The Lloyd Georges J Graham Jones examines the defections, in the 1950s, of the children of David Lloyd George: Megan to Labour, and her brother Gwilym to the Conservatives. AA breachbreach inin thethe familyfamily
G. thinks that Gwilym will go to the right and she became a cogent exponent of her father’s ‘LMegan to the left, eventually. He wants his dramatic ‘New Deal’ proposals to deal with unem- money spent on the left.’ Thus did Lloyd George’s ployment and related social problems. Although op- trusted principal private secretary A. J. Sylvester posed by a strong local Labour candidate in the per- write in his diary entry for April when dis- son of Holyhead County Councillor Henry Jones in cussing his employer’s heartfelt concern over the fu- the general election of , she secured the votes of ture of his infamous Fund. It was a highly prophetic large numbers of Labour sympathisers on the island. comment. The old man evidently knew his children. In , she urged Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin to welcome the Jarrow marchers, and she battled he- Megan roically (although ultimately in vain) to gain Special Megan Lloyd George had first entered Parliament at Assisted Area Status for Anglesey. Megan’s innate only twenty-seven years of age as the Liberal MP for radicalism and natural independence of outlook Anglesey in the We Can Conquer Unemployment gen- grew during the years of the Second World War, eral election of May , the first women mem- which she saw as a vehicle of social change, espe- ber ever to be elected in Wales. Her maiden speech, cially to enhance welfare reform and the rights of which she did not deliver until April , was a women. She served on an impressive array of war- notably pungent, left-wing peroration in support of time committees within the ministries of Health, the Rural Housing Bill introduced by Ramsay Labour and Supply, while in her close friend MacDonald’s second minority Labour government. Herbert Morrison, the Minister of Supply, invited Almost immediately she had carved out a distinct her to chair the vaunted ‘Women against Waste’ niche for herself as an independent minded, highly campaign. She also pressed for increased agricultural individualistic member with unfailingly strong radi- production and for more effective organisation of cal, even labourite, leanings — to the acclaim of her the Women’s Land Army. famous father. When the so-called National Gov- All these activities served to activate her indig- ernment was formed in August , Megan be- enous labourism, as did her unqualified welcome for came one of the tiny group of Lloyd Georgeite ‘in- the proposals of the Beveridge Report and her dependent Liberals’ and was, in this guise, comfort- membership of the Central Housing Advisory ably re-elected to the Commons in the general elec- Committee established to coordinate post-war tions of and . In the former campaign she housing construction. In the first ever ‘Welsh Day’ had fiercely opposed MacDonald’s plans to axe pub- debate held in October , which she herself was lic spending, and she appealed for job creation, most privileged to open, Megan’s rousing speech called notably in the port of Holyhead where unemploy- for the reconstruction of the public industries — ment ran at perilously high levels. Even in the early coal, steel, electricity and forestry — and she insisted s there were persistent (if unconfirmed) ru- that the full employment achieved by the exigencies mours that she was likely to join the Labour Party as of war should continue in the post-war world. She she frequently urged cooperation between the Lib- had clearly drifted far to the left of mainstream, eral and Labour Parties, and it is possible that it was moderate Liberal thinking and she voiced concern only her overwhelming loyalty to her father which over the policies which her party might embrace kept her true to the Liberal faith. when peace came. Together with colleagues like In the – Parliament, Megan continued to (Sir) Dingle Foot, she urged that the Liberals should press for an expansionary economic approach to align themselves unambiguously on the left, reject- tackle the problem of the ‘intractable million’ long- ing out of hand any possibility of an alliance with term, structural, unemployed, and in the spring of the Simonite Liberal Nationals.
34 Journal of Liberal Democrat History 25: Winter 1999–2000 Most surprisingly, in the general elec- sonal friend of both Clement Attlee and destine negotiations with Herbert tion of , Megan was relieved of Herbert Morrison and was on especially Morrison to prepare the ground for a Conservative opposition on Anglesey amicable terms with the close-knit ‘Lib-Lab pact’. Then, in November, (one of five Liberal MPs in Wales to re- group of women Labour MPs, one of matters came to a head when Megan ceive this stroke of good fortune) and whom was to recall, ‘Megan was a great and three followers – Foot, Roberts and she faced only a sole Labour opponent favourite in the Labour women’s Parlia- Philip Hopkins – staged a revolt inside in the person of Flying Officer Cledwyn ment of ; we looked on her as one the Liberal Party, threatening to join Hughes (now Lord Cledwyn of of us’. Her close relationship with La- Labour immediately and causing Penrhos), a Holyhead solicitor then on bour MP Philip Noel-Baker also Clement Davies seriously to consider leave from the RAF. Local rumours that brought her closer to the left. She was resigning as party leader. Eventually the she had made a pact with the Anglesey vehemently critical of local electoral storm blew over, and the fractious party Conservatives were totally unfounded pacts between the Liberal and Con- remained intact, but Megan remained as it was Hughes who seemed to reap servative parties and she frequently at- obsessed with what she insisted was a the benefit of a two-concerned fight. tacked what she considered to be Clem- distinct ‘drift to the Right in the Liberal ‘Unless Liberalism is the dominating ent Davies’ right-wing stand. As early as Party — a drift away from the old radi- force in the next House of Commons’ December she had spoken out in cal tradition’, and with what she re- asserted Megan, ‘We shan’t get peace, defence of the nationalisation pro- garded as Clement Davies’ weak-kneed good houses or work’, subsequently gramme of the Labour government: ‘We leadership — ‘There is no telling what claiming that ‘the Liberal Party [had] the are not afraid of public control of coal, Davies will say or do next’. When the most practical policy for social security transport, electricity and water’, and a next parliamentary session began in in the famous Beveridge Plan’. In the year later she was the only Liberal MP to November, Megan was predictably event her majority was unexpectedly defy the party whip by supporting the outspoken at a meeting of the Liberal axed to ,, only twelve Liberals MPs government’s Transport Bill. Party Committee — ‘The Liberal ship were re-elected to Westminster (seven of Persistent rumours that Lady Megan is listing to the right and almost sunk these from Wales) and Megan was sud- was on the point of joining the Labour beneath the waves’. denly compelled to re-assess her political Party intensified during and . When the ‘frustrating and frustrated position. Congratulating her constitu- Describing her as ‘the only … radical Parliament’ elected in February ents on remaining firm in the midst of left in the Liberal Party’ influential was compelled to go to the country in the ‘Socialist avalanche’, she declared, north Wales trades union leader Huw T. the autumn of the following year, Lady ‘My faith in Liberalism and its future re- Edwards implored her to ‘move left’ in Megan faced yet another extremely mains unchanged’. But the nub of her November , and Herbert close three-cornered fight in Anglesey. new-found dilemma was this: how Morrison in particular urged her to Cledwyn Hughes fought the seat for the should the self-confessed Labourite change her political allegiance. Small third general election in succession and radical respond to a landslide Labour wonder that Clement Davies appointed local Conservatives had secured a nota- government firmly entrenched in power her deputy leader of the Liberal Party bly strong contender in O. Meurig and determined to enact its own left- in January , a move undoubtedly Roberts who launched hard hitting per- wing legislative programme? designed to restrict her freedom of ma- sonal attacks in Megan – ‘True Liberals Following the Liberal Party’s near noeuvre. Even in her new position, in Anglesey are not at present repre- decimation at the polls in , and the she underlined her party’s need for a sented by any candidate’ – while the unexpected defeat of party leader Sir ‘true Radical programme’ adding performance of the Liberal Party within Archibald Sinclair in Caithness and somewhat impudently, ‘of course that the House of Commons marked them Sutherland, E. Clement Davies, the lit- means shedding our Right Wing’. out, he claimed, as ‘a very small party tle-known former Simonite MP for Generally, Davies and his chief whip which cannot even agree among them- Montgomeryshire (like Megan, a vet- Frank Byers failed conspicuously to selves.’ It was suggested that Lady eran MP first elected in ) was cho- create a united front within the Liberal Megan, like Emrys Roberts and Edgar sen as party ‘chairman’ by the twelve re- Party during the years of the Attlee ad- Granville, had been singled out for spe- maining MPs. Lady Megan Lloyd ministrations. cial attention by the Tories because of George, after just about the only In the general election of , their general support for the Labour popular national figure within the party Megan surprisingly increased her ma- government. In the event, a substantial still an MP, had suddenly become ‘a mi- jority in Anglesey to , votes. Now upsurge in the Conservative poll in An- nority radical in a minority Party’, there were no more than nine Liberal glesey deprived Megan of victory by whose new-found role was to attempt to MPs in the Commons, five of them in votes. At last Cledwyn Hughes had suc- thwart Davies’ strong inclinations to veer Wales. In May, she and Dingle Foot co- ceeded in capturing the seat. For Megan his party sharply to the right. Entering authored a lengthy memorandum pro- it was a severe personal blow as she had the House of Commons in , Jo testing against the internal organisation been more confident of re-election than Grimond found her ‘perpetually young, of the Liberal Party. Together with in . Reflecting on her ignominious perpetually unfulfilled’ and yet ‘nervous Emrys Roberts (Merionethshire) they defeat to Liberal elder statesman Lord and idle’. She had become a close per- were simultaneously engaged in clan- Samuel, she wrote, ‘There is no doubt that
Journal of Liberal Democrat History 25: Winter 1999–2000 35 Eventually, in No- Gaitskell in the party’s final election vember , Megan broadcast on May, and she was after- Lloyd George refused wards accused of a tendency to ‘hog the an invitation to stand mike’ repeatedly. again as Liberal candi- Throughout the campaign Labour date for Anglesey, assert- made much of its distinguished new re- ing that she had ‘latterly cruit, who duly penned a column for been disturbed by the the ‘party platform’ election series pub- pronounced tendency lished by the Daily Mail, and contrib- of the official Liberal uted items to an array of local newspa- Party to drift towards pers during the run-up to the poll. the Right’. She also During the closing two weeks of the tendered her resignation election campaign Megan spoke every as deputy leader of the day to enthusiastic audiences wherever David and Megan Lloyd George in 1923 party. The radical wing she went — ‘They call me the wild of the Liberal Party now woman of Wales. The Liberal Party left a substantial number of Liberals voted had no MPs and was consequently un- me, not the other way about’. To ry. The truth is that I am too left for able to mount an effective challenge to Lady Megan herself returned to the the modern Liberal taste’. For the first what it regarded as Clement Davies’ Commons in November as the time since no member of the Lloyd uninspiring leadership. Edgar Granville Labour MP for Carmarthenshire in a George family represented a Welsh con- had thrown in his lot with Labour in by-election caused by the death of vet- stituency in Parliament. January . Megan wavered as eran Liberal Sir Rhys Hopkin Morris. Predictably, feverish speculation im- gave way to , displaying what the She captured the seat by a majority of mediately surrounded Lady Megan’s press dubbed a ‘tactful – or tactical – more than , votes and increased future political intentions. Many ob- coyness’, and ‘sphinx-like silence.’ She her majority in the general elections of servers asked the same questions as mat have hesitated because of the diffi- , and .The outcome of Gwilym Roberts — ‘What is going to culty of finding a suitable seat in Eng- the by-election reduced the be Lady Megan’s political future? Will land and because entering the faction- number of Liberal MPs to five, and this she stick to the Liberal Party or will she racked Labour Party of the early s represented the nadir of the party’s for- join Labour?’ Initially, a buoyant – divided rigidly into Bevanites and tunes as it faced stagnant local organisa- Megan told the local press, ‘ I am not of Gaitskellites – was an unappealing pros- tion, hopelessly inadequate financial re- retiring age nor of a retiring disposi- pect. During , however, conversa- sources, a total of only thirty paid tion. I am ready for the next fight tions with Attlee persuaded Megan that agents in the whole of Britain and a whenever it comes.’ As she was the the Labour Party was now the essential woeful lack of radical and progressive president of the tenacious Parliament voice of British radicalism, and in April policies. Former Liberal MPs Dingle for Wales campaign, there was consider- she announced that she had re- Foot and Wilfred Roberts also went able speculation that she might join solved to join the party: ‘The official over to Labour during , while Plaid Cymru. In December, together Liberal Party seems to me to have lost all Emrys Roberts retired (permanently as with her sister, Lady Olwen Carey- touch with the Radical tradition that in- it so happened) from political life. Evans, she left on a tour of the USA and spired it … There is a common attitude As Labour MP for Carmarthenshire Canada, telling Anglesey Liberals, ‘I of mind and thought between Radicals for the last nine and a half years of her would sooner go down with my and Labour’. life (she died prematurely in May ), limehouse colours flying than abandon Although her conversion took place Megan may have found herself some- my radical principles … I have fought a too late for her to fight a seat for La- what hamstrung, missing her former good fight and I have kept my faith. bour in the general election of May freedom as the highly independent That is the only important thing in , Megan was immediately bom- backbench Liberal member for Angle- public life. My conscience is perfectly barded with scores of insistent requests sey, and sometimes feeling a little ill at clear’. Some commentators conjec- to speak throughout the length and ease representing a division with a sig- tured that she might stand as a Liberal breadth of the United Kingdom. It was nificant industrial base. She became un- again in Anglesey or perhaps contest a widely felt within the Labour Party that comfortable, too, at her new party’s by-election in an English constitu- any prospect of electoral success de- marked reluctance to embrace a worth- ency. James Callaghan (Cardiff South) pended on winning over disillusioned while measure of devolution for Wales. urged her to return to the Commons: former Liberals. In Welsh constituencies It is possible, moreover, that her rela- ‘But you must come back as a member in particular, she may have brought tively late entry into the Labour Party of our party. First because we are right large numbers of ‘radical Liberals’ into meant that she was never offered a min- about the malaise and the remedies for the Labour fold. Lady Megan appeared isterial position or even the opportu- the twentieth century. Secondly, be- alongside Herbert Morrison, Jim nity to speak from the opposition front cause there is no other way back.’ Callaghan and party leader Hugh bench.
36 Journal of Liberal Democrat History 25: Winter 1999–2000 Gwilym Although he remained intensely loyal jor Price received the stock letter of to his father during the harsh vicissitudes support of Herbert Samuel, leader of Megan’s elder brother Gwilym was the second son and the fourth child of which beset the Parliamentary Liberal the mainstream group of Liberal MPs. David and Margaret Lloyd George. Hav- Party during the lifetime of the second Both Gwilym Lloyd George and Price ing attained the rank of major while in Labour government, in early September were contesting the constituency for command of a battery of artillery on the , the wake of the formation of the the fourth successive general election – Somme and at Passchendaele during the National Government, Gwilym (con- a unique record – and perhaps it was First World War, he became closely in- trary to press speculation) accepted the only the eleventh-hour withdrawal of volved with his father’s career during the position of parliamentary secretary to the Labour aspirant which enabled years of the post-war Coalition govern- the Board of Trade, his first ministerial Gwilym to hold on by a majority of ment, attending the peace confer- appointment. ‘Gwilym is to be offered a just over , votes. ences and displaying an avid interest in post today’ wrote Lloyd George to his All four Lloyd George Liberals were foreign affairs. In he entered the wife at the end of August, ‘He was very in fact re-elected in October and House of Commons as the Coalition disinclined to take it. I offered no opinion, again in November . Throughout Liberal MP for Pembrokeshire in a but I am expecting to hear from him. the s Gwilym was generally loyal to straight fight with Labour at a time Unemployment & trade figures getting his father’s domestic and foreign policies, worse. It is a dreary prospect for the new warmly embracing his dynamic ‘New when his father’s writ certainly still ran in rural Wales. He held on to the seat in a Gov[ernment]’. Margaret was more Deal’ proposals during the spring and positive — ‘We were delighted about summer of . Yet father and son did three-cornered contest in , soon becoming a junior Liberal whip during G[wilym]’. It may well be that Lloyd not enjoy the same kind of rapport as the brief lifetime of the first minority George, although disapproving, was re- Lloyd George shared with Megan. Labour government. luctant to veto his ambitious son’s first When Gwilym’s wife, Edna, informed In , however, Gwilym was de- prospect of office. At the same time, her father-in-law in November that ‘the feated by the Conservative Major Charles Gwilym’s brother-in-law Major Goron- result would be very close in Price, a Haverfordwest solicitor and wy Owen (Liberal, Caernarfonshire) ac- Pembrokeshire’, Lloyd George, ‘annoyed county councillor, who had also stood cepted the position of Comptroller of with her’, responded simply by ‘literally the Household. pump[ing] optimism into him over the the previous year. In the wake of his de- feat, his father (while privately accusing When, however, in early October, telephone’. On polling day, his princi- him of indolence) made him managing- Ramsay MacDonald announced his pal private secretary A. J. Sylvester noted director of United Newspapers (which government’s intention of going to the in his diary, ‘He showed little concern country, both Gwilym and Owen for Gwilym, who is the one in diffi- included the Daily Chronicle) and a junior trustee of the infamous National Liberal promptly resigned from the govern- culty’. At the same time the old man Political Fund accumulated during the ment, after only five weeks in office. had spared no effort to buttress Megan’s years of post-war Coalition government. Gwilym followed his father’s line, as- election campaign in Anglesey, even ad- At this point Gwilym remained very serting that the sudden dissolution dressing huge open-air audiences at much in the mainstream of the Liberal meant ‘that the Conservatives [had] Llangefni and Holyhead. In the event Party, which he was anxious to re-build, been successful in stampeding the Megan’s majority was and and sought to regain his Pembrokeshire country into a rash and ill-timed gen- Gwilym’s a wafer-thin . constituency. Somewhat unexpectedly eral election from which they hope to Yet in the following summer Gwilym (in the wake of an announcement, only snatch a party majority. This will enable accompanied his father on his infamous two days before the dissolution of Parlia- them … to enact the full Tory pro- visit to Hitler at Berchtesgarden. He re- gramme of protectionist tariffs’. The mained one of the trustees of the Lloyd ment, that an air base was to be estab- lished at Pembroke Dock, news of which decision to appeal to the electorate was, George Fund and was to some extent he insisted, ‘a discreditable manoeuvre dwarfed in stature by the name of his fa- was certain to enhance the prospects of Major Price, the sitting Conservative by the Tory Party’. Urged by party mous father and more mercurially dy- MP), Gwilym recaptured the division in chief whip Ramsay Muir to reconsider, namic sister, Megan. Gwilym (‘takes af- May , joining his father and newly Gwilym showed his draft resignation ter his mother … quite straight’) lacked elected sister Megan at Westminster. This letter to his father who only then indi- bravado, was sometimes accused of iner- made Lloyd George ‘the first man to have cated his heartfelt approval of his son’s tia and apathy, and was known within his a son and daughter with him in the decision. Together with father, sister constituency as ‘Ask my Dad’ after a suc- House of Commons.’ Even the defeated Megan and Goronwy Owen, he cession of embarrassingly evasive replies To ry leader Stanley Baldwin was said to formed a curious Lloyd Georgeite at political meetings. In his account of rejoice in the unprecedented success of splinter group of Independent Liberals Lloyd George’s activities, Sylvester wrote the Lloyd George dynasty, while com- who took their place alongside the La- in his diary in October , ‘He is not menting, ‘I like Gwilym; he takes after his bour MPs on the opposition benches, quite certain of the attitude of some of mother’. Gwilym was in fact to remain the only Liberals initially ranged in op- the family at the moment, particularly MP for Pembrokeshire until . position to the National Government. Gwilym, whom L.G thinks has got a In Pembrokeshire, Tory contender Ma- swelled head’.
Journal of Liberal Democrat History 25: Winter 1999–2000 37 At the outbreak of the Second World tional minimum wage for working Churchill’s broadcast on June, ‘Be- War, Gwilym returned to his former miners. Perhaps it was only Churchill’s tween us and the orthodox Socialists position as Parliamentary Secretary to personal veto which blocked the out- there is a great doctrinal gulf which the Board of Trade, strikingly the only right nationalisation of the coal indus- yawns and gapes … There is no such gulf Liberal to join Chamberlain’s pseudo- try and Lloyd-George’s ambitious pro- between the Conservative and National coalition government which now in- posals to convert the electricity supply Government I have formed and the Lib- cluded Churchill and Eden. He served industry into a public corporation. erals. There is scarcely a Liberal senti- amicably in this position under Cham- Gwilym Lloyd-George was now a ment which animated the great Liberal berlain and Churchill until February political figure of some importance. It leaders of the past which we do not in- when he became Parliamentary had been proposed in that he herit and defend’. So consistent was Secretary to the Ministry of Food un- might become Viceroy of India and in- Gwilym’s support for the Conservatives der Lord Woolton. These offers may tense rumours circulated in that he that in the Liberal whip was finally have been made to conciliate his father was about to be chosen Speaker of the withdrawn from him. (who was by now too old for high of- House of Commons. Sylvester recorded In his public speeches, Gwilym fice) by whose outmoded ranting ora- on March, ‘The Speaker is very ill. Last Lloyd-George now insisted that no ma- tory Gwilym himself confessed to be- Friday I went to see Gwilym at the Min- jor policy issues divided the Liberals ing embarrassed. In June , he was istry of Food and ascertained from him and the Conservatives, and that, to both promoted to the new position of Min- that he was definitely interested in the parties, the battle against the ‘socialist ister of Fuel and Power where he re- Speakership, and that if it were offered to menace to liberty’ was paramount. mained for more than three years until him he would certainly take it. I am do- Asquith’s daughter, Lady Violet the dissolution of the Coalition at the ing a lot of propaganda on his behalf’. Bonham-Carter, reported coyly to termination of hostilities. Sylvester At the end of the war it was noticeable Gwilym’s sister Megan at the end of noted in his diary for October : that he did not follow the Labour men , ‘Gwilym is speaking with Harold and the other Liberals out of the govern- Macmillan etc.’ During the February Gwilym opened the debate on coal and did exceedingly well. He was very con- ment in advance of the election. In the general election campaign, he ap- fident in his manner and made a good general election of , now standing peared on Conservative platforms even impression on the House. At two in Pembrokeshire as a ‘National Liberal in constituencies where Liberal candi- o’clock, whilst L.G, Megan and I were and Conservative’ (and relieved of Tory dates were standing and he was publicly at lunch, Gwilym joined us. L.G. said to opposition) he was disowned by the him: ‘However worried you were, it was narrowly re-elected Liberal Party. nothing like what I felt’. I must say that ‘Politicians are like L.G. looked the part too, as he sat on by votes. Even ‘Gwilym has the front opposition bench. With his so, he appears to monkeys. They higher caused us a lot of eyes and mouth open, he was terribly have been offered they climb, the more worry’ party leader het up all the time Gwilym was speak- by Sir Archibald Clement Davies la- ing. During the whole of lunch an end- Sinclair the leader- revolting are the parts mented wearily to less number of MPs came up to con- gratulate L.G. on Gwilym’s speech say- ship of the small they expose.’ his predecessor, Sir ing that he must feel a proud father. L.G band of Liberal Archibald seemed really pleased. MPs, immediately Sinclair. The La- In his new post Lloyd-George (his use refusing the offer because of the onerous bour Party targeted highly marginal incidental expenses which the position Pembrokeshire as one of its most likely of the hyphen was significant), display- ing unfailing tact and professional com- would entail. He also turned down the wins, soon increasing its representation chairmanship of the National Liberal in local government in the county and petence. He made a vital contribution to the war effort, encouraging the min- Party at the same time, and, when the bringing in party heavyweights like ers to produce ever-increasing supplies new House assembled and Churchill of- Clement Attlee and Aneurin Bevan to of coal (required for both the war in- fered him a place on the opposition woo the local electorate. The ploy suc- dustries and domestic heating) and per- front bench, he insisted he could sit only ceeded as Desmond Donnelly narrowly suading consumers to exercise rigid as a Liberal. ‘And what the hell else toppled Gwilym by votes in . should you sit as?’ was Churchill’s char- Gwilym ventured north in search of economy in its use — thus winning the ‘battle of the gap’ in the sphere of fuel acteristically belligerent response. It a safer haven, eventually securing the supplies. He also inaugurated a far- soon became apparent, however, that ‘National Liberal and Conservative’ reaching reorganisation of the industry, Gwilym was supporting the Conserva- nomination for Newcastle-upon-Tyne setting up a National Coal Board to tives and seemed to enjoy a warm rap- North where he won comfortably in proffer him advice on wartime regula- port with Churchill, who, as a former — with Churchill’s support and Liberal himself, had genuinely regretted in spite of an Independent Conserva- tion. Collaborating with Labourite Ernest Bevin, the Minister of Labour, the departure of all the other Liberal tive rival. He offered himself to his he helped to establish the ‘Bevin Boy’ ministers from his Coalition govern- new electorate as ‘a firm opponent of scheme to increase the labour force in ment in the spring of . Gwilym Socialism and a supporter of the Con- the coal mines and to institute a na- would no doubt have eagerly endorsed servative policy’ and making an especial
38 Journal of Liberal Democrat History 25: Winter 1999–2000 appeal to traditional Liberals: ‘A word quite independent of his famous father. 20 Holyhead and Anglesey Mail , 19 October 1951 to Liberals. The old antagonism be- A convivial, popular and respected col- 21 The Times, 24 October 1951 22 See House of Lords Record Office, Herbert tween Liberals and Conservatives has league, he made friends in all political Samuel Papers A/155/xiii/161, Megan Lloyd lost its meaning today. I can find no es- parties, and his ‘move to the right’ was George to Samuel, 9 November 1951 sential difference between them in never especially resented in political cir- 23 Ibid 24 Liverpool Daily Post, 27 October 1951 policy and outlook, while both are fun- cles. He displayed administrative compe- 25 North Wales Chronicle, 2 November 1951 damentally opposed to Socialism, the tence in several government depart- 26 Western Mail, 27 October 1951 deadly enemy of Liberalism and Free- ments, and his work at the Ministry of 27 Liverpool Daily Post, 7 December 1951 28 Ibid dom. The first duty of Liberals in this Fuel and Power during – , build- 29 NLW MS 22752C, f 38, James Callaghan to election is the defeat of Socialism’. ing up and conserving the nation’s en- Megan Lloyd George, 31 December 1951 His return to the Commons coincided ergy supplies, was a major contribution 30 Gregynog Hall, Newtown, Liberal Party of with Megan’s defeat in Anglesey. to the success of the Allied war effort. Wales archive, Megan Lloyd George to W Schubert Jones, 5 November 1952. Churchill, evidently fully aware of his Upon attaining the position of Home 31 Columns from the Guardian and Western Mail administrative acumen and tactful ap- Secretary, he made the memorable com- cited in Jones, A Radical Life p 238 proach, immediately re-appointed ment, ‘Politicians are like monkeys. They 32 Cited ibid p 248 33 D E Butler, The British General Election of 1955 Lloyd-George to the sensitive position higher they climb, the more revolting are (London, 1955) p 61 of Minister of Food, where until the parts they expose’ — a strange re- 34 Cited in Jones, A Radical Life p 249 he cautiously presided over the gradual mark from a Conservative Home Secre- 35 Liverpool Post and Mercury, 3 June 1929. See also Frances Lloyd George, The Years that are withdrawal of food rationing (which he tary and one who was the son of the Past (London, 1967) p 221 himself had helped to implement dur- arch-monkey himself. Yet Gwilym had 36 Cited in A H Booth, British Hustings, 1924– ing the war) and made economies in himself succeeded in climbing the 1950 (London, 1956) p 90 the bill for food imports. greasy pole of political life without for- 37 NLW MS 20,440D, no 1872, D Lloyd George to Margaret Lloyd George, ‘Wednesday’ [26 Au- In October , Churchill pro- feiting the respect and friendship of fel- gust 1931]. moted Lloyd-George to be Home Sec- low politicians or the goodwill and ad- 38 House of Lords Record Office, Lloyd George retary and (the largely nominal) Minister miration of the British people. Papers I/I/3/22, MLG to DLG, 3 September 1931. for Welsh Affairs. Ironically, when the J. Graham Jones is an assistant Archivist at 39 The Times, 9 October 1931 monster petition of the Parliament for 40 Cited in his obituary ibid., 15 February 1967 the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth, Wales campaigners of the early fifties was 41 Roy Douglas, The History of the Liberal Party, currently responsible for the Welsh Political 1895–1970 (London, 1971) presented to parliament by the move- Archive. He is the author of A Pocket 42 Life with Lloyd George, p 134 diary entry for 6 ment’s indefatigable president, Lady Guide: The History of Wales () and November 1935 Megan Lloyd George, in , she 43 Ibid., p 135, diary entry for 14 November 1935 several articles on late nineteenth and twen- placed it in the hands of her brother. 44 See the News Chronicle, 2 November 1935, tieth century politics. where Gwilym estimated that the not insignifi- Under Anthony Eden, Lloyd-George cant sum of £100,000 had been expended on piloted through the House of Com- 1 Colin Cross (ed.), Life with Lloyd George: the the election campaign from the Lloyd George mons the Homicide Act, a measure diary of A J Sylvester, 1931–1945 (London, Political Fund. The same point is made in Frank 1975) pp 206–207. Owen, Tempestuous Journey: Lloyd George, which somewhat modified the severity 2 See J Graham Jones, ‘Lady Megan’s first parlia- his life and times (London, 1954), p 692 of the law in murder cases. He generally mentary contest: the Anglesey election of 45 Life with Lloyd George, p 206 diary entry for 14 resisted the growing pressure for the 1929’, Transactions of the Anglesey Antiquar- April 1938. But cf. Owen op. Cit., p 694, ‘As a ian Society and Field Club, 1992, pp 107–122 rule, they got on splendidly, for Gwilym could abolition of capital punishment follow- 3 Evening News, 18 June 1945 calm the old man out of his most typhonic rage ing the public outcry over the infamous 4 North Wales Chronicle, 27 July 1945 by a funny story, delightfully acted’. Timothy Evans case, arguing for its re- 5 See the reports in the Holyhead Mail for June 46 Life with Lloyd George, p 304 and July 1945 tention as a deterrent and as a statement 47 Ibid.’ p 312–313, diary entry for 1 March 1943 6 Jo Grimond, Memoirs (London, 1979) p 149 48 Douglas, op. Cit. P 249 of society’s ‘moral revulsion for murder.’ 7 See NLW MS 20,475C, Atlee to Megan Lloyd 49 See his obituary notice in the Guardian 15 Feb- When Macmillan succeeded Eden in George, 4 September 1948 and 10 March 1949 ruary 1967 Lloyd George was unceremoni- 8 Jean Mann, Women In Parliament (London, 50 Cited in Douglas op. cit. P 249 1962) p 21 51 Cited in C Cooke, Sir Winston Churchill: a self- ously shunted off to the House of Lords 9 Caernarvon and Denbigh Herald, 7 December portrait (London, 1954) p 199 as the first Viscount Tenby. He accepted 1945 52 NLW MS 20475, no 3168, VB-C to MLG, 17 No- his fate with characteristic good grace 10 News Chronicle 20 December 1946 vember 1947 11 Liverpool Daily Post, 12 December 1948 53 NLW Clement Davies Papers J3/11, Sir and humour, and jested that the title 12 The Observer, 2 January 1949 Archibald Sinclair to Davies, 9 January 1950. I should have been ‘Stepaside’. Among the 13 The Times, 22 January 1949 am most grateful to Mr Stanley Clement-Davies wide array of public offices which Lord 14 Western Morning News, 12 January 1949 of London for his kind permission to consult his 15 House of Lords Record Office, Herbert Samuel Tenby filled during the last decade of his father’s papers. Papers A/130(30) 54 Ibid. J3/10, Davies to Sinclair, 6 January 1950 life were president of University Col- 16 Cited in Robert Pitman, What happened to the 55 See D Butler, The British General Election of lege, Swansea and chairman of the Liberals (Tribune pamphlet, 1951) 1951 (London, 1952) pp 93–94 Council on Tribunals. 17 Cited in Mervyn Jones, A Radical Life: the Biogra- 56 Election address of Gwilym Lloyd-George, 25 phy of Megan Lloyd George (London, 1991) p 213 October 1951 Gwilym Lloyd-George, Viscount 18 Cited ibid, p 214 57 Cited in Andrew Sweeting, ‘Gwilym Lloyd- Tenby, succeeded in carving out a dis- 19 The phrase is that used by Harold Macmillan, George, Viscount Tenby’ in Brack et al (ed) Dic- tinct niche for himself in political life, Tides of Fortune (London, 1969) p 352 tionary of Liberal Biography (London, 1998)
Journal of Liberal Democrat History 25: Winter 1999–2000 39