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Life with Lloyd George

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Life with Lloyd George LIFE WITH LLOYD GEORGE Even today, more than thirty years after its appearance, Life with Lloyd George (1975), by A. J. Sylvester, Principal Private Secretary to David Lloyd George from 1923, remains a valuable and unique source of information for students of Lloyd George, his life and times – particularly the so-called ‘wilderness years’ of the last phase of his life – and for those interested in his family. Dr J. Graham Jones examines the preparation, publication and impact of the book, drawing on extracts from Sylvester’s diaries between 1931 and 1945. 28 Journal of Liberal History 55 Summer 2007 LIFE WITH LLOYD GEORGE lbert James Syl- an immensely privileged posi- immediate family did and said. vester (1889–1989) tion. By nature he was a com- Originally, Sylvester kept his served as Principal pulsive, habitual note taker, a diary in a group of relatively Private Secretary to practice much facilitated by his small notebooks with black David Lloyd George proficiency in shorthand. From covers, which he crammed Afrom the autumn of 1923 until about 1915 onwards he took to with shorthand. Only members Lloyd George’s death in March recording in some detail the of his closest family were fully 1945.1 A native of Harlaston in seminal, often momentous aware of the nature of their Staffordshire and the son of a events which he witnessed at contents and the secrets which relatively impoverished tenant close quarters. Sometimes he they contained. farmer, he perfected his short- kept a diary. He went to great The detail of the diary is hand and typing skills by attend- pains to record the moves which amazing. It became A. J. Syl- ing evening classes when still led to the selection of Stanley vester’s practice to write up his in his teens, while he spent his Baldwin, rather than Lord Cur- diary late at night as his last task days as a clerk at Charrington’s zon, as Conser vative leader in the before retiring to bed. This was breweries. In 1910, like so many spring of 1923, and he chronicled an undertaking which could be of his generation, he moved in some detail the tempestuous achieved at great speed because to London to seek his fortune, course of Ramsay MacDonald’s of his use of Pitman’s shorthand, holding a variety of jobs before first minority Labour govern- which also provided the diarist in 1915 securing appointment ment of 1923–24. with an element of security. His as a stenographer in the office During these years, however, mastery of shorthand enabled of M. P. A. Hankey (later Lord his diary keeping was at best Sylvester to record speeches, Hankey), who at the time was spasmodic; there were lengthy debates and conversations fully Secretary to the Committee of periods during which no diary verbatim. So, too, did he note Imperial Defence. In 1921 he entries were made. Some years the gist of the numerous tel- left Hankey’s employ to become afterwards, however, newspaper ephone conversations which Private Secretary to Lloyd proprietor Sir George Riddell he had and even the small-talk George, still Prime Minister of (later Lord Riddell) impressed which took place during meals the post-war coalition govern- upon Sylvester that his unique in the Lloyd George household. ment. A short spell under Con- status and position demanded This penchant for minutiae servative premier Andrew Bonar that he should record in detail sometimes extended to not- Law preceded his return to work the events which he was privi- ing what Lloyd George’s guests as PPS to Lloyd George for an leged to witness. It was an wore, ate, drank and smoked. unbroken twenty-two-and-a- argument, buttressed by many Inevitably much of the informa- half years. Sylvester was thus in others, which the devoted PPS tion which Sylvester recorded in a unique position to view Lloyd readily accepted. Consequently his diaries was highly personal George’s public and private life from 1931, Sylvester’s diary is and private. It would seem that, throughout the so-called ‘wil- more or less continuous for as he made his meticulous record derness years’. the next fourteen years. It is an of all he saw and heard in Lloyd Very early in his career A. J. extremely valuable record of A. J. Sylvester and George’s milieu, Sylvester dis- Sylvester realised that he was in all that Lloyd George and his Lloyd George played no inclination of making Journal of Liberal History 55 Summer 2007 29 liFE WITH llOYD GEORGE it available to the world. It was years until 1948 he worked for Although the leader E. Clement Davies who simply his own private record. Express Newspapers on a short- was a personal friend and whose Lloyd George died on 26 term contract with Lord Beaver- terms given work on behalf of the party he March 1945. Within days of brook. At the same time he now greatly admired. During these the old man’s death, his widow felt relatively free to quarry his to Sylvester months he drew on his savings, Frances, now the Dowager extensive diary material and the were by any but such an arrangement could Countess Lloyd-George of more modest personal archive not continue indefinitely. When Dwyfor, made it clear to Syl- of correspondence, papers and standards the Liberal Party hierarchy was vester, the ever-loyal, utterly documents which he had care- unable or unwilling to create a discreet employee for more fully accumulated over the exception- paid position for A. J. Sylvester, than two decades, that she had years, in order to piece together and no other suitable position now resolved to dispense with a semi-biographical volume ally gener- was available, he and his wife his services. Although the terms about his former employer. This ous, the Evelyn moved from their home given to Sylvester were by any was eventually published as The at Putney in London to Chip- standards exceptionally gener- Real Lloyd George by Cassell and course of penham in Wiltshire, where he ous – he was given a full three Co. in the autumn of 1947.2 This had already purchased a substan- years’ salary as severance pay, rather dramatic title was not events still tial piece of agricultural land and he also inherited the sum of reflected in the book’s contents. during the war years. Here he £1,000 under the terms of Lloyd Although it included a revealing came as a was to remain until his death George’s will – the course of account of Lloyd George’s visits complete in October 1989, just over forty events still came as a complete to Hitler at Bechtesgaden in the years later, farming on a fairly shock to him. Any hope which autumn of 1936 and some other shock to him. extensive scale, while retaining he could reasonably have had of episodes of interest, much of the his avid interest in Lloyd George being kept on by Frances to col- volume consisted of domestic and in contemporary political laborate with her in perpetuat- trivia. Above all, the portrait of life. He battled courageously to ing Lloyd George’s good name Lloyd George which emerged overcome the trauma of Evelyn’s and memory (in particular by from a perusal of the book’s 322 death in 1962 and a succession of assisting in the researching and hastily penned pages was dis- serious health problems. writing of a full biography), tinctly unflattering. In his later Lloyd George received a and in working with her on the years Sylvester’s employer had consistently bad press dur- massive archive of papers which become a soured, peevish and ing the twenty years follow- Lloyd George had bequeathed autocratic old man, increas- ing his death, a practice which to her in his will, had been cru- ingly cantankerous and ever Sylvester himself had to some elly dashed. For the first time more prone to vicious temper extent initiated with the publi- in his life, at fifty-five years tantrums which deeply upset cation of The Real Lloyd George of age, A. J. Sylvester, a proud all those in his inner circle. in 1947, and which was perpetu- man, was unemployed. Con- Most of the sensational revela- ated by Richard Lloyd-George sequently, the latent antago- tions about Lloyd George in the (the second earl, who had been nism between him and Frances, original diaries had been either disinherited by his father) in his which had existed from the omitted or toned down in the hostile biography published in beginning, was unleashed. As published work. Just one or two 1960 and in works like Donald long as Lloyd George, a noto- warts remained. Even so Frances McCormick’s The Mask of Mer- riously difficult man, lived, Lloyd-George was incensed that lin, published in 1963. More bal- and both Frances and Sylvester The Real Lloyd George had seen anced Lloyd George biographies remained in his employ, they the light of day before the ‘offi- by Sir Alfred Davies (1947), Dr were forced to work in har- cial biography’ of Lloyd George Thomas Jones (1951) and Frank mony to preserve the peace and by Malcolm Thomson, a work Owen (1954), although arous- mollify the old man. The harsh which was then being prepared ing considerable interest and course of events of the spring of with her full approval and co- some acclaim, failed to stem the 1945, however, meant that Syl- operation and unrestricted generally bad press which Lloyd vester subsequently felt no loy- access to the papers in her sole George attracted.
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