20 Journal of Liberal History 66 Spring 2010 Violet & Clem ‘The Only Purpose Iolet Bonham Carter Car Accident in December 1909
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20 Journal of Liberal History 66 Spring 2010 VIolet & Clem ‘The only purpose iolet Bonham Carter car accident in December 1909. wa s bor n Violet During the terrible carnage of the of politics is the Asquith on 15 April Great War, she lost many of her expression of one’s 1887 in Hampstead, closest friends as well as one of her London, the only brothers. Political problems mul- deepest convictions – Vdaughter and the fourth of the tiplied, too. Her father, who had five children of Herbert Henry succeeded Sir Henry Campbell- and their translation Asquith and his first wife Helen Bannerman as Liberal premier in into facts.’ Lady Violet Kensall, who died prematurely April 1908, was ousted from office of typhoid fever in 1891 when her at the height of the war in Decem- Bonham Carter.1 daughter was only four years of ber 1916 – in Violet’s eyes through age. The following year her father the ‘treachery’ of the conspira- Dr J. Graham became Home Secretary in Glad- torial Lloyd George. Asquith’s Jones examines stone’s last administration, and in subsequent defeat in East Fife, in 1895 he married his second wife, the ‘coupon’ general election of the contentious Margot Tennant, who thereafter December 1918, made his humili- became an important influence in ation complete and convinced his relationship between her step-daughter’s life. Violet’s ever-loyal daughter that she must education (rather like that of her strive to defend his reputation for Clement Davies, leader eventual arch-rival, Lady Megan the rest of her days. She was by of the Liberal Party Lloyd George) was highly infor- this time a married woman: she mal: she was educated at home by had wed Maurice Bonham Carter, 1945–56, and Lady a succession of competent govern- her father’s private secretary, in esses and then ‘finished’ in Dres- 1915, and was to bear him two Violet Bonham Carter, den and Paris. Yet she emerged as daughters and two sons. dutiful daughter of an independent woman of consid- Although Violet served as erable intellect who remained a president of the Women’s Lib- Liberal Prime Minister passionate, committed Liberal for eral Federation in 1923–25, her the rest of her days. In Winston father’s retirement as party leader H. H. Asquith and Violet Bonham Churchill’s memorable phrase, in favour of Lloyd George in 1926 formidable mother-in- Carter she became her father’s ‘champion saw her rather lose interest in (1887–1969) redoubtable’. political life, a tendency which law of Liberal leader Jo and Edward Violet endured much distress became even more marked fol- Clement Davies in her early life. Her first real love, lowing Asquith’s death in 1928. Grimond. (1884–1962) Archie Gordon, died following a She did, however, speak out in Journal of Liberal History 66 Spring 2010 21 violet and clem support of the so-called National ‘the die is Davies, the MP for Montgomer- Liberal MPs still pretentiously Government formed in August yshire since May 1929 who had referred to itself as ‘the Liberal 1931, and was especially virulent cast – I do joined the ranks of the Simonite Shadow Cabinet’. It met for the in her condemnation of the rise Liberal group in 1931, returning first time with Clement Dav- of fascism in Nazi Germany from not feel to the mainstream party fold only ies as party leader in Lord (Her- 1933, criticising most particularly in 1941. As she wrote in her diary bert) Samuel’s room at the House the Nazi persecution of the Jews. exhilarated in February 1944: of Lords on 28 November 1945. Spurred on, and indeed incensed, Davies took the chair at a meet- by the dramatic course of events by the pros- The die is cast – I do not feel ing devoted mainly to a discus- in Germany, she now readily exhilarated by the prospect sion of foreign affairs, notably spoke at Liberal Party meetings pect which which faces me. There are too Palestine, and the atomic bomb. and on election hustings, sav- many lunatics & pathological In Lady Violet’s view, ‘Nothing agely denouncing ‘Hitlerism, faces me. cases in the Party – Clem Dav- very new said or decided. Clem that monstrous portent’ in 1933 ies & [Tom] Horabin [Liberal very “agreeable” & full of blarney and condemning the govern- there are MP for North Cornwall] – to Megan [Lloyd George] – whom ment’s appeasement policies in also rather small people bulk- he had so hotly abused to me! I 1938 as ‘peace at any price that too many ing larger than they deserve can’t understand these Welsh! others can be forced to pay’.2 In lunatics & because of the size of the Party. But perhaps they understand each her view, the ‘collective security’ We badly need an infusion of other!’4 policy embraced by the League pathological new blood.3 As the first female president of Nations was the only route of the party’s organisation, Lady to ‘peace with honour’, a stand cases in the In the general election of July Violet was inevitably in a pivotal which won her the admiration of 1945, she stood unsuccessfully as position. It was the fate of poor her lifelong (if intermittent) friend party …’ the Liberal candidate at Wells, Clem Davies to be caught in the Winston Churchill. predictably coming third. Only crossfire between her and the During the Second World twelve Liberal MPs were returned equally formidable Lady Megan War, Violet’s patriotism resur- to parliament in a general elec- Lloyd George, by now well estab- faced in her work as an air-raid tion which saw the shock defeat lished (since May 1929) as the warden, while she also accepted of party leader Sir Archibald Sin- radical, left-wing Liberal MP for a second stint as president of the clair in Caithness & Sutherland, Anglesey. Both women remained Women’s Liberal Federation. She the constituency which he had ferociously loyal to the good name listened to all the key parliamen- represented continuously since and reputation of their respec- tary debates from the public gal- 1922. Other prominent Liberals, tive fathers. The primary theme lery of the House of Commons, too, failed to secure re-election, of Lady Violet’s published diaries and made strenuous efforts to among them the party’s chief and correspondence is one of crit- reunite the two distinct factions whip Sir Percy Harris, the victim icism and suspicion of Clem Dav- within the Liberal Party born of a powerful Labour challenge in ies and disagreement with the way of the 1931 split (the Samuelite Bethnal Green South-West. he led the Liberal Party. But her Liberals and the Simonite Liber- The shell-shocked Parliamen- unpublished letters in the Clem- als), readily participating in 1943 tary Liberal Party turned to the ent Davies Papers at the National in the ultimately ill-fated ‘unity depressing task of selecting a new Library of Wales, Aberystwyth, negotiations’ as one of the repre- party leader. Very few politicians do provide surprising evidence of sentatives of the mainstream Lib- of national stature remained in mutual support, even occasional eral group. Their eventual failure their ranks. Their choice even- commendation and encourage- distressed her deeply. The follow- tually fell on the little-known ment. Lady Violet was unfailingly ing year she expressed a genuine and somewhat maverick Clement jubilant whenever Davies stood up interest in the Liberal candidature Davies, who was initially elected to the left within the Liberal Party for the Berwick-upon-Tweed as the temporary ‘chairman’ of and when he made sympathetic division caused by the death on the Liberal Party, pending, it was gestures to the Conservative active service in Normandy of the thought, the imminent re-elec- Party. Equally, she disapproved sitting Liberal MP, George Grey, tion of Sinclair in a by-election. strongly of any concession he but she soon sensed that she had Hopes that Sinclair would soon might make to the Labour Party, little in the way of local support return to the Commons were and she often wrote to him to and she then gave her backing to encouraged by the declaration express her contempt in no uncer- the nomination of William Bev- of Gandar Dower (the successful tain terms. Generally, between eridge who was duly elected to Conservative candidate in Caith- 1945 and 1956, her respect for his parliament in October 1944. ness & Sutherland) during the judgement and qualities of leader- Earlier the same year, Violet 1945 election campaign that, if he ship grew considerably, especially Bonham Carter had announced won, he would resign his seat and as he appeared to drift steadily her willingness to run for presi- stand again there following the ever more to the right during his dent of the Liberal Party Organi- defeat of Japan. eleven-year stint as party leader.5 sation. She was not, however, Violet certainly had her doubts The same theme in reverse is evi- encouraged by the state of the about the new leadership; her fun- dent in the relationship between party in 1944. One of the many damental mistrust of Clem Davies Clem Davies and Lady Megan. Liberal MPs who did not gener- had not diminished in the least. For the post-war Liberal Party, ally impress her was E. Clement Interestingly, the tiny group of although it was severely depleted 22 Journal of Liberal History 66 Spring 2010 violet and clem in numbers at Westminster, all possible route to electoral salva- which should not be overlooked, was not total doom and gloom. tion was ‘a deal over seats with the though Megan would never have New Liberals, able and relatively Tories with P.R.