and col- Liberal Party in the Twentieth Century 1945), pp. 1–5 lectivism, a belief that the Yellow ist view, but (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2001), 34 See José Harris, William Beveridge: A Book had also affirmed. Moreover, p. 84. For a detailed study of the Biography (Oxford: O.U.P., 1997) (sec- for Beveridge the tension within rather was Liberal Summer School movement ond edition), pp. 303–4 Liberalism between individual- in the 1920s, see Michael Freeden, 35 ibid., p. 304 ist and collectivist positions was considered Liberalism Divided: A Study in British 36 ibid., p. 321 itself a manifestation of its nature Political Thought 1914–1939 (Oxford: 37 ibid., pp. 321, 322 as a flexible and dynamic political by them to O.U.P, 1986), Ch.4 38 ibid., p. 304 creed. In his view, that was indeed 11 Freeden, op.cit., p. 78 39 See Alun Wyburn-Powell, Clement one of Liberalism’s attractive and be a neces- 12 For a detailed analysis of Britain’s Davies: Liberal Leader (London: Politi- appealing features, not an indica- Industrial Future, see Freeden, op.cit., co’s, 2003), p. 129 tion of some basic incompatibility sary means pp. 105–118 40 William Beveridge, Power and Influ- of attitude within its philosophical 13 G.D.H. Cole, ‘Liberalism and the ence (London: Hodder & Stoughton, framework. In the light of twenty- of enlarg- Industrial Future’, The New States- 1953), p. 337. On reservations within first century disputes, and at times ing effective man, 11 February 1928; quoted in both the Conservative and Labour exaggerated divisions, between Freeden op.cit., p. 115 Parties about the implementation of ‘social liberals’ and ‘economic liber- freedom … 14 Ed Randall, ‘Yellow versus Orange: the Beveridge Report’s proposals, als’ among today’s Liberal Demo- Never a Fair Fight: An Assessment of see Harris, op.cit., pp. 421–3 crats, that seems an important Two Contributions of Liberal Poli- 41 See George Watson, ‘Remembering historical point to consider whilst tics Separated by Three-Quarters Beveridge’, Liberal Democrat History reflecting on the far-reaching intel- of a Century’, The Political Quarterly, Group Newsletter 14, March 1997, p. 4 lectual contribution of Keynes and Vol.78. No.1 (Jan–March 2007), p. 43 42 See The Manchester Guardian, 9 Beveridge to a British Liberal tradi- 15 See Freeden, op.cit., p. 119 December 1942; quoted in Freeden, tion which Liberal Democrats of all 16 Skidelsky, op.cit., p. 222 op.cit., p. 367 kinds have inherited. 17 John Maynard Keynes, The End of 43 Harris, op.cit., p. 447 Laissez-Faire (London: Hogarth Press, 44 Beveridge, Power and Influence, p. 340 Dr Tudor Jones is Senior Lecturer in 1926), pp. 46–7 45 On Beveridge’s brief period as a Lib- Political Studies at Coventry University. 18 See John Maynard Keynes, The Gen- eral MP, see Beveridge, op.cit., pp. His publications include Remaking eral Theory of Employment, Interest and 340–3

40 Journal of Liberal History 78 Spring 2013 ‘reluctant’ or liberal collectivists? the social liberalism of keynes and beveridge, 1922–1945

46 See Beveridge, op.cit., pp. 54 William Beveridge, Voluntary the phrase ‘social service state’ Statisticians, 1966, p. 3; cited in 344–351 Action: A Report on Methods of throughout his 1948 report, Vol- Harris, op.cit., p. 427, n.60 47 For a detailed analysis of the Social Advance (London: Allen & untary Action. 73 See Harris, op.cit., p. 434 preparation and development of Unwin, 1948), p. 304 68 Watson, ‘Remembering Bev- 74 Beveridge, Full Employment in a the Beveridge Report, see Har- 55 ibid., p. 320 eridge’, p. 5. The phrase ‘welfare Free Society, para 44, p. 36 ris, op.cit., Ch.16 (pp. 365–412) 56 Harris, op.cit., 1st edn., p. 472 society’ first found print in 1957 75 ibid. 48 See Harris, op.cit., pp. 399, 400 57 Social Insurance and Allied Services, in The Unservile State (London: 76 George and Wilding, op.cit., pp. 49 Letter from Keynes to Bev- para 457, p. 1704 Allen & Unwin), the collection 53–4 eridge, 14 October 1942; quoted 58 ibid., para 9, pp. 6–7 of essays on Liberal thought 77 Beveridge, Why I am a Liberal, p. in Harris, op.cit, p. 404 59 Beveridge, letter to Maurice and policy which George Wat- 22 50 Social Insurance and Allied Services: Holmes, 27 August 1942; quoted son edited as chairman of The 78 ibid., p. 33 Report by Sir William Beveridge, in Beveridge, Power and Influence, Unservile State Group. 79 ibid., p. 36 Cmd 6404 (London: HMSO, p. 305 69 William Beveridge, Full Employ- 80 Beveridge, Power and Influence, p. 1942), para 8, p. 6 60 Harris, op.cit., 1st edn., p. 475 ment in a Free Society: A Report by 340 51 Freeden, op.cit., p. 366 61 Freeden, op.cit., p. 371 William H. Beveridge (London: 81 Keynes, The End of Laissez-Faire, 52 See Jose Harris, William Bev- 62 ibid., pp12–13 Allen & Unwin, 1944), p. 36 pp. 46–47 eridge; A Biography (Oxford: 63 Addison, op.cit., p. 211 70 ibid., p. 21 82 Beveridge, Full Employment in a O.U.P., 1977) (first edition), 64 Harris, op.cit., 1st edn., p. 449 71 See Harris, op.cit., 2nd edn., p. Free Society, para 44, p. 36 pp. 472–3; Freeden, op.cit., pp. 65 Harris, op.cit., 2nd edn., pp. 438 83 George and Wilding, op.cit., p. 368–371 421–3 72 See Harold Wilson, Beveridge 54 53 See Social Insurance and Allied Ser- 66 ibid., p. 416 Memorial Lecture, Institute of vices, para 9, p. 6 67 ibid., p. 452. Beveridge used Liberal history quiz 2012 The 2012 Liberal history quiz – with a link to the latest History Group booklet, Mothers of Liberty – was a feature of the History Group’s exhibition stand at the Liberal Democrat conference in Brighton last September. The winner was David Maddox, with an impressive 19½ marks out of 20. Below we reprint the questions – the answers will be included in the summer issue. 1. Who was the Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party from 1949 to 1951? 2. Who said of the possible formation of a breakaway from Labour in 1981 that such a party would have ‘no roots, no principles, no philosophy and no values’? 3. Who is the current Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Employment Relations, Consumer and Postal Affairs? 4. What is the name of the organisation within the Liberal Democrats which seeks to ensure that women are more fairly represented in the Commons? 5. Margaret Wintringham became the first-ever woman Liberal MP by winning the seat of Louth in Lincolnshire in a by-election. In what year? 6. Which Parliamentary seat was contested for the Liberal Democrats by Nicola Davies at a by-election in July 2004, when she lost by just 460 votes? 7. In what year was the Women’s Liberal Federation formed? 8. Which seat did Ray Michie (later Baroness Michie of Gallanach) represent in the House of Commons from 1987 to 2001? 9. W. E. Gladstone’s daughter acted as one of his private secretaries at Downing Street after the Grand Old Man resumed the premiership in 1880. What was her Christian name? 10. Lady Violet Bonham Carter was a great friend of Winston Churchill. What was the title of the biography of him that she published in 1965? 11. Which Liberal activist became Director of the Electoral Reform Society in 1960? 12. Who did Geoff Pope succeed as Member of the Greater London Assembly when she stood down in June 2005? 13. With what animal is the former SDP MP Rosie Barnes for ever associated, thanks to her appearing with one in a 1987 party election broadcast? 14. On which Caribbean island was Baroness Floella Benjamin born? 15. Christiana Hartley was a Liberal social and welfare rights activist, businesswoman and philanthropist. In 1921 she was elected the first female Mayor of which Lancashire borough? 16. What distinction do Margery Corbett Ashby, Alison Vickers Garland, Mrs J. McEwan and Violet Markham collectively share? 17. In the Liberal interest she contested Hornchurch in 1950 and 1951, Truro in 1955 and 1959, Epping in 1964, Rochdale in 1966 and Wakefield in 1970. Who was she? 18. Honor Balfour was a member of Radical Action, which opposed the wartime electoral truce; which seat did she contest in 1943 as an Independent Liberal, coming within 70 votes (and two recounts) of victory? 19. What is the burial place of Margot Asquith, a location she shares with her husband – and also with George Orwell and David Astor, amongst others? 20. Why are Nora Radcliffe and Margaret Smith notable Lib Dem names?

Journal of Liberal History 78 Spring 2013 41 of the Rights of Woman was not an add on to Paine but a response to Rous- REPORTS seau, and his advice for the very dif- ferent education of boys and girls. Her contribution to liberal theory, Mothers of Liberty: How modern liberalism then, was not just to add women but makes the case for liberalism’s was made by women core ideas as well as attempts to make liberalism more inclusive. Conference fringe meeting. 23 September 2012, with Dr Helen then highlighted that Wollstonecraft’s challenge to con- Helen McCabe, Baroness Jane Bonham-Carter and Jo temporary perceptions of what Swinson MP; chair: Lynne Featherstone MP women could and should do went Report by Ruth Polling far beyond her writings to include the way she lived her own life. Indeed she pointed out that all the ne of the most com- is slightly ironic as the very fact women she would be discussing mon questions asked of their contribution to the cause made her feel like she had ‘had an Owhen helping the History of liberty in the nineteenth cen- incredibly boring life’. Group at Lib Dem conferences is tury and the public activities that Her brief summary of Wol- why there is so little information came with that meant many of the lstonecraft’s life was certainly not about the women who have con- women chose not to be or were pre- boring. Taking in protecting her tributed both to the party and to vented from being mothers to any- mother from her abusive father, liberal thought. On the surface the one. Even for those who did marry a varied career as a companion, straightforward answer is that for and indeed have children, much of school-teacher and governess, and so much of the history we cover their work was focused on women her decision to become a writer and women have been excluded from being seen as more than just wives translator (which Helen described the political process. However a and mothers but as political beings as a ‘particularly revolutionary deeper look shows that even before in their own right. choice at the time’) Helen then 1918 women often played a crucial She also highlighted that in the went on to highlight her relation- role as organisers, campaigners and nineteenth century their contribu- ship with a married artist, an affair theorists and this has often been tion was to liberalism rather than with ‘American adventurer’ Gil- overlooked. the Liberal Party. While some of bert Imlay and, evidently having In 2012 the History Group these women did look to the Liberal re-thought her dismissal of sexual decided to uncover some of this Party for support, their case was relations in the Vindication, the birth neglected history and the result was often rejected with only 73 of 269 of her first child Fanny. She also a new publication Mothers of Liberty: Liberal MPs who voted support- described her travels with two year Women who built British Liberalism ing John Stuart Mill’s amendment old Fanny in Scandinavia, her mar- launched at this fascinating fringe to give votes to women as part of riage to William Godwin, the birth meeting at the last conference. The the 1867 Reform Act. However, of her second child Mary (who was fringe, like the booklet, covered they did make a major contribution to become Mary Shelley) and her women’s contribution from the ear- to the liberal view that ‘all human death soon afterwards. liest days through to recent figures. beings have the right to a free, As Helen summarised, ‘it is hard Dr McCabe presented on the late flourishing and self-directed life’ to imagine a less typical life for a eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, in challenging the definition of ‘all woman at the end of the eighteenth Baroness Bonham-Carter focused human beings’ to include women as century’. Unfortunately it was this on her grandmother Violet Bonham well as men. Even before life, recounted by Godwin in his Carter, the towering female figure As Helen pointed out, the first Memoir, which was to destroy her of the mid-twentieth century and Jo woman she concentrated on was 1918 women reputation and leave Wollstonecraft Swinson brought us right up to date the one we all probably knew almost unregarded until the twen- with the contribution women are something about, describing Mary often played tieth century. Helen concluded making in the party today. Wollstonecraft as ‘one of the most Wollstonecraft’s contribution Dr Helen McCabe, a lecturer in famous women of the eighteenth a crucial role through her life and her writings political theory at St Edmund Hall, century’. However she highlighted was to modern liberalism rather than Oxford, started off the event with that this reputation is only relatively as organis- the generation following her. a whistlestop tour of some of the recent and that she had far less influ- ers, cam- However one woman who women who contributed to liberal ence in the nineteenth century than was influenced by her was Anna thought during the nineteenth cen- we may now believe to be the case. paigners and Wheeler, the subject of the second tury. She decided to focus on five She argued that it is unfair to see section of Helen’s contribution. of them in a speedy commentary Wollstonecraft as merely derivative theorists, Wheeler was the joint author, with packed with information about of Thomas Paine pointing out that William Thompson, of An Appeal not just their contributions and her A Vindication of the Rights of Man, and this has of One Half the Human Race, Women, achievements but also their highly was written a year before Paine’s, Against the Pretensions of the Other unconventional lives. and is, like his, a direct response to often been Half, Men, to Retain Them in Political, She started by pointing out the Edmund Burke’s criticisms of the and thence in Civil and Domestic Slav- title of the meeting and the booklet French Revolution. Her Vindication overlooked. ery an analysis of the damage done to

42 Journal of Liberal History 78 Spring 2013 report: mothers of liberty women by gender stereotypes, a lack She argued his work. However, as Helen Born in 1887 the daughter of of education and the lack of rights pointed out, that is a debate for H.H. Asquith, Jane pointed out within marriage. In it they are early their writ- another day, and as she made clear that Violet’s lifetime had covered proponents of family planning and Harriet made significant contribu- the zenith and the nadir of the Lib- argued that engaging in some form ings and tions in her own right. Her most eral Party and that she had a ring- of communal living would free famous work, Enfranchisement of side seat which she never deserted. women from domestic servitude. their lives Women (1851), covers similar ground Unlike the women discussed ear- Helen argued that in this ‘they to the earlier writers but goes on lier, Violet was of the first genera- move on from Wollstonecraft in challenged insist that it is bad, both for women tion of women who had the right many ways, though retaining the and for men, for one half of human- to stand for Parliament and in fact same basic core principle’. Wheeler ideas of what ity to be born to rule over the other. received invitations from fourteen not only argued for women’s legal women could As Helen pointed out, even for the Liberal constituencies to be their equality but also identified some most conventional of our women, candidate after her support for her other aspects of what made women and should her life was still highly unusual for father in the 1918 Paisley by-elec- unfree. Again, Wheeler had an a woman of the nineteenth century, tion. However in a slightly differ- unconventional life, leaving her be and have sharing much of her life between ent take on the title ‘mothers of abusive husband and spending the her first husband and Mill. liberty’ Violet decided that elected rest of her life travelling with her therefore Helen used her description of politics was not compatible with children, funding herself from her the death of Harriet Taylor Mill to motherhood, she was a mother of writings and translations. In her shaped and introduce her daughter Helen Taylor four, and turned down all of these travels she met the radical Unitar- who she described as ‘a woman with offers. It was not until 1945 that ian Rev. William Fox and it was to informed a rather different kind of impact on she first stood for Parliament and another member of his circle that liberalism’. She had been brought she only became a Parliamentar- Helen turned next. modern lib- up with the advantages that Taylor ian through the unelected route of Helen argued that Harriet Mar- Mill hoped that all women would the House of Lords at the age of 77. tineau made theoretical contribu- eral thought one day have and her influence was While she made an impact in the tions to liberalism on two fronts. far more practical than philosophi- Lords, she clearly didn’t have much Firstly, she was a well-respected on what is cal. She was heavily involved in the regard for what could be achieved and popular laissez-faire econo- women’s suffrage campaign and there describing it as ‘the corridors mist, whose first workIllustrations needed to also in education helping to found of impotence.’ of Political Economy, a fictionalised Somerville College. However, as Jane pointed out, account of economics, catapulted make liberal Helen concluded by trying to her intellect and gifts of expression her to fame in 1832. And secondly, principles assess the impact of these women and memory ensured that Violet like Wollstonecraft and Wheeler, today. She rightly pointed out that made a massive contribution to the she was to stand up for liberal prin- properly these nineteenth-century women Liberal Party outside of Parliament. ciples and demand that they be have been criticised for being Initially her work was assisting her equally applied to women, most universal. too optimistic and not going far father campaigning and making notably in Society in America with its enough, believing that equal legal speeches in his support after he lost highly critical chapter The Political rights would ensure equality. How- his seat at the 1918 General Elec- Non-Existence of Women. ever, she rejected this criticism, tion. After Asquith’s death, Vio- Martineau herself remained sin- pointing out from their starting let briefly dropped out of active gle, which may have been in order to point rights were an important first politics, only to return in the early avoid the oppression she saw and to step and that this view neglects the 1930s to express her concerns about retain her hard-won financial inde- analysis they did of what else, apart the rise of the Nazis in Germany. pendence as a popular novelist and from the lack of formal freedoms, In this she was a great supporter journalist. As well as her philosophi- prevented women from being of Churchill who, other than her cal contribution Martineau was also free. She argued their writings and father, was the dominant political an active campaigner for women’s their lives challenged ideas of what figure in her life. rights, petitioning Parliament on women could and should be and As Jane listed some of her many the suffrage, women’s education and have therefore shaped and informed causes it was clear her foresight was access to the professions, and on the modern liberal thought on what is not just confined to the Nazis. She repeal of the Contagious Diseases needed to make liberal principles was anti-appeasement, anti-Suez, Act. Most shockingly she rejected properly universal. anti-apartheid, anti-death penalty, religion. As Helen concluded, The discussion was then taken a champion of Beveridge and social ‘Like Wollstonecraft and Wheeler, up by Baroness Jane Bonham- reform, pro-Europe, pro-choice, Martineau also lived her own life, Carter who started by thanking pro-gay rights, pro-immigration becoming a practical example of all the History Group for the oppor- and pro-women’s rights and equal a woman could do and be.’ tunity it had given her to look back pay. Jane quoted Mark Pottle, Helen pointed out that the life over her grandmother’s life and the editor of Violet’s diaries, say- of her next subject, Harriet Taylor be reminded what a remarkable ing she ‘never ceased to interpret Mill, is in many ways less challeng- women she was. In her brief and to modern times the liberal ideals ing to the social norms than the personal speech she gave a sum- she had learnt from her father in previous ones. Indeed she is famous mary of the life of Violet Bonham childhood.’ to liberals for her marriage to Carter, including a number of sto- Her influence on the Liberal John Stuart Mill and there is much ries and anecdotes from those who Party was huge, not just on these debate on how much she influenced knew and worked with her. headline issues, where, for example,

Journal of Liberal History 78 Spring 2013 43 report: mothers of liberty her position on Suez helped the Lib- Her influ- is currently the only female leader active politics and whether this was eral Party to have a unique voice, of any part of the Liberal Demo- possible with the demands made by but also on the grassroots. In the ence on the crats and was also the first female Liberal Democrats of their candi- dark days of the 1950s Violet was leader of any party in Wales. dates. She accepted more needed to a tireless campaigner, travelling, Liberal Party Jo went on to point out that, be done not just for women, but for speaking everywhere and canvass- while only seven of the Lib- all parents and carers to be active in ing to keep the Liberal Party alive. was huge, eral Democrat MPs were female, politics. She believed that, for more Jane concluded that Violet was a women were making a huge con- women to come forward as candi- ‘wonderful daughter, deeply loving not just on tribution to the party up and down dates, local Lib Dem parties need to mother, absolutely terrible mother- the country. In the dark days it was review which tasks have to be done in-law … and a great, great liberal.’ these head- often women that kept the party by the candidate, enabling them to As Violet Bonham Carter’s con- line issues, alive in many constituencies and concentrate their time for the most tribution was largely outside Par- now the party is full of unsung important task of meeting voters, liament it fell to the final speaker, where, for female heroes. She particularly while freeing up enough time for Jo Swinson MP, to bring the meet- wanted to highlight the contribu- a family life. It was clear from her ing up to date and focus on some example, her tion her own mother had made to answer that, while the legal equali- women Liberals’ contributions her election campaign, driving her ties sought by the earliest women to in the House of Commons. She position on to meetings, cooking for her and contribute to liberalism have been started by highlighting that, even delivering a whole area of her con- achieved, there is still a faintly ironic though the booklet had mainly Suez helped stituency over and over again. She ring to the title Mothers of Liberty. concentrated on the great herit- pointed out there were women like Jo ended on an optimistic note age of Liberal women, there were a the Liberal that all over the country who are however. Earlier in the even- number of women who today and often not thanked for all they do, ing she had attended a Leadership over the past few decades had made Party to have but it would be impossible for the Centre reception for people from major contributions to the party. party to win seats without them. under-represented groups seek- She started with a personal trib- a unique Jo had just been appointed as ing to be candidates for the Lib- ute to Shirley Williams, who she junior Equalities Minister when she eral Democrats. The two events on described as an ‘inspiration’ and voice, but made her speech and she described the same evening had convinced also ‘personally supportive’ to her her ‘pride and humility to take this her that there was a great heritage and other women in the party. She also on the agenda forward.’ She accepted in of women in the party and also a highlighted her rational but also the speech that there was a long way bright future. Updated editions of emotional intelligence and sug- grassroots. to go both in the Liberal Demo- Mothers of Liberty could be a whole gested that, had she been born a few In the dark crats and in the Cabinet. In answer lot longer. decades later, she could have been to a question, she also went back leader of the party. In a return to days of the to a theme which had been present Ruth Polling is a member of the Liberal the earlier stories she also described throughout the meeting about the Democrat History Group’s committee, Shirley as a lifelong nonconformist, 1950s Violet balance between motherhood and and the Group’s conference organiser. summing her up, as many others have done, as ‘she’s just Shirley’. was a tireless She did highlight however just how far women have to go to campaigner, achieve equality of representation. Jo pointed out that just over ten travelling, years ago when Sandra Gidley was elected to Parliament there were so speaking few women in the Liberal Demo- crat Parliamentary Party that it was everywhere Reviews possible for male colleagues to ask her, ‘will you be like a Ray (Michie) and canvass- or like a Jenny (Tonge) or like a Jackie (Ballard)?’ Sandra was quite ing to keep ‘Remains to be seen’ right to point out in her response that there were not just three mod- the Liberal Chris Bowers, Nick Clegg: The Biography (Biteback, 2011; els of a female MP in the same way Party alive. paperback edition, 2012); Jasper Gerard, The Clegg Coup there are no three models of a male one when she responded, ‘I think (Gibson Square, 2011) I’ll be like a Sandra’. Even today Reviewed by Duncan Brack only seven of the fifty seven Liberal Democrat MPs are women which allowed Jo a brief word about id-career biographies events, and individuals may be each one of her female colleagues, are always chancy things less willing to say what they really including our panel chair Lynne Mto write. It’s usually diffi- think about someone who’s still Featherstone, who Jo commended cult to assess a politician’s record and their boss or colleague, or still alive. for her courageous work as Equali- impact properly until they retire, Nevertheless, such is the inter- ties Minister. She also highlighted or die, early judgments may be est in Nick Clegg, as the first Lib- the work of Kirsty Williams, who rendered irrelevant by subsequent eral leader to enter UK government

44 Journal of Liberal History 78 Spring 2013 reviews since 1945, that not one but two the trade unions. The Clegg Coup biographies of him appeared in contains far more mistakes, includ- 2011; and the better of the two, ing claiming that the last British Chris Bowers’ Nick Clegg: The Biog- peacetime coalition was formed in raphy, was republished in paperback 1918 (what about 1931?), calling the in autumn 2012. Effectively this is Liberal who helped to end the post- a second edition, with the last four war identity card system Trevor (out of fifteen) chapters substan- Wilcox (his name was Harry Will- tially rewritten – rather demon- cock), implying that Vicky Pryce strating my point about the perils left her government job when Chris of instant history. Accordingly, Huhne’s affair was revealed (she had the phrase ‘remains to be seen’ fea- resigned before the election), con- tures on quite a few occasions as fusing the June 2010 £6 billion cuts the authors attempt to analyse the emergency package with the whole impact of Clegg and his leadership. coalition cuts programme, mixing (It should be noted that the pub- up Kosovo and Bosnia, and warn- licity for The Clegg Coup claims ing us to be ‘wary of Greeks bearing that, ‘contrary to news reports, the gilts’ (p. 245 – not, sadly, a clever book is not a biography’. This is a reference to the Greek debt crisis). strange claim to make, as essen- Neither book will win any tially it is, though it also looks more prizes for style. Bowers’ book is a extensively at the roles played by bit pedestrian and long-winded, key Clegg allies such as Danny but overall not too bad. Gerard’s Alexander, David Laws and Paul version is something else again. No Marshall. The author also claims, cliché is left unused, no metaphor with a refreshing lack of false mod- is unmixed, no prose is ever too esty, that it is the first major study purple. The Labour constituencies of Liberalism since Dangerfield’s surrounding Clegg’s Sheffield Hal- The Strange Death of Liberal England lam seat aren’t merely coloured red in 1935. It isn’t.) on an electoral map, for instance – Both books suffer from weak- they’re an ‘angry’ red. TV studio nesses which limit their value. Nei- sofas are always ‘squishy’. People ther uses footnotes or references, so rarely ‘say’ anything; they ‘howl’, the reader is often unsure whether ‘fume’ or ‘rumble’. There is far, quotes stem from public statements far too much text like: ‘Even for or private interviews. Nick Clegg the steel city, the day seemed to be does at least contain a bibliography; painted a particularly dark shade The Clegg Coup doesn’t. of gunmetal grey. But adherents to More seriously, both of them Liberalism were in a sunny mood are based almost entirely on inter- that Sheffield morning …’ (p. 122) views; the authors seem incapable This is the kind of language of using any written source, or at Gerard used for his Sunday news- least anything written by Clegg paper columns, and for a brief piece himself – including, most notably, it’s OK, sometimes even quite Clegg’s chapters in The Orange Book funny. But reading page after page and its social-liberal riposte, Rein- of this rapidly gets very wearing; venting the State, his 2009 booklet you’re left feeling rather like you’ve for Demos, The Liberal Moment, or been hit on the head, slowly but any of his speeches, most of which repeatedly, with a rubber hammer. are never even mentioned. This is a The only chapter that isn’t written major flaw; Clegg has used his more like this – an outline of the history thoughtful speeches to explore his of the party – is actually quite read- interpretation of Liberalism, and able (albeit error-strewn), suggest- of the purpose of the Liberal Dem- ing that the rest of the book could ocrats, and anyone interested in have been too. understanding the man and his pol- On the positive side, however, itics has to analyse them. the interviews conducted by both The – mostly minor – errors authors are very good value: wide- present in the 2011 edition of Nick ranging, extensive and detailed. Clegg have been corrected in the Bowers in particular has unearthed 2012 version, though a few more some points missed by other writ- have crept in: the Copenhagen cli- ers – for example, when Paddy Ash- thus helping to increase the pressure mate change conference was in down revealed that he was given on the Tories. 2009, not 2010, for example; clause Clegg’s blessing to talk up the pros- So what is the Clegg story? Both IV in Labour’s old constitution was pects of a Lib-Lab deal to the media books do a good job of recounting about nationalisation, not about during the coalition negotiations, Clegg’s thoroughly international

Journal of Liberal History 78 Spring 2013 45 reviews family background, featuring ances- This back- 2010 manifesto and is now the other with the Conservatives, Clegg must tors on his father’s side who included Liberal Democrat in the ‘quad’ have steered it to the right. the Russian writer Baroness Moura ground left that resolves coalition disputes. As I am not arguing that Clegg Budberg (the so-called ‘Mata Hari Gerard observed, ‘Alexander sub- made no difference at all; after of Russia’, a possible Bolshevik, him with an limates his ego to support Clegg’ all, he was the first Liberal Demo- Soviet and Nazi double agent, and (The Clegg Coup, p. 68), but does crat leader not to have been active the mistress of, among others, H. G. international not lack ambition; apparently, he in politics under Thatcher’s and Wells and Maxim Gorky), while his sees himself as a potential future Major’s Conservative governments, Dutch mother was as a girl interned outlook, and party leader. Gerard also identifies and his instincts always appeared with her family by the Japanese in David Laws as an ally, particularly to be more hostile to Labour than Indonesia during the war. Educa- a stubborn, in forcing the intellectual agenda; those of his predecessors, which tion at Westminster and Cambridge self-confi- Laws now chairs the 2015 manifesto at least made a coalition with the was followed by postgraduate study group. (Gerard also, astutely, reck- Tories less difficult. In fact neither in the US. dent and oned that Laws was more suited book delves into Clegg’s political This background left him with to a policy job than a party man- beliefs to any great extent – prob- an international outlook, and a articulate agement one – he ‘would be better ably a side-effect of never quoting stubborn, self-confident and articu- deployed in a department rich in anything he actually wrote – but late nature; he was always encour- nature; he policy possibilities such as Educa- Nick Clegg does touch on it. His aged to challenge authority. He tion’ (p. 80). A year after the book former MEP colleague Andrew developed a strong belief in fairness, was always came out, that’s where he went.) Duff is quoted as thinking Clegg and the rights, and responsibilities, Both authors accept without would have been at home in Ted of the individual. Bowers argues encouraged questioning the notion that the Heath’s Conservative Party, while that it was his privileged back- Liberal Democrats were an imma- Conservative MP Ed Vaizey thinks ground that drove him to aim to do to challenge ture bunch until Clegg came along. that the EU was the only issue that something worthwhile with his life. According to Bowers, ‘the differ- stopped him being a Tory. Chris After a short period as a jour- authority. ence Clegg and the new generation Davies, another European col- nalist, in 1994 Clegg joined the of Liberal Democrats had brought league, views him as more of a con- European Commission, ending up He devel- about’, was that ‘theirs was no tinental Liberal than a mainstream in Trade Commissioner Leon Brit- longer a cuddly philosophising-and- British Liberal. Bowers reckons he tan’s private office. It was Brittan oped a strong protest-vote party but one that was sees Labour as the opposition, and who first suggested that he become determined to use its leverage to get Conservatives as the competition – involved in politics and, having belief in fair- as many of its policies put into prac- probably the opposite of what most failed to convince him to join the ness, and the tice as it could’ (Nick Clegg, p. 234). Liberal Democrats think. Conservatives, recommended him Former Lib Dem council leaders and ‘I really just believe in the basic to Paddy Ashdown. Ashdown first rights, and ministers in Scottish and Welsh gov- tenets of liberalism’ says Clegg met him in 1997 and rapidly became ernments may beg to differ. himself (in an interview), ‘which a supporter (‘unofficial godfather’, responsibili- According to Gerard, Clegg starts from the premise that there’s according to Bowers), tipping him single-handedly took the party something wonderful about every as a future leader; indeed, he tried ties, of the into coalition after the 2010 elec- person, there’s something mar- to persuade Clegg to stand for the tion. ‘He convened a meeting in vellous about their potential and leadership on Charles Kennedy’s individual. Smith Square of his party’s MPs, talents, and you’ve got to do eve- resignation in 2006. Like Ashdown, peers and leading officials. And by rything you possibly can in poli- Clegg was in many ways a political most accounts he played a blinder, tics to emancipate individuals, outsider (arguably a valuable char- winning over diehards and dither- to give them privacy, give them acteristic of a party leader) – he had ers …’ (The Clegg Coup, p. 258). The freedom, give them the ability to no family or college background in facts that there had been daily par- get ahead’ (Nick Clegg, p. 340). His politics, and came into the party in liamentary party meetings since the strong commitments to education a fairly unorthodox way. election, that the MPs had already and to social mobility follow from Nick Clegg follows his early decided to opt for coalition rather this, but his equally strong dislike political career more thoroughly than confidence and supply, that of the Labour approach of treating than does The Clegg Coup: selection there was no viable alternative individuals merely as members of for and then election, in 1999, to the option available, and that a spe- groups possibly blinds him to prob- European Parliament, then selec- cial party conference five days later lems of income and wealth inequal- tion for Sheffield Hallam after the endorsed the deal by an overwhelm- ity and the barriers they place in the local party decided the seat was safe ing majority are entirely ignored. way of social mobility. The pupil enough that they could afford to This is the first of two major premium is indeed an assault on look for a candidate with potential flaws withThe Clegg Coup: it never inequality, but of little relevance to leadership qualities. considers whether any alternative anyone over school age. Both books identify Danny choice was reasonably available – The second flaw withThe Alexander as Clegg’s closest politi- whether Clegg really made a dif- Clegg Coup is that the book never cal friend, dating back to a walk on ference, or whether any Lib Dem analyses what being steered to the the South Downs and a discussion leader would have done the same right actually means – presum- about the future of the party dur- thing because of the circumstances ably because, in reality, there is not ing the 1997 autumn conference. in which they found themselves. It much evidence for it. On the few Alexander subsequently became simply assumes, in this instance, that occasions when Gerard looks at Clegg’s chief of staff, drew up the because the party formed a coalition changes in policy under Clegg, he

46 Journal of Liberal History 78 Spring 2013 reviews chooses only those which support thinks that the Lib Dem negotia- contrived to fuck them all off.’ The( his argument – such as the 2008 tors’ failure to push the issue in the Clegg Coup, p. 234). suggestion of cuts in public spend- coalition talks lay at the root of This is perhaps the most seri- ing (in the document Make it Hap- the problem, while Bowers blames ous criticism that can be levelled pen) – while ignoring those that poor communications; for exam- at Clegg: that while he was right don’t, such as the mansion tax. ple, the party never highlighted the to take the party into coalition, Similarly, by the 2010 election, fact that raising tuition fees ena- and while his record in govern- the ‘policy prospectus had been bled it to protect funding for fur- ment has been at least mixed, with transformed into a serious pro- ther education, or tried to present several successes to offset against gramme’ (p. 137) – but we’re never the new system as a graduate tax, the disappointments, all of this has told what this was. And in fact the which is essentially what it is. Loyal This is per- been conducted without enough manifesto’s top four priorities – to a fault, Bowers doesn’t blame thought to the party’s ability to the pupil premium, constitutional Clegg himself for this. haps the survive. Perhaps worryingly, Rich- reform, job creation through green Bowers is good on the pressures most seri- ard Allan, his predecessor as MP for growth and investment in infra- faced by Clegg as Deputy Prime Hallam, believes that: ‘“Doing the structure, and an increase in the Minister, particularly the abuse he ous criticism right thing” is vitally important to income tax threshold, paid for by suffered over tuition fees. (Heart- him, so it’s important to him to feel closing tax loopholes and green breakingly, he quotes his sons as that can be he made the right calls on the big taxation – hardly bear out the argu- asking: ‘Papa, why do the students issues. It doesn’t mean he doesn’t ment for an Orange Book coup. hate you so much?’ (Nick Clegg, p. levelled at care about the party, he does care In government, Clegg and allies 249).) Bowers observes, rightly, that deeply, but if the party was screwed have apparently ‘implemented the Clegg had hardly needed to show Clegg: that and the election went up in flames, Orange Book agenda’ (p. 88), but, much resilience or toughness until he would be able to live with him- true to form, we’re never told what his entry into government – but while he was self if he felt he had made the right it is. As this Journal pointed out unquestionably has since. decisions.’ (Nick Clegg, p. 362) when we reviewed The Orange Book What of the future? Gerard, right to take But what are the right deci- back in 2005, almost everything writing in the summer of 2011, was sions? Assuming that the party will in it was existing party policy, all sunlit uplands, claiming to detect the party gain respect for simply participat- with the almost single exception of a modest rise in the Lib Dem poll ing in government, whatever the David Laws’ proposal for a social rating while the Tory one was plum- into coali- coalition’s record, and hoping that insurance basis for health care (The meting (inspection of poll ratings the economy will recover in time Clegg Coup refers to it, wrongly, as from February to September 2011 tion, and for the 2015 election – when even private insurance) – which the coa- shows no such thing). He identified the IMF is criticising the auster- lition has not introduced. four reasons for optimism over the while his ity programme as too harsh – is a Chris Bowers’ Nick Clegg is party’s future prospects: the break- record in gov- pretty big gamble. And whether more balanced; he does not see the down in class identity, increased Clegg himself is now too tarred 2010 manifesto as a lurch to the educational attainment, the flower- ernment has by the tuition fees issue, the classic right, but simply as a response to ing of liberal values, and the enthusi- example of the ‘broken promises’ economic circumstances. Thanks asm of young people (with the party been at least for which he had attacked the other to his interviews, Bowers is good polling at 6 per cent amongst 18–24 two parties during the 2010 cam- on the tensions within the party in year-olds in the latest YouGov poll, mixed, with paign, is an open question. the build-up to the election, mostly the last seems unlikely). Of course, we don’t know – over tuition fees. Gerard correctly identifies the several suc- which, to end where I started, is the Although both authors are long-term decline in the Conserva- problem with writing a mid-career strong Clegg supporters (Gerard tive plus Labour vote (down below cesses to off- biography. Neverthless, despite its thinks he’s the finest Liberal leader two-thirds of the total in 2010, for weaknesses, Nick Clegg: The Biog- since Lloyd George), they are ready the first time since Labour sup- set against raphy contains interesting material enough to outline his mistakes in planted the Liberals in the 1920s), and is well worth reading; even The government – over the distribu- but entirely ignores the competi- the disap- Clegg Coup has some nuggets, if you tion of ministerial posts (leaving the tion for third-party voters – from can stand the style and its inability party in control of no high-profile UKIP, the Greens, the Nationalists pointments, to support its central thesis. departments), over the (with hind- and others. To be fair, this was less I’ll leave Chris Bowers to have sight) excessive readiness to defend obvious in 2011 than it is now. More all of this has the last word: the coalition in its first year, over interestingly, he raises the question Clegg’s willingness to trust Cam- of which voters the party is sup- been con- Not all Lib Dems will agree, but eron (originating, thinks Bowers, in posed to recruit to replace those ducted with- then such is the transformation his more continental background, departing in opposition to the coa- in the party under Clegg’s lead- where partners in coalitions actu- lition and its policies. An unnamed out enough ership and the 2010–15 coalition ally try to work together), and right-wing Liberal Democrat min- that it’s hard to know who the over the party’s general inability ister is quoted as saying: ‘Unless we thought to Lib Dems will be in 2015. They to communicate what it’s achieved can get some of the fluffy bunny will still be there, but possibly and what it’s stopped. According to voters back, we are done for. I’m the party’s with a very different support Bowers, the party has proved better not sure there are enough centre crew than they had in 2010 – and at policy than politics. ground voters. The Lib Dem base ability to with massive uncertainty about Both books deal with the tuition has been public sector workers, their future as a party. There’s no fees debacle at some length. Gerard students and intellectuals. We have survive. question Clegg has contributed

Journal of Liberal History 78 Spring 2013 47 reviews

to a spectacular revival in the Duncan Brack is Editor of the Journal of of Scottish Rights, the opposition prominence of liberalism in Brit- Liberal History; he also wrote the chap- to Macaulay’s representation of ish government, but whether it’s ter on the Liberal Democrats in Duncan Edinburgh in the 1840s and 1850s. a sustainable revival or a revival Brack and Robert Ingham (eds.), Peace, Further, he was intimately con- that comes with an in-built self- Reform and Liberation: A History nected with a wider Liberal cul- destruct button remains to be of Liberal Politics in Britain 1679– ture in which Scotland was very seen. (Nick Clegg, p. 374). 2011 (Biteback, 2011). important on account of its con- sistent delivery of a large number of Liberal seats and its support of key Liberal causes. His third mar- riage to Priscilla, younger sister of Scottish Liberal John Bright, helped to deepen these connections but he was also close Willis Pickard, The Member for Scotland: A Life of Duncan to Richard Cobden; indeed, the McLaren (John Donald, 2011) Cobden–McLaren connection is certainly worthy of further explo- Reviewed by Ewen A. Cameron ration. Pickard is especially good at bringing out the atmosphere of illis Pickard, very other business interests, in bank- Scottish politics in this period and well-known in jour- ing, property and railways, were McLaren’s wider connections. This Wnalistic and educational less profitable. He carved out a has certainly been done in books by circles in Scotland, has performed career in local politics, his first elec- Hutchison and Fry at a more gen- a signal service to Scottish history tion to the City Council came in eral level but the biographical focus by writing this extremely well- 1833, a very difficult time for Scot- of this study provides an excep- documented biography of Duncan land’s capital which was virtually tionally good window on the key McLaren. Reading Pickard’s notes bankrupt, and he rose to be Lord features of the political landscape and bibliography, it is striking that Provost from 1851 to 1854. He con- of Victorian Scotland. While Pick- the last major biography, by J. B. tested Edinburgh’s parliamentary ard’s view is generally a positive Mackie, was published in 1889. representation for the first time in one, he does not elide McLaren’s Despite the fact that Mackie’s book 1852, was elected in 1865 and served more than occasional narrow- was commissioned by the McLaren until his retirement in 1881. He died ness of view, which renders him family and its tone was in the tra- in 1886. These bare biographical an unappealing character at times. dition of Victorian hagiography, bones do not do justice to the sig- He was certainly representative of Pickard quotes the view of John nificance of McLaren’s career or to the belief in individual effort and Bright (McLaren’s brother-in-law) the interesting material contained responsibility which was central that ‘not one quarter of the praise in Willis Pickard’s excellent biogra- to Liberalism of this period. His due to McLaren has been given phy. Pickard has immersed himself to him.’ (p. 270). Pickard’s book in McLaren’s voluminous corre- lies on the spectrum between this spondence and his extensive and extreme and that of the modern disputatious published works. This contextualised biography where research has produced a very clearly the subject can disappear entirely. written and, as far as the Scottish Indeed, Pickard maintains a good context is concerned, successful balance between the details of his account of McLaren’s career. subject’s life and career and the con- McLaren was involved, some- texts – Edinburgh, Scotland, Vol- times tangentially, in many of untaryism, Liberalism – in which the major controversies of nine- he operated during the nineteenth teenth-century Scotland. There century. are, however, several features of his Despite his prominence in career which ensure that he is more nineteenth-century Scotland, he than the kind of character whom is something of a forgotten figure, Anthony Trollope might have per- although many of the political cam- mitted a brief appearance at the paigns in which he was involved Duke of Omnium’s dinner table. have been much studied by recent The first is that he was the arche- writers on Scottish history, such as typal representative of the thor- Graeme Morton. Iain Hutchison, oughly Liberal culture of Scotland Michael Fry and Robert Anderson. after 1832. To be sure, McLaren was McLaren was born in 1800 to a fam- opposed to the Whig clique which ily which had roots in the highland dominated its politics in the early county of Argyll but he spent most part of the period. He was at the of his life in business and political forefront of all the leading cam- circles in the lowlands of Scotland. paigns which provided a radical He was most prominent in Edin- challenge to the Whigs: the Anti burgh, where he entered the dra- Corn Law League, the National pery business and prospered; his Association for the Vindication

48 Journal of Liberal History 78 Spring 2013 reviews strident opposition to trade unions and a more vibrant daily journal- in depth by modern historians. is highlighted as one example of ism, especially in his home city. Willis Pickard has performed a sig- this point of view. Pickard is also As Willis Pickard brings out in nal service in providing a detailed sure-footed in his discussion of the this important book, McLaren’s picture of the political and religious complex topic of the intra-pres- career peaked in the years between culture of the period when Scot- byterian sectarianism which was the reforms of 1868 and 1885. land was a Liberal nation. such a defining feature of McLar- The importance of the book goes en’s outlook. He was a member of beyond the biographical treatment Ewen A. Cameron is Sir William the United Presbyterian Church, of an important figure from nine- Fraser Professor of Scottish History at the leading Voluntary denomina- teenth-century Scottish political the University of Edinburgh. His most tion in Scotland from 1847, and a history. It also serves as a reminder recent book is Impaled on a Thistle: vocal opponent of both the estab- that there are many aspects of this Scotland since 1880 (Edinburgh, lished Church of Scotland and the period which are still to be studied 2010). Free Church of Scotland. The lat- ter attracted his ire due to its adher- ence to the principle of established churches. Gladstone’s failure to commit to Scottish disestablish- ment was a source of disappoint- Gladstone and Ireland ment, as was his commitment to Irish home rule, which McLaren Mary E. Daly and K. Theodore Hoppen (eds.) Gladstone: opposed (along, of course, with Ireland and Beyond (Four Courts Press, 2011) John Bright). This sectarian out- look is another way in which he Reviewed by Iain Sharpe can be viewed as a rather narrow politician in some ways. Although he Grand Old Man’s lon- It is the older hands who offer he was known as ‘the Member for gevity has given Gladsto- the most insightful perspectives. Scotland’ because of his frequent Tnian scholars a treat over Theodore Hoppen’s chapter on speeches and questions on Scottish the past few years – the commemo- ‘Gladstone, Salisbury and the end matters during his parliamentary ration of the centenary of his death of Irish assimilationism’ high- career, he was especially vigor- in 1998 being quickly followed by lights the similarities in approach ous in his pursuit of local Edin- the 2009 celebrations of the bicente- to Ireland offered by the Liberal burgh matters. His political career nary of his birth. Both were marked and Conservative parties, just encountered difficulties with the by conferences, seminars and other at the moment when home rule change in culture in the 1880s with events, leading to a plethora of pub- appeared to polarise them. Hop- the expansion of the electorate, the lications. This volume is a collection pen argues that both Gladstone and quickening pace of political debate of papers delivered at a symposium Salisbury fundamentally departed at St Deiniol’s Library, Hawarden from a previous British consensus (Britain’s only prime ministerial that aimed at integrating Ireland library) in September 2009. into the United Kingdom, mak- Some might wonder, given ing it more like England, or per- how much has already been writ- haps Scotland. While Gladstone’s ten about Gladstone’s engagement conversion to Irish home rule was with Ireland, what more there is to portrayed by opponents as a dan- say. The evidence of this volume gerously radical departure, in fact gives the resounding answer that the Unionists’ policy of ‘killing there are plenty of new avenues to home rule by kindness’ equally be explored, from how Gladstone involved recognising that Ireland was portrayed in Irish newspapers was different from the rest of the (including unionist ones) to the United Kingdom. It focused on interaction of political and family land purchase – effectively using relationships, to how Gladstone’s large amounts of public money to legacy influenced subsequent gen- buy out Irish landlords, transfer- erations who had to deal with the ring property to the tenants, in complexities of Irish–British rela- a way that was if anything more tionships. Contributors range from out of keeping with nineteenth- established names in Gladstonian century rules of political econ- and Irish studies to those who have omy than was home rule. Hoppen only recently completed their doc- advances here an important, and toral research. The quality of con- in my view justified, argument, tributions is consistently high, concluding that late-Victorian although one might quibble that the party conflict over Ireland was, theme of ‘Gladstone, Ireland and in the words of Jorges Luis Borges beyond’ is so broad that this is clearly regarding a different conflict, like a collection of papers, not a work ‘some very angry bald men fight- with a clear unifying framework. ing over a comb’.

Journal of Liberal History 78 Spring 2013 49 reviews

On a similar theme is Professor Gladstone’s Irish policy offered a whether Ireland should have a Alvin Jackson’s chapter compar- model that might have then been royal residence, as Scotland had ing Gladstone’s attitudes towards followed in Scotland. Jackson turns at Balmoral. More substantially, Ireland and Scotland. Gladstonian this round to show how Gladstone Jackson argues, Gladstone val- Liberal support for Irish home rule (and others) wanted Ireland to ued the way in which Scotland was discussed at the time in the come to the same degree of accept- had developed a distinct patriotic context of ‘home rule all round’ ance of the Union that Scotland identity within the Union, and the for the nations of the United King- had reached. This extended to disestablishment of the Church of dom. Historians have tended Gladstone, during his first admin- Ireland was an attempt to match to focus on the extent to which istration, seriously considering the Scottish religious settlement RESEARCH IN PROGRESS If you can help any of the individuals listed below with sources, contacts, or any other information — or if you know anyone who can — please pass on details to them. Details of other research projects in progress should be sent to the Editor (see page 3) for inclusion here.

Letters of Richard Cobden (1804–65) Recruitment of Liberals into the Conservative Party, 1906–1935 Knowledge of the whereabouts of any letters written by Cobden in Aims to suggest reasons for defections of individuals and develop an private hands, autograph collections, and obscure locations in the UK understanding of changes in electoral alignment. Sources include and abroad for a complete edition of his letters. (For further details of personal papers and newspapers; suggestions about how to get hold of the Cobden Letters Project, please see www.uea.ac.uk/his/research/ the papers of more obscure Liberal defectors welcome. Cllr Nick Cott, 1a cobdenproject). Dr Anthony Howe, School of History, University of East Henry Street, Gosforth, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, NE3 1DQ; [email protected]. Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ; [email protected]. Four nations history of the Irish Home Rule crisis Dadabhai Naoroji A four nations history of the Irish Home Rule crisis, attempting to Dadabhai Naoroji (1825–1917) was an Indian nationalist and Liberal rebalance the existing Anglo-centric focus. Considering Scottish and member for Central Finsbury, 1892–95 – the first Asian to be elected Welsh reactions and the development of parallel Home Rule movements, to the House of Commons. This research for a PhD at Harvard aims along with how the crisis impacted on political parties across the UK. to produce both a biography of Naoroji and a volume of his selected Sources include newspapers, private papers, Hansard. Naomi Lloyd-Jones; correspondence, to be published by OUP India in 2013. The current [email protected]. phase concentrates on Naoroji’s links with a range of British progressive organisations and individuals, particularly in his later career. Suggestions Beyond Westminster: Grassroots Liberalism 1910–1929 for archival sources very welcome. Dinyar Patel; [email protected] A study of the Liberal Party at its grassroots during the period in which it or 07775 753 724. went from being the party of government to the third party of politics. This research will use a wide range of sources, including surviving The political career of Edward Strutt, 1st Baron Belper Liberal Party constituency minute books and local press to contextualise Strutt was Whig/Liberal MP for Derby (1830-49), later Arundel and the national decline of the party with the reality of the situation on Nottingham; in 1856 he was created Lord Belper and built Kingston the ground. The thesis will focus on three geographic regions (Home Hall (1842-46) in the village of Kingston-on-Soar, Notts. He was a Counties, Midlands and the North West) in order to explore the situation friend of Jeremy Bentham and a supporter of free trade and reform, the Liberals found themselves in nationally. Research for University of and held government office as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Leicester. Supervisor: Dr Stuart Ball. Gavin Freeman ; [email protected]. and Commissioner of Railways. Any information, location of papers or references welcome. Brian Smith; [email protected]. The Liberal Party’s political communication, 1945–2002 Research on the Liberal party and Lib Dems’ political communication. The emergence of the ‘public service ethos’ Any information welcome (including testimonies) about electoral Aims to analyse how self-interest and patronage was challenged by the campaigns and strategies. Cynthia Boyer, CUFR Champollion, Place de advent of impartial inspectorates, public servants and local authorities Verdun, 81 000 Albi, France; +33 5 63 48 19 77; [email protected]. in provincial Britain in the mid 19th century. Much work has been done on the emergence of a ‘liberal culture’ in the central civil service in The Liberal Party in Wales, 1966–1988 Whitehall, but much work needs to be done on the motives, behaviour Aims to follow the development of the party from the general election and mentalities of the newly reformed guardians of the poor, sanitary of 1966 to the time of the merger with the SDP. PhD research at Cardiff inspectors, factory and mines inspectors, education authorities, prison University. Nick Alderton; [email protected]. warders and the police. Ian Cawood, Newman University Colllege, Birmingham; [email protected]. Policy position and leadership strategy within the Liberal Democrats This thesis will be a study of the political positioning and leadership The life of Professor Reginald W Revans, 1907–2003 strategy of the Liberal Democrats. Consideration of the role of Any information anyone has on Revans’ Liberal Party involvement would equidistance; development of policy from the point of merger; the be most welcome. We are particularly keen to know when he joined the influence and leadership strategies of each leader from Ashdown to party and any involvement he may have had in campaigning issues. We Clegg; and electoral strategy from 1988 to 2015 will form the basis of the know he was very interested in pacifism. Any information, oral history work. Any material relating to leadership election campaigns, election submissions, location of papers or references most welcome. Dr Yury campaigns, internal party groups (for example the Social Liberal Forum) Boshyk, [email protected]; or Dr Cheryl Brook, [email protected]. or policy documents from 1987 and merger talks onwards would be greatly welcomed. Personal insights and recollections also sought. Samuel Barratt; [email protected].

50 Journal of Liberal History 78 Spring 2013 Journal of Liberal History 78 Spring 2013 51 A Liberal Democrat History Group evening meeting jo grimond: the legacy Jo Grimond, leader of the Liberal Party from 1956 to 1967, holds a particularly affectionate place in the collective memory of the Liberal Democrats. His charisma, charm, good looks, political courage, intellect and inherent liberalism inspired many to join the Liberal Party in the late 1950s and 1960s and gained him a national reputation as someone who could give politics a good name – which has endured to the present day.

One hundred years after his birth in 1913, this meeting will examine in more detail the legacy of Jo Grimond, not simply for the modern Liberal Democrats but, more widely, for British politics and political ideas.

Speakers: Dr Peter Sloman (New College, Oxford) on Grimond’s ideas, with a focus on his thinking around the role of the state and free market; Harry Cowie (former Liberal Party Director of Research and speechwriter to Grimond) on the development of policy under Grimond’s leadership; Michael Meadowcroft (Liberal MP for Leeds West 1983–87) on Grimond’s leadership of the Liberal Party, 1956– 67, and its legacy. Chair: William Wallace, Lord Wallace of Saltaire (press assistant to Jo Grimond during the 1966 general election).

7.00pm, Monday 10 June (following the History Group AGM at 6.30pm) Lady Violet Room, National Liberal Club, 1 Whitehall Place, SW1A 2HE

in which the distinctive Scot- to Ireland in 1877 (his only Other chapters consider Irish Times (representative of tish religious allegiances were substantial visit to the island). an eclectic range of aspects of moderate Irish protestant opin- recognised within the Union. This highlights the combina- Gladstone’s career, from Devon ion) towards Gladstone, I am Similarly, Irish land reform tion of political virtue admired McHugh’s discussion of how less convinced that this was ‘a and home rule were intended by Gladstone’s supporters with female relationships within rediscovery of Protestant pat- to permit the landed class on the opportunism of which his the extended Gladstone fam- riotism and liberalism’. Given the island to resume a position opponents constantly suspected ily helped to smooth over that resistance to home rule had of political leadership and to him. The visit, ostensibly a pri- political tensions, through to actually led to something rather ‘provide the needed focus for vate one, turned into a very Quentin Broughall’s discus- worse from a unionist point patriotic feeling within the public affair, culminated in sion of the different influences of view, it seems more likely structure of an ongoing con- Gladstone receiving the Free- of classical studies on Gladstone that this it merely the wisdom stitutional bond with Britain’. dom of the City of Dublin and and Disraeli. Bernard Porter of hindsight – if only they had One could object that at least seizing an opportunity to woo is as thoughtful and provoca- listened to Gladstone, they some of this is conjecture with the Irish vote. McHugh specu- tive as ever in his assessment might have avoided the horrors little direct evidence cited, but lates that Gladstone may have of Gladstone’s relationship of civil war and independence. given Gladstone’s close con- intended this all along: had he with empire, arguing that as a But in this, as in the other top- nections with Scotland (by been received unfavourably by result of the invasion of Egypt ics discussed in this volume, ancestry and through his fam- the Irish public he could have in 1882, he was ‘more respon- there is more work for histori- ily continuing to have estates continued his round of coun- sible for the long, unfortunate ans to do. there) it would be surprising if try house visits. Once given and ultimately self-destructive there were not close similarities the opportunity for political imperialist episode in Britain’s Iain Sharpe completed a Univer- in his attitude to both Unions. advantage, he seized it read- history’ than any other states- sity of London PhD thesis in 2011 By no means all of the essays ily. Commenting on the out- man, including Disraeli. on ‘Herbert Gladstone and Lib- deal with such wide-ranging come of the visit to his Liberal Overall, there is plenty here eral party revival 1899–1905’. He themes: others consider more colleague Lord Granville, to debate, and every reader will is a Liberal Democrat councillor in specific aspects of Gladstone’s Gladstone wrote: ‘I think my find much to agree or disagree Watford. thought and career. Kevin announcement of “strict pri- with. In my case, while I found McKenna discusses Gladstone’s vacy” may … have promoted a Eugenio Biagini fascinating on surprisingly little-studied trip prosperous publicity.’ the changing attitudes of the