For the study of Liberal, SDP and Issue 57 / Winter 2007–08 / £6.00 Liberal Democrat history

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The greatest Liberal Duncan Brack and Graham Lippiatt The greatest Liberal John Stuart Mill Richard Reeves Learning the lessons of history John Stuart Mill and politics today Kenneth O. Morgan Lloyd George’s loyalist Biography of John Herbert Lewis MP Barry Dackombe A fine and disinterested spirit Biography of Aneurin Williams MP Ian Millsted Man of mystery Biography of John Creasey Liberal Democrat History Group 2 Journal of Liberal History 57 Winter 2007–08 Journal of Liberal History Issue 57: Winter 2007–08 The Journal of Liberal History is published quarterly by the Liberal Democrat History Group. ISSN 1479-9642 The greatest Liberal: John Stuart Mill 4 Editor: Duncan Brack Tom McNally, Paddy Ashdown, Richard Reeves and Kenneth Morgan put Assistant Editor: Lysianne Egan forward their candidates for the the title of greatest Liberal: Keynes, Gladstone, Biographies Editor: Robert Ingham Mill and Lloyd George. Report by Duncan Brack and Graham Lippiatt. Reviews Editor: Dr Eugenio Biagini Deputy Reviews Editor: Tom Kiehl Learning the lessons of history: John Stuart Mill 16 Patrons and politics today Dr Eugenio Biagini; Professor Michael Freeden; What would Mill make of today’s politicians? By Richard Reeves. Professor John Vincent Lloyd George’s Flintshire loyalist 18 Editorial Board The political achievement of John Herbert Lewis MP; by Kenneth O. Morgan. Dr Malcolm Baines; Dr Roy Douglas; Dr Barry Doyle; Dr David Dutton; Professor David Gowland; Dr Richard Grayson; Dr Michael Hart; Peter Hellyer; Dr Alison Letters to the Editor 31 Holmes; Ian Hunter; Dr J. Graham Jones; Tony Little; Lloyd George’s school (Graham Lippiatt); Prime Ministers’ wives (Sandy Professor Ian Machin; Dr Mark Pack; Dr Ian Packer; Dr Waugh) John Powell; Jaime Reynolds; Dr Andrew Russell; Iain Sharpe Old heroes for a new leader 32 Editorial/Correspondence Liberal Democrat leadership contenders’ political heroes; by Nick Clegg MP Contributions to the Journal – letters, articles, and and MP. book reviews – are invited. The Journal is a refereed publication; all articles submitted will be reviewed. A fine and disinterested spirit 34 Contributions should be sent to: Barry Dackombe examines the life and activities of Aneurin Williams MP. Duncan Brack (Editor) 38 Salford Road, SW2 4BQ email: [email protected] Man of mystery: John Creasey 42 Ian Millsted reviews the life of John Creasey, Liberal candidate and author of All articles copyright © Journal of Liberal History. almost 600 books. Advertisements Reviews 47 Full page £100; half page £60; quarter page £35. Discounts available for repeat ads or offers to readers Tregidga (ed.), Killerton, Camborne and Westminster: The Political Correspondence (e.g. discounted book prices). To place ads, please of Sir Francis and Lady Acland, 1910–29, reviewed by Richard Toye; Moore, The contact the Editor. Transformation of Urban Liberalism, reviewed by Iain Sharpe; Hughes, , reviewed by Dr J. Graham Jones. 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. The institutional rate is £30.00. Non-UK subscribers should add £5.00.

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Payment is also possible via our website, www.liberalhistory.org.uk Liberal Democrat History Group The Liberal Democrat History Group promotes the discussion and research of topics Cover design concept: Lynne Featherstone relating to the histories of the Liberal Democrats, Liberal Party, and SDP, and of Liberalism. The Group organises discussion meetings and produces the Journal and other occasional Published by the Liberal Democrat History Group, publications. c/o 38 Salford Road, London SW2 4BQ 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 8DL www.liberalhistory.org.uk. January 2008 Chair: Tony Little Honorary President: Lord Wallace of Saltaire

Journal of Liberal History 57 Winter 2007–08 3 So who was the greatest Liberal, as voted for by History Group members and Liberal Democrats at the autumn party conference? By the Greatest Liberal: now, you know the winner was John Stuart Mill but when the packed hustings meeting at Brighton gathered to hear the candidates’ champions, John Stuart Mill the question was very much still an open one. The meeting was one of the best the History Group has ever organised, not least because the speakers showed an enjoyable readiness to attack each other’s choices, as well as defend their own. In order that readers who were not present can enjoy it to the full, the report below reproduces the speeches more or less verbatim, including interjections and asides. Report of fringe meeting, 19 September 2007, Brighton, by Duncan Brack and Graham Lippiatt.

4 Journal of Liberal History 57 Winter 2007–08 the Greatest Liberal: John Stuart Mill

our candidates were relevance. In the twentieth cen- Lords. He was principal adviser presented by lead- tury it was Keynes who provided to the Liberal Party when in ing academics and the theory, the practical policies 1929 it received 23 per cent of Lib Dems: Keynes, by and the intellectual firepower the vote and 56 seats, a result the Lord Tom McNally, which allowed the political lead- party was not to achieve again Fleader of the Liberal Democrats ers of the democracies to offer a for three-quarters of a century. in the House of Lords; Glad- third way when faced with the What is more, historians now stone, by Lord Paddy Ashdown, totalitarian alternatives of left agree that the Keynes-inspired leader of the part y 1988–99; Mill, and right. Today he remains Liberal manifesto of 1929 was by by Richard Reeves, a former a beacon of sanity for those far the most practical in address- Guardian journalist and author who do not believe that Adam ing the economic crisis then fac- of a biography of Mill (see page Smith’s hidden hand, or trickle- ing the country. 2 for a special offer for Journal down, will either provide social However, Keynes was not readers); and Lloyd George, by justice or remove the blights of just right about the response Lord Kenneth Morgan, the dis- poverty, ignorance and disease to depression, slump and high tinguished historian. The meet- from the world. unemployment in the 1930s. ing was chaired by Martin Kettle He also makes a direct claim Long before he wrote The Gen- of . on this audience as a party activ- eral Theory of Employment, Inter- ist. We enjoy his inheritance est and Money, which was the Martin Kettle: We’ve got four top to this day through the Lib- embodiment of what we call speakers talking about four top Lib- eral Summer School, which he Keynesianism, it is amazing erals, and the first one is going to be founded and which today bears to see how often Keynes made Tom McNally, who is putting the his name. He very nearly stood policy proposals which were case for . for Parliament in the party’s rejected at the time only to be interest on more than one occa- adopted later when other poli- sion. He was the intellectual cies had failed. Tom McNally: John Maynard driving force behind the ‘Yellow Keynes was advocating cen- Keynes Book’, still one of the most rele- Left: the final tral-bank control of interest rates My claim that John Maynard vant policy documents published four – top: and money supply eighty years Keynes is the greatest ever Lib- by any political party in British Gladstone, Lloyd before – una- eral is based on both historical history, and he ended his days George; bottom: shamedly stealing Liberal Dem- perspective and contemporary as a Liberal peer in the House of Keynes, Mill ocrat policy – made it a reality.

Journal of Liberal History 57 Winter 2007–08 5 the greatest liberal: john stuart mill

As an adviser to the Paris underpinned the war aims of economic prosperity and social Peace Conference in 1919, after the democracies in the Second justice. It was at this point that, the First World War, he tried World War. Along the way, Key- to my mind, Keynes showed his hard to persuade the Americans nes had seen his advice rejected true greatness. Keynes’s response to stay in Europe and to use their in 1925 by Churchill, when as was The General Theory, a distil- strength and economic position Chancellor of the Exchequer lation of many of the ideas he to promote European recon- he made the disastrous decision had been proposing for thirty struction. Instead, and against to return to the Gold Standard; years. his advice, a punitive peace was and, as I’ve already indicated, Our modern world was cre- imposed which had within it the he again saw his advice rejected, ated by that book. It enabled seeds of future conflict. In one this time by the electorate, in the policy-makers after the Sec- of his first great contributions 1929 general election. ond World War to construct a to policy development, The Eco- A lesser man may have opted more durable and lasting peace nomic Consequences of the Peace, he then and there for the academic than had been made in 1919. It wrote: ‘if we aim at the impov- life amidst the comforts of King’s encouraged the United States to erishment of central Europe, College, Cambridge, but already play its part in the reconstruction vengeance, I dare predict, will the storm clouds were gathering, of Europe, from which it had not limp’, and the assessment of as the Stalinist terror took hold retreated in the 1920s, by bring- his biographer Lord Skidelsky, in Communist Russia, and Hit- ing forward the Marshall Plan. is thus: ‘The Second World War ler and the other fascist dictators And along with another Liberal, came after the Great Depres- began the crushing of democ- Beveridge, Keynes provided sion, which brought Hitler to racy in Europe. Economic Attlee’s 1945 Labour government power. The Great Depression depression, mass unemployment with the policy engine-room to in turn was brought about by and the collapse of world trade make it, along with the 1906 the failure of economic leader- caused the question to be asked Liberal government, one of the ship in the 1920s. Had Keynes’s whether the economic models two great governments of social 1919 programme been carried inherited from the nineteenth reform in the twentieth century. out, it is unlikely that Hitler Tom McNally century were adequate to the And make no mistake: Key- would ever have become Ger- puts the case new age. To put it bluntly, it was nes knew what he was doing and man Chancellor.’ for Keynes; asked whether societies based on why he was doing it. Listen to Alas, it was a quarter of a cen- Paddy Ashdown political pluralism, civil liberties what he wrote to President Roo- tury later that Keynesian ideas behind, seated and the rule of law could deliver sevelt on 31 December 1931:

6 Journal of Liberal History 57 Winter 2007–08 the greatest liberal: john stuart mill

You have made yourself the from society as a whole to pro- ‘This party man. He started life, I have to trustee for those in every coun- vide every citizen with a certain tell you, as a Tory – but we all try who seek to mend the evils quality of life. has always have our youthful indiscretions of our condition by reasoned In its obituary on his death in from time to time; I started off experiment within the frame- 1946, called Keynes included supporting Labour for a little bit, work of an existing social sys- ‘the most influential economist Whigs and until I grew up. tem. If you fail, rational choice since Adam Smith’, but it was He was not, I think, a bundle will be gravely prejudiced the Labour Chancellor of the Radicals. The of laughs. His wife once said of throughout the world, leaving day, Hugh Dalton, who in his him: ‘Oh, William, if you were orthodoxy and the revolution tribute summed up the essence Whigs are not such a great man you would to fight it out. of Keynes: ‘he taught us to unite be very boring.’ (My wife has reason with hope’. really just said similar things of me – with- Now I am well aware that for I always feel that you should sensible Con- out the kind bit at the begin- the last thirty years, neo-liberals, end up with a quote from the lad ning.) He was – how shall we neo-conservatives, and vari- himself, and for that reason I am servatives. put it? – quite obsessive. When ous other neos have been in the grateful to Rachel Sylvester of he was Prime Minister, Down- ascendancy. As The Financial The Daily Telegraph, who quoted The Radicals ing Street was a gloomy place. (I Times put it in an editorial on 24 Keynes in her column only the guess it is now, too, under Gor- December 1993, ‘Adam Smith other day: ‘This party has always are just sen- don. I have this vision of our has vanquished Marx and immo- included Whigs and Radicals. sible Labour present Downing Street, you bilised Keynes’. Immobilised, but The Whigs are really just sensi- know, as Camelot turned into not vanquished – for I think there ble Conservatives. The Radicals men. And the Gormenghast – a great pulsat- is a growing awareness that we are just sensible Labour men. ing palace of light under Blair, may again have the need of Key- And the Liberals? – well, they’re Liberals? – and Brown comes in, and all is nes and his wisdom. As George just sensible.’ darkness, and all you see is a sin- Monbiot wrote in The Guardian well, they’re gle guttering candle shining out on 28 August 2007, ‘Neo-liber- Martin Kettle: Thank you very just sensible.’ of a casement window. Well, it alism, if unchecked, will catalyse much, Tom. was a bit like that under William crisis after crisis, all of which can There were many of us, I think, Ewart Gladstone.) only be solved by greater inter- who slightly regretted that Paddy He would be, from time to vention on the part of the state’ – Ashdown didn’t make the final four time, a little – how shall we put something which has been amply as one of the candidates. He appears it? – self-righteous; not, again, illustrated this week. to have been disqualified from that something wholly unknown in Joseph Stiglitz, a former Chief because he’s alive – and I think on our recent Prime Ministers. One Economist at the World Bank, the whole we’ve definitely got the of his opposition, a man called put it equally bluntly: ‘You can- better of the deal, and he’s going to Labouchere, exasperated with not rely on markets to create talk now; he’s going to put the case him in the House of Commons, societies that work’. And per- for W. E. Gladstone. said: ‘I do not mind the Right haps The Guardian headline of 28 Honourable gentleman pulling August said it all: ‘City bonuses the ace of trumps from his sleeve, hit record high with £14 bil- Paddy Ashdown: William but I wish he would not pretend lion pay-out. Executives fuel Ewart Gladstone it was the Almighty who put spiralling demand for luxury There’s a sort of codicil to Mar- it there.’ So not entirely a man goods among growing inequal- tin’s little story. Apparently there without flaws – though who is? ity.’ Faced with such everyday is somebody in this audience – a But great he certainly was. evidence before our eyes, it is lady, I believe – who actually A great spirit, above all. Roy absurd to claim that Adam Smith came up and complained that I Jenkins, in his book, describes has triumphed while Keynes has was not on the list. If she iden- him even in old age as a force failed. On the contrary, the wis- tifies herself, I’ll make sure she of nature, a man of magnificent dom of Keynes re-echoes in our gets a peerage … oh, no, that presence, and a spirit larger than own time with a new urgency. would have been Lloyd George, his times. He was seen across the It was Keynes who rescued wouldn’t it? whole of Europe as the spirit of economics, the dismal sci- I have to say, you’ve asked liberty. He was seen as the per- ence, and made it the tool of me to do some tricky things in son who gave inspiration not just social reform. It was he who this party, but proposing to you to liberals but to a whole great realised that liberal democracy Gladstone as the greatest Liberal liberal movement that swept required not just the freedom is not the most difficult thing across Europe and brought which allowed each individual you have asked me to do. freedom and human rights. He to develop his or her talent to I will not pretend to you for was seen as a man who stood the full, but also a commitment a moment that he was a perfect up for the underdog, who was

Journal of Liberal History 57 Winter 2007–08 7 the greatest liberal: john stuart mill

­unquenchable in his admoni- A great spirit – a great man in Paddy Ashdown government, unless the thing tion – his condemnation – of all senses of the word, but above puts the case that we believe in – the great brutality. all, a great Liberal. If you go to for Gladstone; idea of Liberalism – informs the I was driving across the plains the today, Kenneth Morgan, governance of our nation. He of Hungary – that’s a good line, there, carved on the stone as you behind, seated was a great governor, a great isn’t it? – in 1992. Karadzic had go in, in indelible letters, are Prime Minister. He brought asked me to go and see him, these words: ‘The principle of these ideas that you and I adhere because I’d just been to Sarajevo Liberalism is trust in the people, to, that we’ve committed our and I’d been complaining that qualified by prudence. The prin- lives to – he didn’t just articulate the international community ciple of Conservatism is mistrust them, he didn’t just inspire peo- should intervene. Karadzic asked of the people, qualified by fear.’ ple with them, he governed this to see me, and I flew in with True then, true today. country according to them, and Russell Johnston. (You know, A great Liberal. A great radi- changed the face of Britain. every Lord has to be named after cal. He said this: ‘a radical is a And that’s what we have to something which is connected Liberal who is in earnest’. (Well, do as a party. It’s useless if we with their career, so we used only up to a point.) And he was become a polite debating soci- to call him Russell Johnston of a great leader of our party. He ety. He made the compromises Heathrow Departure Lounge. I formed it, he brought it to its for power and for government, have been across customs posts most magnificent position in and he showed what could be in the farthest reaches of Europe, government – I’ll come to that done with them – and that’s and people have said: ‘your Rus- in a minute. He once said: ‘What what we have to do. So he was sell Johnston just came through is a good leader for but to tell his a great governor, a great Prime last week’. He is a great Liberal party when they are wrong?’ (I Minister, our greatest; he gov- and a great man.) Russell and I wish I could have come across erned well at home and he was were sitting in the car, and sud- that quote before!) respected across the world. denly the local radio, the Serb But it is for none of these rea- And he governed with vision. radio, burst into life and I asked sons that I propose him to you. Remember Ireland. Remem- the driver what it said, and it The truth is that this transcen- ber his call for Home Rule. said: ‘we’d like to announce that dental idea which we believe – Remember when that was voted the descendant of Gladstone has the only idea which is relevant down by the House of Com- just entered Serbia’ – more than to our time – is useless, or nearly mons, he understood the signifi- a hundred years later. useless, unless it is brought to cance of that vote. ‘If you do not

8 Journal of Liberal History 57 Winter 2007–08 the greatest liberal: john stuart mill do this’, he said, ‘this country, view the only recommendation day and their legacy too. So and its genuine wish for free- for survival in ours. we seem already to be agree- dom, will begin to haunt our The greatest Liberal – can ing what greatness is. Mill had future’ – and so it has; he knew there be another? a similar view; he was contemp- what was happening. tuous of those who, he quoted His voice, ladies and gentle- Martin Kettle: I was a little wor- this: ‘strutted and fretted their men, echoes down the years, ried when Paddy said he would fin- hour upon the stage’, and he had as do his achievements. Listen ish with a quote from Gladstone, an unbounded contempt for all to this, and here I will end, I because, as you know, Gladstone’s those lives ‘who made a great don’t need to say more. This is speeches could go on for many hours. noise in their day, and leave the Gladstone, in the second Mid- That was marvellous; thank you, state of mankind no better than lothian campaign; this is Glad- Paddy. it was when they found it’. stone speaking to Britain when I was sorry when I saw the list Of course, we’re not only he was in the opposition; this of candidates that everybody voted for looking for greatness, we’re was Gladstone claiming to be that the name of C. P. Scott didn’t looking for a great Liberal. I a Prime Minister again, when make the final four. After all, The wasn’t planning to go negative Britain was gripped by jingois- Manchester Guardian, which I so early in the debate, but every- tic fervour no less violent than represent here today, has an impor- one else is, so … Keynes, I think, we have seen in recent years in tant role in Liberal history, I think is fairly easily dispensed with. the Falklands War; this is Glad- for good and ill. However, we do Yes, a very influential econo- stone saying that what we were have a former colleague of mine, mist, but a Liberal economist? doing was morally wrong. He Richard Reeves. He’s the author of Tougher argument, I think. I’d had the courage to say it, and a shortly-to-be-released book on John argue actually that Mill was a what is more the British people Stuart Mill, and he is going to put better Liberal economist than had the courage to elect him as the case for Mill. Keynes, and when you hear the Prime Minister as a result. He kind of paean from his speaker was speaking of a conflict of that for state intervention then I time which is a conflict of our Richard Reeves: John Stuart think you know something’s time. He was talking about the Mill gone awry if we’re describing invasion of Afghanistan – not by Thank you, Martin. I wish that him as a great Liberal. And to coalition forces, not under a UN my publisher was here when I close the case against Keynes, he Security Council resolution, but was trying to persuade him that wrote an essay in 1925 – a lovely by Britain, in the Second Afghan there was a market for books essay, actually, but it’s entitled: War. And he said this: What he pro- about nineteenth-century Lib- Am I am Liberal? And you have posed was a erals; it was a difficult sell. If to ask, you know, if he didn’t Do not forget that the sanctity you all pre-order the book know, then … of life in the hill villages of proposition through Amazon, or Water- So we’re not after just the best Afghanistan amongst the win- stone’s, then it’ll be a tearaway Liberal economist, or Liberal ter snow is no less inviolate in of morality success. You don’t actually have politician, Liberal political activ- the eye of Almighty God as can to buy the book – of course, it’ll ist, Liberal orator, or even Lib- be your own. Do not forget that for his time. be the icing on the cake if you eral philosopher, but the greatest He who made you brothers in In our inter- do choose to do so, but merely Liberal – and that’s a much the same flesh and blood bound pre-ordering it apparently has a tougher demand, and that’s you by the laws of mutual love; dependent sort of electric effect on the pub- where I think Mill can strike his and that love is not limited to lisher! It’s published in the third claim. Of course, as the greatest the shores of this island, but world, those week of November. Liberal intellect, or philosopher, it spreadeth across the whole It’s quite difficult following his claim’s pretty irrefutable; surface of the earth, encom- immortal Paddy Ashdown on Gladstone – it’s hard to argue against it. His passing the greatest along with words com- he’s a tough act to follow – but I masterwork On Liberty remains the meanest in its unmeasured hope to be saved by the man for the gospel of Liberalism. Pub- scope. prise in my whom I am speaking, John Stu- lished in 1859, the same year that art Mill. the Liberal Party was born, it’s Oh, that we had Prime Minis- view the only I think we all agree, so far, never been out of print since. It ters today with that moral pur- anyway, that greatness is about was published across the world pose, that moral vision. More recommen- impact. It’s about effecting within two years and is argued important – more important – change in the world: chang- over to this day, not only in what he proposed was a proposi- dation for ing economies, changing ideas, seminar rooms but in the House tion of morality for his time. In survival in changing political structures, of Commons and on television. our interdependent world, those changing societies. It’s about Chris Huhne quoted John Stuart immortal words comprise in my ours. the impact both in their own Mill when he was asked about

Journal of Liberal History 57 Winter 2007–08 9 the greatest liberal: john stuart mill the smoking ban in public places uncommon occurrence in 1823. twenty-five years after Mill tried during the leadership campaign. Mill didn’t go and write about it; to introduce absolute equality. (Mill was also quoted on the Mill toured the streets of London In On Liberty, Mill wrote the other side of the debate, by the with a friend, distributing litera- best argument for free speech way, which would have pleased ture on birth control, for which ever written; but he also, as an him, but Huhne had the better he was arrested and thrown in MP, fought Disraeli to a stand- of the Mill scholarship, for the jail. He spent at least two nights still and ensured that, after record.) in jail as a result of this crime, reform demonstrations in 1866, In On Liberty there’s this sen- which was then hushed up, for the Royal Parks would be avail- tence: ‘The only purpose for the rest of his life, because it was able to public protest. A corner which power can rightfully be seen as something that would of Hyde Park, to this day, is a exercised over another member reflect badly on him – but today, testament to his memory. of a civilised community against it can only be seen as a true tes- As a politician he was good their will is to prevent harm to tament to his greatness. How at rhetoric – good at partisan others. His own good, either many of his competitors tonight rhetoric – during his period in physical or moral, is not a suf- were jailed – at least, deliberately Parliament. He is known as hav- ficient warrant.’ This famous – for their beliefs in Liberalism? ing described the Conservatives principle – the harm principle He wrote, in The Subjec- as ‘the stupid party’, but to really – the only reason you can regu- tion of Women, one of the finest feel the full force of his politi- late my behaviour is to stop me polemics for gender equality, cal ability you have to hear the harming somebody else – is the still today considered by femi- whole quote. This is what he said most quoted sentence in the his- nist academics to be one of the in Parliament when he had been tory of philosophy, and there is greatest testaments to feminism. criticised by the Conservatives: no newspaper columnist who But he didn’t only do that. As doesn’t have it somewhere as a an MP, he introduced the first What I stated was that the kind of save that they can plop bill to give women the right to Conservative Party was by the into any column on the regula- vote, in 1867. He proposed an law of its constitution neces- tion of personal behaviour. The amendment to change one word sarily the stupidest party. Now, harm principle remains the cor- in the 1867 Reform Bill – one I do not retract this assertion, nerstone of the Liberal faith. word to make it gender-neutral, but I did not mean that Con- So he’s still argued about, he to change the word ‘man’ to the servatives are generally stupid; still provokes and irritates, and word ‘person’. He got 73 votes I meant that stupid persons are he still inspires. Goethe, who to his side – which wasn’t bad, generally Conservative … I do Mill had a sort of passing admi- in 1867 – and he was described not see why honourable gentle- ration for, said that the true test by Millicent Fawcett as the true men should feel that position of the greatness of a man is his originator of the British suffrage at all offensive to them, for posthumous productivity. (I movement. Here’s what Wil- it ensures their always being rather like that; so Paddy, you liam Gladstone – seeing as we’re an extremely powerful party. know, all is not lost; don’t take going negative … There is a dead solid force in your own mortality too much [Tom McNally: this is his sheer stupidity such that a few to heart.) Posthumous produc- Guardian training, of course. Mar- able men, with that force press- tivity? Well, it seems to me, you tin Kettle: it’s called balance, Tom. ing behind them, are assured of know, Mill’s been dead for a Paddy Ashdown: just don’t talk victory in many a struggle; and hundred and thirty-four years, about fallen women. Richard Reeves: ‘I did not many a victory the Conserva- but he’s still a very busy boy; he’s I said negative, not cheap – though, tive Party have indeed owed to still quoted everywhere, and his actually, they didn’t charge him, did mean that that force. words still echo. they?] So that’s the case for him as an … this is what William Glad- Conserva- That’s Mill on stupidity. His intellectual – but I have a much stone said about women’s suffrage prescience about political trends bigger case for Mill, which is in 1892. He opposed women’s tives are gen- – of course, on women’s rights, that he wasn’t just a philosopher; suffrage, because he was afraid of erally stupid; but also he anticipated that unless he was an activist and a firebrand what would happen to women the Liberal Party (and he tried too. He supported the freedom if they got involved in politics. I meant to persuade Gladstone to this to choose birth control – at a He said: ‘it would mean invit- effect) supported working-class time, of course, when that was ing her – woman – unwittingly that stupid candidates that they would go still illegal. At the age of seven- to trespass upon the delicacy, the somewhere else. He supported teen, on the way to work, he’s purity, the refinement, the ele- persons are George Odger, for example, crossing St James’s Park and he vation of her own nature which generally who was forced by the Liberals finds a dead baby wrapped in are the present sources of her to withdraw his candidacy from a bundle under a tree – not an power.’ Well, that’s ­Gladstone Conservative.’ the seat of Chelsea, and went

10 Journal of Liberal History 57 Winter 2007–08 the greatest liberal: john stuart mill off, in a bit of a huff, to form At the More importantly, he fought for scarcely had a meaningful social something called the Labour that vision with all the tools at philosophy before him. Glad- Representation League instead. heart of his his disposal, from his teenage stone, who was born in 1809, The rest, of course, is history. years until the day of his death simply didn’t understand the So he saw that the Liberals were vision is an in 1873. sociology of politics. Mill, with in danger of being eclipsed once unquench- He would not seek this prize. all respect, had no real view of full suffrage came. He had no Westminster Abbey society; his main interest in free- And he also advocated pro- able opti- funeral, no honorary doctor- dom, which is very important, of portional representation. He was ate; he eschewed all of those course, was freedom of thought, the first MP to produce a bill for mism about prizes, but despite the fact that not other kinds of freedom. proportional representation, also he would not have sought it we Keynes said, explicitly, that he in 1867. He said that propor- the power of must surely award it to him, wasn’t interested in social justice tional representation would be individual because in John Stuart Mill you at all; it is, he said, ‘the best pos- the sheet-anchor of democracy, see not only the best evidence of session of the party of the pro- and the principle of fair play to men and Liberalism’s great past, but the letariat’ (there’s the Cambridge all parties and all opinions with- best hope for Liberalism to have man for you). out distinction. women to a great future. In 1906, Lloyd George alone So he was ahead of his time. linked the old Liberalism of civic He described himself as an lead good Martin Kettle: Thank you very justice with the New Liberalism ‘advanced Liberal’; by his own lives of much, Richard. of social reform. Nobody else admission, he was advanced. He I noticed that Richard didn’t have could do that in that govern- was a feminist. He was an anti- their own time to get on to the subject of David ment; not Asquith, not Grey, racist – on Governor Eyre, and Lloyd George and women – perhaps not Haldane; he was the most on the civil war in the States – choosing. our next speaker will be able to do so. important Liberal ever. and he was a strong proponent No discussion of the history of Liber- Secondly, Lloyd George com- of proportional representation. alism in this country can possibly be bined vision and dynamism with How can anybody who wasn’t allowed to develop without a Welsh artistry in the uses of power. In all of those things seek the man- dimension. Kenneth Morgan is one peace and in war, the Liberal tle of the greatest Liberal? of Britain’s great historical biogra- danger – I’m not a member of And at the heart of his vision phers – he’s recently published a ter- your party, so I say this, pos- is an unquenchable optimism rific biography of – and sibly causing offence – the Lib- about the power of individual he is going to put the case for David eral danger is high-mindedness, men and women to lead good Lloyd George. intellectual elitism, distaste with lives of their own choosing. In power; there’s plenty of that in On Liberty he wrote: both Mill and Keynes, in my Kenneth O. Morgan: David view. Lloyd George was differ- The worth of a state, in the Lloyd George ent (and so was Gladstone, as long run, is the worth of the Chairman and friends, it’s rele- Paddy has said) – he transformed individuals composing it … vant to first mention, I think, the society, he helped to win a war, A state which dwarfs its men, foreword that Alan Taylor wrote he redesigned our world, from in order to make them more in a biography that I wrote of Northern Ireland to Palestine. docile instruments in its hands, Lloyd George thirty-odd years Neither Mill nor Keynes – even for beneficial purposes, ago: ‘our greatest ruler since wonderful men – ever handled will find that with small men Cromwell’. So he was; he was power. Neither of them was at no great thing can really be the greatest Liberal of them all, ease with democratic power. accomplished; and that the per- and in peace and in war arguably Mill, like Tocqueville, was very fection of machinery to which a greater Prime Minister – about worried about the democracy for it has sacrificed ever ything will, to join in Parliament Square, I which he voted. It’s very char- in the end, avail it nothing, for gather, a whole range of Tory acteristic, I think, that he sup- want of the vital power which, Prime Ministers – Canning, ported the secret ballot before it in order that the machine Peel, Derby (God knows why happened, and then opposed it might work more smoothly, it he’s there), Disraeli, Churchill, after it had happened, because, has preferred to banish. and another Tory, . he said, people should use inde- There are two main rea- pendence of judgement. I don’t John Stuart Mill brilliantly artic- sons why Lloyd George should think you could imagine this ulated a Liberal vision and how unquestionably receive your wonderful man, John Stuart that would apply – in philoso- vote. The first is that he, and Mill, ever actually running any- phy, in economics, in politics, in he alone, added a social dimen- thing – nor, I suspect, in those society – which remains iconic sion to the idea of Liberalism. respects could Keynes, who was and inspirational to this day. Liberalism – the Liberal Party – a Cambridge don (as an

Journal of Liberal History 57 Winter 2007–08 11 the greatest liberal: john stuart mill don, I know the limitations of Lloyd George Campbell-Bannerman to for national ­insurance, for edu- that breed). meet Emily Hobhouse, and cation (with the great Liberal Lloyd George led a coali- combined she imposed the words ‘meth- historian, H. A. L. Fisher), start- tion, but he was always a Liberal. ods of barbarism’. We’ve had ing the Ministry of Health, the We’ve heard about Gladstone vision and methods of barbarism in Iraq; beginning of subsidised housing, – he wasn’t just a Conserva- dynamism Lloyd George is the inspiration and votes for women – Mill cou- tive, he was a very right-wing for those of us who stood up in rageously began the campaign Conservative; he was called with artistry Parliament on the Labour side for votes for women, but it was the ‘hope of the stern, unbend- and criticised and attacked and Lloyd George, in power dur- ing Tories’, and throughout his in the uses of condemned the treasonable and ing the war, who brought it to a career he was committed to tra- criminal attack on Iraq, and conclusion and gave women the ditional institutions: the landed power. Lloyd George was our inspira- vote, and unlike Gladstone he aristocracy, the Church, Oxford tion, as a young man who repre- always, always, supported female University, the most reactionary sented a marginal constituency; suffrage. college in Oxford University. if anyone showed guts, it was At the Paris Peace Conference He called himself an ‘out-and- Lloyd George on that occasion. he was a Gladstonian, cham- out inequalitarian’. And so it At the Board of Trade and pioning Balkan nationalism, was, as we’ve heard, in relation at the Treasury, in the Liberal and afterwards he was the one to women. A very interesting government, he proclaimed a man who tried to moderate the case is the American Civil War, new vision of social citizenship: excesses of Versailles. Tom, in his where Gladstone supported the pensions, national insurance, interesting and selective range South; he said that Jefferson the basis of the modern welfare through the writings of Keynes, Davis had created a nation. He state, as has rightly been said mentioned The Economic Con- placed no particular impera- by Tom. The People’s Budget sequences of 1919, accurately and tive on the abolition of slavery, was financed by taxing the rich correctly, of course. He should and it is worth saying – Paddy (your leader is in favour of ham- also have quoted A Revision of the has gone, I’m sorry that he can’t mering the rich; if you’re in Treaty by Keynes in 1922, who answer – that Gladstone’s own favour of your leader you should said that in fact over the inter- family made their money from vote for Lloyd George!) and this vening three years, Lloyd George slave labour in Jamaica. I never approach to government carried had been carrying out many of recall Gladstone ever uttering on right through to 1914. He his ideas – most of his ideas – one word of regret or shame and that other great man, Her- about reparations, about trying to about that – it’s not in Roy bert Asquith, are a tremendous re-establish trade and commerce Jenkins’s book, and I don’t think partnership not only in pushing in Europe, and so on. Paddy could find any exam- through the welfare state but in Ireland – Ireland is not to his ple either. Lloyd George’s hero, taming and neutralising much of discredit; he produced a perma- whose bust is there in his home the House of Lords as an obstacle nent settlement in Ireland. Pitt, in Llanystumdwy, was Abraham to reform. (It’s very comic, inci- Peel, Gladstone, Asquith – all Lincoln, the great emancipator, dentally, that three of us come failed. Lloyd George produced a the great hope of liberalism. from that House this evening.) solution – not a perfect solution, Lloyd George was always As a war leader – and Liber- but it has brought more peace a Liberal: in 1918, in 1931. As als are very difficult to lead at a to that unhappy island than we we’ve heard, Keynes wrote this time of war – he was quite an have known over the last one famous essay, Am I a Liberal?, and inspiration. With Churchill, he hundred years. on the whole the answer seems made many key contributions And in the inter-war years, he to be no. He said he wasn’t in to the winning of the war; as was, I think, Tom would agree favour of social justice, or many Minister of Munitions, in start- – or perhaps he wouldn’t? – any- of the things Liberals supported, ing the convoy system to protect way, he was the first politician to so I think Lloyd George was far the merchant fleet; in sustaining see the point of Keynes. He took more consistent. morale. He was not a chauvin- up Keynes. We Can Conquer Lloyd George’s career at ist man; there was no Vansit- Unemployment, the Yellow Book every stage enhanced a dignified tart Plan from Lloyd George in – these are Lloyd George’s crea- Liberalism. In his early period, 1918 to destroy Germany. He tive crystallisations of what Key- up to 1906, he supported devo- focused above all on the pur- nes believed. And he remained a lution, and the claims of , poses for which the war was constructive, radical man – very which was very prophetic. He being fought, and in his view appropriate that his last vote was was a tremendous opponent of they were Liberal purposes. As in 1943 on behalf of the Bev- the Boer War – quite as coura- Prime Minister, even during eridge Report. geously as anything we’ve heard wartime there was a consider- Lloyd George’s impact went about Gladstone. He ­persuaded able impetus for social reform, far beyond the Liberal Party. He

12 Journal of Liberal History 57 Winter 2007–08 the greatest liberal: john stuart mill is a world figure. Churchill and ­interventions pointed out the Unfortunately, Paddy Ash- Bevan (as I know because I’ve difficulties in comparing men down had had to leave before the spoken to them both), Michael of ideas and men of action; some end of the meeting (for a clash- Foot and all speakers felt that it was ideas ing engagement), but summing- regarded him in many ways as that mattered more, and at least up speeches were given by the their political hero. Overseas, one preferred the philosopher remaining three speakers. Theodore and Franklin Roo- to the economist as a matter of sevelt, and their the new nation- principle. alism, and New Deal, owed a In Keynes’s defence it was Tom McNally: Keynes great deal to Lloyd George; and pointed out that Keynesian First of all, I should have John F. Kennedy was another economic policies had not explained that I didn’t indulge one who frequently cited LG. been discredited; the fault lay in either the cheap populism or He achieved things that nobody with those politicians who had the personal attacks of the other else could: the welfare state, tried to apply them in circum- three speakers – because I went a fuller democracy, a vision stances (high levels of inflation) first, and I didn’t realise that in of a new world order based on in which Keynes himself had this high-minded gathering that reconciliation. warned that they would not was fair game! But let’s face it – He could spin – nobody used work. On the other hand, Key- all four of them would have had newspapers better than Lloyd nes’s penchant for silk dressing problems with The Sun and the George; he even tried to buy gowns was felt to cast a negative News of the World at some stage The Times on one occasion – but light on his claim to the title. during their careers. essentially, unlike Tony Blair, he Gladstone was praised for his We’ve had that very inter- worked with men and women support for Home Rule, for his esting split between the men of of ideas: Beveridge, Rowntree, giving away bits of the Empire ideas and the men of action, and Hobhouse, Masterman, Key- in his search for international it’s a perfectly fair one, but why nes, Henderson, Ramsey Muir, collaboration, and for his clear I back Keynes is because what and indeed, C. P. Scott of The moral vision, for example over he did in the 1930s was to give Guardian, who was, in peace and the Turkish atrocities in Bul- politicians in the democracies in war, a tremendous ideological garia. On the other hand, his the confidence and the intel- support for him. It was said, by first speech in Parliament had lectual firepower to take on C. F. G. Masterman after 1923, been in support of slavery. totalitarianism. ‘when Lloyd George returned Lloyd George was praised as an In the twenty-first century, to us, ideas returned to the Lib- inspiration, a brilliant orator and we have another challenge: eral Party’. debater. He was credited with whether we can retain our civil Gladstone, Mill and Keynes being one of the first to warn of liberties, our human rights, all had privileged backgrounds the dangers of Hitler. The debit against attacks from terrorism – they were all wealthy people. side included a mixed record on and organised crime. I believe Lloyd George was an outsider; Ireland (for example, over the that what Keynes showed is the Liberal Party championed brutality of the Black & Tans), his that the political systems could outsiders. He was Welsh in an sale of peerages (‘at least it raised work. English world; he was a Baptist; money for the party’, as some- There are those that tell us he was a relatively poor man, one pointed out), his willingness that globalisation takes many with very little education. He to abandon Liberal principles things out of the control of the was a natural democrat, he was in order to win the war, and his political machines, the forces of one of the great mass leaders, and splitting of the party in 1916–18. democracy, the accountability to yet personally, as they said, he One speaker felt that he could Lloyd George Parliament. I think that Keynes’s could charm a bird off a bough. have supported Lloyd George if enduring gift to civil liberties In my view, Lloyd George’s he’d died in 1918. was attacked and to politics is that he showed career was Britain’s moment of While Mill was lauded us the way that politicians could maternity. He belongs to the for his Liberal vision, it was for his sale of use the machineries of govern- ages, and most certainly, sure pointed out that he was a sup- peerages (‘at ment to defend civil liberties in a as hell, he belongs to this party porter of capital punishment. liberal democracy. It’s his endur- conference. One speaker, however, reveal- least it raised ing legacy. ing that Mill’s books had helped Yes, he is an economist, and change his own mind, pointed money for we know that economists are Discussion to the influence he had, reach- men trained to predict the past After the proposing speeches, ing far beyond the Liberal tra- the party’, – which we’ve seen again this a number of points from the dition and making people more as someone week – but he was more than floor were made both for and sympathetic to the Liberal cause an economist; he was one who against the candidates. Several to this day. pointed out). believed in the ability of people,

Journal of Liberal History 57 Winter 2007–08 13 the greatest liberal: john stuart mill

four people present – because, Great Liberals: final-stage result of course, Avignon was a long Candidate First preferences Eliminate Keynes Eliminate Lloyd George way away in those days – there Gladstone 192 + 20 = 212 + 96 = 308 were four at his funeral, but as Keynes 69 – – Charles Dickens said, the more truly great the man, the smaller Lloyd George 187 + 22 = 209 – the ceremony. Mill 274 + 24 = 298 + 96 = 394 There were only four people Non-transferable + 3 = 3 + 17 = 20 at Mill’s graveside, but the very Total 722 722 722 fact that he can change your mind, sir, through reading his through the political process, to who earned their wealth simply pages – if you read Mill today, it control their destinies for the through the fact of being land- reads as if he’s talking about us, common good. And I think that owners, that their money ‘fell not the nineteenth century. is a legacy which makes him the into their mouths as they sleep’. Vote for Lloyd George or greatest Liberal of them all. I think that today he’d be wor- Gladstone if you wish to revel in ried about the people who are your glorious past. Vote for Mill the money-owners, the ones if you wish for a glorious future. Richard Reeves: Mill who are making money simply I reject the distinction between because they’ve already got so men of action and men of ideas, much money, and are reshaping Kenneth O. Morgan: Lloyd at least as far as Mill’s concerned. the capital markets as a result. It George My whole case is based on the was that that forced The unique case for Lloyd fact that actually he was both. him to be publicly thrown off George is the case for democ- Of course, today we remember the books of the Cobden Club, racy, for democratic citizenship. him mostly through his writ- two months before his death. He is the only one of these four ing, but when Mill died, and This was not an ivory-tower who is really a democrat. there was a memorial fund to philosopher. The Land Tenure Gladstone, as I’ve said, establish a statue to him – which Reform Association remains believed in inequality. He talked did eventually rise up on the radical to this day. about trusting the people, but he Embankment – there was such Yes, Gladstone was good on only trusted very few of them; a row about his radicalism, on Ireland, but Mill was ten years ‘trust the people’ is a very mis- land reform, in particular, and ahead of him. Yes, Lloyd George leading slogan for Gladstone. on contraceptive issues, that introduced legislation to give John Stuart Mill had many fine Gladstone, who had publicly women the vote, but not equal qualities, but was afraid of mass supported the memorial, had rights; only women over the public opinion, the tyranny of publicly then to withdraw his age of thirty were able to vote. the majority. Much of his writ- support from it, because Mill was It wasn’t until 1928 that women ings are concerned with the seen as too controversial a figure got the right to vote on the same dangers that democracy would for him to support. So lose this basis as men – and after watch- bring. Keynes said that in the whole idea of Mill as sitting in a ing that vote from the House class war, he was on the side of study, churning out books. of Commons gallery, Milli- the educated bourgeoisie. Those books remain power- Vote for cent Fawcett, perhaps the best Lloyd George alone accepted ful and resonant now, but at the Lloyd George feminist campaigner in our his- the imperatives of the democratic time he was a radically engaged tory, led a delegation of women age. Like Franklin D. Roosevelt, partisan, and it is that, I think, or Gladstone – where? She led them to the whom he greatly resembled, he that makes him great. So he statue of John Stuart Mill on was at ease in putting dynamic is the one that straddles this if you wish the Embankment to lay flowers ideas into practice, through what divide between men of action in his memory, as the man who he also called the ‘new deal’. In and those of ideas. Two months to revel in had started that battle which had so doing he also recognised the before his death he was ejected your glorious finally been won. importance of the public intel- from the Cobden Club, a free- John Stuart Mill died in Avi- lectual – Rowntree, Beveridge, market club that he’d been a past. Vote gnon, where his wife was bur- Fisher, Scott, and, I have no member of, because he was sup- ied. She was an inspiration to doubt, had he been alive, John porting significant increases in for Mill if him, but after her death he con- Stuart Mill; he and Lloyd George inheritance tax on landown- tinued to write, he continued would have made a wonderful ers. He came to a strong view you wish for to work; his last words, to his partnership in getting those addi- that there was a distinction a glorious step-daughter, were: ‘you know tional women the vote. between unearned wealth and I have done my work’. When Lloyd George was a unique earned wealth; he said, of those future. he was buried, there were only inspirational force, like no one

14 Journal of Liberal History 57 Winter 2007–08 the greatest liberal: john stuart mill else in our country, over thirty and civil liberties. Internation- Volunteer Assistant Editor years. He was a fierce partisan, ally, after 1918 – I do not agree a Liberal partisan in making that the record after 1918 is so wanted Britain a more equitable society bleak – he was perhaps the only The Liberal Democrat History Group is looking for a volunteer – and he was far more radical one of the peacemakers who to help with editorial work on the group’s website. than any Labour Prime Min- grasped the revolution created The Group promotes the discussion and research of the ister has been. He believed in by the First World War, the histories of the Liberal Democrats, Liberal Party and SDP, disestablishment: disestablish- collapse of the great empires of and of Liberalism. We do this through meetings, our ment of the church, disestab- Hohenzollern and Habsburg quarterly Journal of Liberal History, occasional books and our lishment of special interests, and Romanov. He alone fought website, www.liberalhistory.org.uk. disestablishment of the privi- for moderation and for Euro- Originally established to carry news about our activities, the leged groups in society – yet pean security. Afterwards, and website has since grown substantially through the ongoing he also could work for consen- as someone from the floor said, Liberal History Online project. As far as we aware, nothing sus. That is what led so many he was a devastating critic of the anywhere else on the web makes available such a wide range of pages, links and electronic documents covering Liberals to criticise what hap- National Government in its fail- major topics and personalities in British Liberal history. We pened in 1918, but somebody ures of , right down need someone to help us develop Liberal History Online by: had to come to grips with the to 1940. • Reviewing and editing the existing material problem. Asquith had nothing One last point: Lloyd George • Working with the committee to identify gaps and addi- to offer: he was offered a job in would have been the best com- tional material required 1918 – the Lord Chancellorship pany. Beaverbrook once was • Commissioning further materials for the project – and he turned it down. asked to compare Churchill with A background in modern British history would be helpful, Lloyd George brought Lloyd George, and he said Lloyd but even better would be experience in editing and in Labour from the cold, he George would have been more proof-reading internet publications. No special technical worked with progressive busi- fun. So vote for Lloyd George, knowledge is necessary other than basic familiarity with nessmen, he worked towards a vote for fun, vote for inspira- computers and the web. This is an interesting voluntary position with the scope for further involvement with the planned society on Keynesian tion, vote for the greatest Liberal activities of the Group and its Journal. lines, while always being com- who ever lived, and ruled this mitted to the individualist ethic country. Please apply to Mark Pack at [email protected].

Journal of Liberal History 57 Winter 2007–08 15 Learning the lessons of history: John Stuart Mill and politics today

In the second of our love liberty by taste,’ The Prime Minister told a stir- wrote Alexis de Toc- ring ‘British story of liberty’; but new series of articles, queville to his new friend, no amount of contortion of this ‘Learning the Lessons John Stuart Mill, in 1836, narrative allowed him to move of History’, Richard ‘equality by instinct and smoothly on to compulsory ID ‘Ireason’. Mill had just put the cards and two-month imprison- Reeves writes about liberal French aristocrat on the ment without charge. Brown English-speaking map with a appears to have warmed a little the Liberal thinker and review of his De la Democratie en to Mill: in 2005 he declared that activist he championed Amerique: but it was his own 1859 ‘most of us reject Mill’s extreme masterpiece, On Liberty, which view of liberty’, but in his more in our ‘Great Liberal’ gave Victorian liberals their call recent offering quoted with contest: John Stuart to arms – the Liberal Party was approval Mill’s view that com- formed later the same year – and pulsion was sometime necessary Mill. became the New Testament of to support and maintain liberal liberalism. societies – ‘there are many posi- When he talked Mill has recently been voted tive acts for the benefit of oth- Britain’s Greatest Liberal, and ers which he may rightfully be about the importance his book is frequently quoted compelled to perform’. (Mill of liberty in modern by politicians seeking a dash of had in mind duties such as giv- gravitas and a splash of liberalism ing evidence in court.) Britain, Gordon for their speeches. Rhetorically, The Conservatives are also Brown cited John the cause of liberty is prospering. attempting to wrap themselves David Cameron insists on the in liberal clothing. They can Stuart Mill. But what label liberal conservative, David point to their opposition to ID would the original Miliband proudly declares cards and apparently greater himself a liberal socialist, and commitment to giving indi- liberal make of today’s Gordon Brown recently gave a viduals more power over the politicians? John Stuart Mill speech on liberty in which he operation of monolithic pub- (1806–73) mentioned the L-word 74 times. lic services; warm noises about

16 Journal of Liberal History 57 Winter 2007–08 learning the lessons of history: john stuart mill and politics today

­co-operatives also hint at a more ­justified in silencing that one even if virtually the whole liberal outlook. But there is opinion than he, if he had the nation consists of true believers. nothing remotely liberal about power, would be justified in To avoid offending too many Tory attitudes to families, inter- silencing mankind.’ Christians, Mill frequently used national cooperation or rights in Real liberalism – Liberalism Islam to illustrate his arguments, the workplace. with a capital L – has at its heart a citing the theoretical example of The Liberal Democrats have vivid picture of a valuable human a predominantly Islamic nation a default claim to the liberal life: one in which people have the banning pork as an indefensible mantle, although it is not always space, resources and responsibility infringement of liberty. Even if greatly treasured: Paddy Ash- to develop themselves as individ- eating pork is ‘disgusting’ to the down tried to persuade his party uals and to choose their own path. majority, it does not harm them to become simply the Democrats. A liberal society is one in which and, Mill insisted, ‘with the per- The Lib Dems still have a strong each individual is the author of sonal tastes and self-regarding Fabian faction, represented by their opinions and the architect of concerns of individuals the pub- the old SDP-ers, the latest incar- their own life plans. Mill, in On lic has no business to interfere’. nation of what Keynes dubbed Liberty, wrote: ‘The only freedom Mill’s liberalism on this point the ‘watery Labour men’ of the which deserves the name is that reads more provocatively today liberal movement. Under Nick of pursuing our own good in our than it did in 1859. Clegg it seems likely the party own way’. This liberty, described Liberals worry as much would become a more clearly as ‘sovereignty within’ by Words- about social forces as govern- liberal democratic, rather than worth, very often requires the ment ones, and in particular the social democratic, party. state to exercise restraint – but dangers of received wisdom, or For all the warm words, lib- sometimes needs action from what Mill dubbed the ‘despot- eralism itself is in poor political government: compulsory educa- ism of custom’. The goal of lib- health. The two main parties are tion for children, for example, is eral philosophy, Mill insisted playing liberal costume games, a properly liberal measure. The is ‘to supply, not a set of model while the third, because of first- greatest enemy of liberty is not institutions, but principles from past-the-post voting, remains a coercion, but dependency: on which the institutions suitable to bit-player of the political world. the views of others in the making any given circumstances might Current discussions of ‘liberty’ of life decisions; on the labour of be deduced’. Liberals are often almost always end up focusing others for income – for example, accused of ignoring the place of on the narrow, legalistic concept an idle landowner getting rich ‘in collective institutions and civic of civil liberties – a vital issue, his sleep’. society in the maintenance of but only one branch of liberal- The freedom for adults to live a civilised order, of advocating ism. There is grave danger that as they choose – so long as they an atomistic individualism. But when civil liberty is detached do not harm or depend on oth- this is to confuse liberalism with from the deeper liberalism which ers – is an essential dimension libertarianism. Nineteenth- underpins it, the issue appears as of liberalism. Diverse lifestyles century liberals had a border- the nitpicking concern of peers, act as what Mill called ‘experi- line obsession with the role of pressure groups and professors. ments in living’, from which institutions – especially families, For many of those arguing for general lessons can be drawn. So, schools and churches – in shap- our civil liberties, their value if cohabitation turns out to be ing individual character and cre- is self-evident: but this may no a less successful familial model ating opportunities for genuine longer be generally the case. Our than marriage, the results will It is this autonomy. There was no reason freedoms cannot be adequately be there for all to see and absorb, to stop at social institutions: Mill defended as self-evident, abstract rather than the ‘expert state’ insistence believed employee-owned firms rights, only as vital ingredients deciding for us. ‘would combine the freedom and of a good life and as the essence It is this insistence on social on social and independence of the individual, of a good society. Without liber- and attitudinal diversity which with the moral, intellectual and alism, liberty is fragile. gives Liberalism its anti-major- attitudinal economical advantages of aggre- Free speech is not a human itarian streak. It is not that the diversity gate production’. True liberals right, but a human need: only majority are always wrong are unqualified supporters of by constantly subjecting our (although liberals sometimes which gives capitalism – so long as we can all opinions to criticism and pos- fall into the trap of presuming be capitalists. sible refutation can knowledge they are), it is that they might Liberalism Liberals are neither left nor advance. ‘If all mankind plus be wrong and that there is no right-wing, which causes some one were of one opinion, and impartial referee to make the its anti- difficulties in a political cul- only one person were of the call. That includes God: reli- majoritarian ture and system still organised contrary opinion,’ wrote Mill, gious codes must never be ‘mankind would be no more imposed on a whole citizenry, streak. Concluded on page 51

Journal of Liberal History 57 Winter 2007–08 17 Lloyd George’s Flintshire Loyalist The Political Achievement of John Herbert Lewis

Kenneth O. Morgan tells the story of the pre-eminent Welsh Lloyd Georgian, Sir Herbert Lewis. Member of Parliament for first Flint Boroughs and then Flintshire and finally the from 1892 to 1922, Lewis was a junior minister under Asquith and Lloyd George for the last seventeen of those years. He was a devoted servant of Welsh intermediate and higher education, the National Museum of Wales and, especially, the National Library of Wales at Aberystwyth. Never achieving high office, he nevertheless played a crucial role as one of those who kept Lloyd George politically – and perhaps personally – honest.

18 Journal of Liberal History 57 Winter 2007–08 Lloyd George’s Flintshire Loyalist The Political Achievement of John Herbert Lewis

e had no friends out of his career at regular inter- then Flintshire and finally the and d id not vals cannot be disputed; nor can University of Wales from 1892 de ser ve a ny.’ his casualness with money, prin- to 1922, junior minister under Thus A. J. P. ciples and loyalties. His career, Asquith and Lloyd George Taylor’s dismiss- too, was littered with decent- for the last seventeen of those ‘Hive judgement on David Lloyd minded colleagues, Charles years, devoted servant of Welsh George.1 Like several of that Masterman, Christopher Addi- intermediate and higher educa- historian’s famous aphorisms, son, Llewelyn Williams, with tion, the National Museum and the effect is more arresting than whom he quarrelled fatally, especially the National Library accurate. The comment echoes breaking off relations with a at Aberystwyth, was foremost a common view, memorably resounding crash. The picture amongst these. His unbroken reinforced by J. M. Keynes in is all too easily drawn of the attachment to the younger Caer- his account of the major par- casual Welsh freebooter, aggres- narfonshire Liberal whom he ticipants at the Treaty of Ver- sive, arriviste, contrasted with served with total loyalty makes sailles in 1919, that the Welsh the assured Balliol values of the him pre-eminent amongst the premier was but an unprinci- Asquithians on the other side. Welsh Lloyd Georgians. With pled maverick, ‘rooted in noth- But there is also a massive all deference to the late Eirene ing’, using people ruthlessly and element left out in this crude White, Lewis’s creative relation- callously, then throwing them pastiche – the long sequence of ship with his leader makes him away in pursuit of his career and honourable, high-principled, probably the most influential his ambitions.2 Novelists from intellectually respectable fig- Flintshire politician in modern Arnold Bennett to Joyce Cary ures who found in Lloyd George times.4 have nurtured this view.3 To a life-long inspiration and icon Herbert Lewis’s background adopt the musical tribute to the – C. P. Scott of the Manchester was significantly different from late Princess Diana, LG appears Guardian, the historian H. A. L. that of . at best as simply a candle in the Fisher, the pioneering Quaker Born in December 1858 at wind. So far as he had close sociologist, Seebohm Rown- Quay, the Flintshire associates, they tended to be tree. And in Wales, there were a man was brought up not in a hangers-on rather than personal whole generation of decent, hon- shoemaker’s cottage but in an friends, on the pattern of the est, moralistic Liberals for whom affluent commercial family with press lords, ‘hard-faced’ capital- Lloyd George was always a hero strong connections with ship- ists and adventurers like ‘Bronco throughout all vicissitudes, men ping, including the new steam- Bill’ Sutherland, Basil Zaha- like the preacher-poet Elfed, the ships. From childhood, his life roff or Maundy Gregory, in the very embodiment of the folk was punctuated by frequent darker phases of his peacetime values of y werin. In the political expensive travels to the sunny premiership of 1918–22. That realm, Sir Herbert Lewis, mem- John Herbert climes of the Mediterranean people like these did flit in and ber for first Flint Boroughs and Lewis (1858–1933) or the Middle East during the

Journal of Liberal History 57 Winter 2007–08 19 lloyd george’s flintshire loyalist winter months. Dr Erasmus cor- Lewis’s humour. In addition, Lewis’s radical-socialist Independ- rectly remarks that ‘there can diaries reveal him as a persist- ent minister, proto-nationalist have been few Members of Par- unbroken ent hypochondriac, constantly and land nationaliser, and the liament that have travelled more staying indoors to recover from influence stuck. This radical widely.’5 In 1884–85 he spent a attach- ‘chills’ and other maladies, great outlook also made him close to year on a world tour, travelling or (usually) small. As late as that other youthful Welsh leader, across the United States, and ment to the 1932, Lloyd George spoke to , a man whose Fabian moving on to Japan, China and younger Sylvester and other associates of creed of social and national India. He also had a far more how Lewis was a lifelong val- improvement might have made extensive and privileged educa- Caernarfon- etudinarian. Years earlier, when him a more naturally appropri- tion than Lloyd George – Den- speaking at Liverpool, Lloyd ate colleague of Lewis’s. Ellis bigh Grammar School, a period shire Liberal George had been told of how gave Lewis powerful advice on in the University of Montreal the Flintshire man was in bed in the drafting of his forthcom- in his teenage years, and finally whom he Plas Penucha dying of tubercu- ing election address in October Exeter College, Oxford, where served with losis: ‘there he was, coddled and 1891: ‘Nationality and Labour he studied law, though with- muffled up by his wife’.8 But the are our two main principles, out great distinction. He began total loyalty wife it was who died, not Her- are they not? I think we ought training as a solicitor in 1881, bert. Lewis later survived a seri- to make clear that, when Dis- first in Chester, then moving makes him ous fall in a quarry in 1925 which establishment is settled, Wales on to a more glamorous life in broke his spine, but he remained will throw itself heart and soul London. pre-eminent mentally active, even though in the Labour movement’, not in Unlike Lloyd George, his amongst the bedridden. He wrote a letter of fact advice to which Lewis’s later public and private life spoke of farewell to Lloyd George, the career showed much response.12 sober respectability, as did the Welsh Lloyd latter told Frances Stevenson, For all of them, the advent dapper suits, wing collars, shiny but then wrote for the papers of local government reform pointed shoes and trim beard Georgians. and ‘received medals of recog- and the political revolution of which newspaper cartoons of nition for his work for Wales’.9 the county council elections him featured.6 He was an earnest Sylvester observed, ‘LG always of 1889 was an immense break- Calvinist Methodist, teetotaller said that Herbert would live to through. Ellis, an enthusiast for and public moralist. His mar- see all his contemporaries die, the cantons of Switzerland and ried life was beyond the most and write a letter of condolence the Tyrol, was the advocate of puritanical reproach. His first to their relatives.’10 civic populism in Parliament, wife, Adelaide (‘Ada’) Hughes, Even so, over thirty years and and from platform and pulpit.13 the daughter of a prominent more, they were good friends Lloyd George was too, in a more Liberal publisher, was and good travelling companions. openly class-conscious fashion, upright and honourable – and Lloyd George lived for a time and served on the first Caer- also a vigorous Liberal femi- in 1895 in Lewis’s flat in Pal- narfonshire County Council as nist and advocate of women’s ace Mansions in Addison Road ‘the boy alderman’. But Lewis suffrage, more forcibly so than in London. When he needed was more directly involved than Lewis himself. When she died, comfort and companionship in any of them. Elected unop- much to Lewis’s distress, just Cannes after the tragic death posed as Liberal Councillor in before the 1895 general election, of his young daughter, Mair, it the Llanasa district, he became he then married in 1897 Ruth, was his faithful Herbert who Chairman of the first Flintshire the daughter of the temperance travelled there, leaving his own County Council, at a meeting in leader W. S. Caine. Compared family behind in Flintshire. Mold in January 1889 at the age with Lloyd George, his private The transformation of Welsh of barely thirty, testimony to his life was a model of sobriety and social and political life in the already powerful local standing. restraint. Nor was he flamboy- years following the Reform Act He went on to become Chair- ant as an orator. On the contrary, of 1884 and the advent of demo- man of the County Intermedi- he himself lamented his lack of cratic politics in Wales during ate Education Committee and rhetorical flair in election meet- Gladstone’s heyday, soon drew rapidly built up the new system ings,7 especially in comparison him and Lloyd George together of ‘county schools’ in his native with the meteor from Llanys- in the pursuit of the noncon- county. Intermediate schools at tumdwy already beginning to formist and Liberal objectives Mold, Rhyl, Holywell, St. Asaph dominate the Welsh scene. His of the day.11 Soon he became and Hawarden resulted. He also quiet personality, too, might not Treasurer of the North Wales worked hard to promote techni- have been expected to endear Liberal Federation. It is signifi- cal education in the county. His him to Lloyd George on their cant, too, that an early private achievement here showed both various jaunts overseas. No one tutor of his was the Rev. E. Pan the careful attention to detail on could accuse him of a sense of Jones of Cysegr Chapel, Rhewl, committees that distinguished

20 Journal of Liberal History 57 Winter 2007–08 lloyd george’s flintshire loyalist

his later career as a government most consistent nationalist and the Saxon gold’ in the view of minister and also a notable dyna- devolutionist of them all. more extreme patriots.17 Lewis mism and capacity for leadership His links with Lloyd George was among those who put pres- that made Flintshire foremost in assumed a wholly new dimen- sure on the Welsh Parliamentary getting its new network of sec- sion when he was elected to Chairman, Stuart Rendel, with ondary education established. Parliament for the marginal whom he had a good relation- He remained Flintshire County constituency of Flint Boroughs. ship, for a Royal Commission to Council’s Chairman until 1893 It consisted of eight small towns be appointed to investigate the by which time he was a Member with a combined population of Welsh land question. This was of Parliament. 23,251, of which Flint, Mold, a fairly standard view amongst It was through his pioneer- Holywell and St. Asaph were the the Welsh Liberals at this time, ing efforts in local government most significant, but which also and Gladstone was compelled that he became close to national included Lewis’s own Caerwys. to acquiesce.18 Far more chal- politicians. He was in close con- The constituency’s electorate in lenging was the episode when tact with Tom Ellis throughout 1892 was a mere 3,710, a thou- Lewis (Joint Secretary of the the parliamentary passage of the sand fewer even than Caernar- Welsh Parliamentary Party by Intermediate Education Act in fon Boroughs. Anglicised and now) joined Lloyd George, D. A. 1889, already being considered as with some landlord and Church Thomas and Frank Edwards in a a mature and serious politician influence, balanced to a degree rebellion against the new Liberal whose judgement was valued.14 by nonconformist strength in Prime Minister in April 1894. He also championed the wider rural areas and some miners They threatened to withhold ‘nationalist’ cause of using the and quarrymen at Holywell and their support from the Rose- County Councils as the basis of a Mold, it was not a wholly secure bery government (whose small putative Welsh National Coun- seat for Lewis and his eventual and diminishing majority was cil which would propel Welsh move to the county seat from wholly dependent on the Irish) Liberalism into a more nation- 1906 was a distinct improvement. on the issue of Welsh disestab- ally conscious direction and pro- At the same time, his remarkably lishment, and urged their Lib- mote the idea of some kind of rebellious career in Parliament eral colleagues to do the same. devolution or home rule. In this over disestablishment and other He told Tom Ellis, ‘It is with the connection, he urged Ellis in Welsh causes in the early nine- greatest regret that I have taken 1891, with characteristic insight, ties, during the South African a step which means independ- ‘not to offend the South Wales War and later the Welsh ‘revolt’ ence of the Liberal Party. My people. They are touchy in the on education in 1902–05, is tes- recent talks with Ministers and extreme ….’15 It was this nation- timony to an uncomplicated members have convinced me alist initiative that particularly attachment to principle whatever that Wales is simply being led chimed in with the Cymru Fydd the possible electoral impact for on from step to step without any sentiment of the early nineties, himself. Like other rural Liberal definite goal in actual view, that of which the most vocal cham- solicitors, he had long visualised we have nothing to gain by sub- pion was David Lloyd George, a parliamentary career. He had servience to the Liberal Party, elected in a dramatic by-election worked hard for Lord Richard and that we shall never get the for Caernarfon Boroughs. By Grosvenor in the 1885 election, English to do us justice until we 1892 it was clear that Lewis was and was only narrowly beaten show our independence of them.’ amongst the closest allies of the for the Flintshire Liberal nomi- He asked Ellis rhetorically, ‘Will radical group of young Welsh nation in 1886 by the English- you come out and lead us?’ – a Liberals who emerged as the new man Samuel Smith, with whom pretty forlorn hope when writ- political elite of the late years of he always had an awkward rela- ing to one who was now the the century – Lloyd George and tionship.16 When the Flint Dis- government’s Chief Whip. In Ellis, of course, D. A. Thomas, trict Liberal nomination came At an early this episode, Lloyd George Sam Evans, Llewelyn Williams, up in 1891 Lewis was strongly appears to have regarded Lewis Ellis Griffith, William Jones, placed to win it, and in the 1892 stage, the as a particularly valued ally. the most inspired generation of general election he defeated the new Flint Whereas D. A. Thomas was a Welsh political leaders until the squirearchical Unionist, P. P. maverick coal tycoon and Frank rise of Bevan, Griffiths, and the Pennant, by 359 votes. Boroughs Edwards a relative lightweight products of the Central Labour At an early stage, the new Flint (who was to lose his seat in the College after 1918. Herbert Boroughs member was part of member was 1895 general election), ‘Herbert’s Lewis, always correct, modest, the awkward squad. He was dis- presence amongst us will in itself uncharismatic, was their enthu- tinctly cool in his comments on part of the be a source of great strength’, he siastic and courageous lieutenant. Tom Ellis’s agreeing to become a awkward wrote to his brother William.19 Indeed, of all the younger Welsh junior whip in Gladstone’s final Lewis was also foremost Liberal MPs, he was perhaps the government in 1892, ‘grasping squad. amongst those who backed

Journal of Liberal History 57 Winter 2007–08 21 lloyd george’s flintshire loyalist

Lloyd George’s new attempt interrogating the ­hapless doctor frequent oratorical and tactical to turn the ‘revolt’ on Welsh whom he correctly suspected assistance.24 He also showed a disestablishment into a wider of giving a wrong diagnosis of good deal of tactical shrewdness, campaign for Welsh home rule. Mrs. Lewis’s medical condi- using personal contacts and links Lewis was not a natural zealot tion, and arranging for a post with journalists with a skill not for Cymru Fydd. For one thing, mortem. He described the scene far behind that of Lloyd George he was not anywhere as gifted poignantly to his wife: ‘His himself. When, in the famous in Welsh as were men like Lloyd grief was appalling. The poor meeting of the South Wales Lib- George or Llewelyn Williams. T. boy was trying to pack. He was eral Federation at Newport on Marchant Williams (with much distracted. I couldn’t leave him 16 January 1896, Lloyd George exaggeration, admittedly) was in that state, so I took charge was shouted down by the ‘New- to ridicule Lewis’s attempts to of him. By degrees I quieted port Englishmen’ and Cymru give a Welsh speech during the him down.’ It was he who took Fydd was rejected, Lewis took Montgomeryshire by-election Herbert to grieve alone in the this as merely one battle in an of April 1894. He speculated large empty house in Caer- unending campaign. ‘This will that Lewis’s audience in Llan- wys.22 The whole episode casts be the end of the negotiations brynmair might have imagined light on a tender, gentle side of with them [the SWLF] and the they were listening to ancient Lloyd George which his critics WNF [Welsh National Federa- Hebrew or modern Greek.20 often miss. tion] will go ahead’.25 Through- Lewis did improve his com- Despite this bereavement out 1896 and 1897 Lewis acted mand of Welsh considerably as there is no doubt that Lewis was as though Cymru Fydd was very his career progressed, though it totally supportive when, a few far from defeated. He drafted is notable that his lengthy diary, days later, Lloyd George tried a scheme for a Welsh national which he kept from 1888 until to tack on a Welsh National organisation, based on the his death in 1933, was almost Council to administer the sec- premise that they should not be always written up in English. ularised Church endowments, provoking the South Wales Lib- Even so, Lewis appears to have within the framework of clause erals and encouraging national had no problem with Lloyd nine of the Welsh Disestab- sentiment in Glamorgan and George’s undoubtedly divisive lishment Bill. Many severely Monmouthshire. This proposal tactics in trying to turn the Lib- criticised Lloyd George for his for a Welsh National Liberal eral Federations of North and role at this time. On 20 June, Federation, however, aroused all South Wales into a framework the tottering government’s the old animosities of the Cymru for his quasi-separatist Cymru majority fell to only seven on Fydd episode and it finally col- Fydd League. Lewis’s influence the Welsh bill. The next day, lapsed in February 1898 in the was important in winning over the Rosebery government was face of further attacks from the the North Wales Liberal Federa- defeated by seven votes in the Cardiff Liberal Association.26 tion. Meanwhile Lloyd George Commons on the trivial ‘cord- Lewis had been its main pro- reassured him over opinion ite vote’. It resigned almost in ponent. He showed, indeed, within the South Wales Liberal a sense of relief, amidst much rather more persistence in pro- Federation. ‘I do not see any rea- criticism of Ellis’s competence moting the idea of a Welsh son for discouragement in the as party whip, while Liberals National Federation at this fact that South Wales has not like J. Bryn Roberts and, more period than did Lloyd George yet “risen’’ to the Cymru Fydd Lewis argued notably, Asquith, the former himself. In his diary in Febru- movement. It is only a question that Lloyd , condemned ary 1899, he noted his surprise of getting a thoroughly good Lloyd George for disloyal tac- that Lloyd George was reluctant organiser.’21 George was tics that weakened Rosebery’s to give his backing to a Welsh The sudden death of his government at a critical time.23 amendment to the Address: ‘it beloved wife Ada on 7 June absolutely Herbert Lewis never did. On was curious that I should have 1895, which left Lewis grief- the contrary, he argued that had to argue the subject in such a stricken, removed him from right in try- Lloyd George was absolutely quarter’.27 Two months later, he the political forefront for a ing to push right in trying to push Welsh turned down an offer from the short time. It is significant that Liberalism in a more openly new Liberal Leader, Campbell- Lloyd George was with him Welsh Lib- nationalist direction. After he Bannerman, that he should take in the Gwalia Hotel in Llan- narrowly retained his Flint Dis- up a junior whipship. In Lewis’s drindod Wells when he heard eralism in a trict seat in the general elec- view this would compromise his the news, and was the first to tion, he watched with consistent role as an independent voice for comfort him. Indeed, it is tes- more openly approval Lloyd George’s autumn Welsh Liberalism.28 The fires timony to his close relationship nationalist campaign in the south Wales of rebellion still surged within with Lewis at this time that he valleys to win support for Cymru him. Lewis flatly refused to fall spent much time and trouble direction. Fydd. Lewis himself gave him into the same trap as his recently

22 Journal of Liberal History 57 Winter 2007–08 lloyd george’s flintshire loyalist

deceased colleague Tom Ellis for Anglesey, the barrister Ellis There is no local constituency association.37 had done when he took office Griffith, who actually repre- It was perhaps the noblest and under Gladstone in August 1892. sented Dr Edwards, to Lloyd doubt that most selfless phase of his career, In the years of opposition George’s intense fury. Politically, as much so as that of Lloyd after the 1895 general election, Lewis was with Lloyd George at his approach George, which has been so fully Lewis was Lloyd George’s man, every turn. Following a jaunt to was based recorded in relation to Birming- though not exclusively so. He Boulogne together, they were ham Town Hall and elsewhere. remained friendly with Ellis to suspended together in a parlia- solely on Virtue was rewarded when the extent that they travelled in mentary protest against the 1896 Lewis got home, with an South Africa in the autumn of Education Bill. The Bishop, the principle, an increased majority of 347 (11 1895; they met Cecil Rhodes, a Brewer and the Squire were per cent) in the ‘khaki election’ momentous encounter for both, constant targets of Lewis’s meas- old Liberal’s for Flint Boroughs that Octo- though Lewis, a ‘little Englan- ured oratory. adherence to ber. But he pursued his crusade der’ in his view of the world, His association with Lloyd against the war to the bitter end, appears to have been more George’s brand of radicalism the historic with all the more passion when guarded than Ellis in his enthu- reached a dramatic new level Emily Hobhouse’s account of siasm for so aggressive a voice for when the South African War imperatives the deaths of thousands of Boer empire.29 At the end of 1898 he broke out in September 1899. mothers and little children in again went on holiday with Ellis, Like Lloyd George (who was of peace, Kitchener’s concentration camps 38 this time to Egypt and Palestine; in Canada when the war broke retrench- in the Rand was published. this was a more sombre trip in out), Lewis was an immedi- Since the effect of the war was view of Ellis’s delicate health, ate and vehement opponent of ment and to strengthen radicalism in the and indeed he was to die shortly the war. No one was a more party under Campbell-Ban- after his return to Britain, at the consistent ‘pro-Boer’. Not for a reform. nerman’s leadership and to give age of only forty.30 But on the moment does he seem to have the pro-Boer minority a new great contemporary issues, Lewis flinched from vehement attacks stature, the outcome was politi- was always in Lloyd George’s on the government, on Cham- cally advantageous to Lewis. camp and manifestly regarded berlain and on imperialism. On But there is no doubt that his his younger colleague as having 20 April 1900 he deplored how approach was based solely on unique gifts of leadership. He leading Liberals in Holywell principle, an old Liberal’s adher- went on holiday with him also, were ‘all more or less jingo. Mil- ence to the historic imperatives to Patagonia in the autumn of itarism has got hold of my peo- of peace, retrenchment and 1896. Their correspondence and ple in the most extraordinary reform. diaries do not shed much light on way. The light of Gladstone, Equally principled, though the details of their visit though Bright and Cobden, is quenched perhaps intellectually more tor- Lloyd George does comment on in darkness.’34 The precarious- tuous for a member of the legal Lewis’s enthusiasm for the deck ness of his election majority had profession, was Lewis’s promi- game of shovelboard.31 At any no effect in moderating Lewis’s nent role as Lloyd George’s rate, Lewis does not show any passionate anti-war crusade. lieutenant in the ‘Welsh revolt’ great qualms for Lloyd George’s Like Lloyd George he faced against Balfour’s Education Act involvement in the bizarre Pat- danger and violence from jingo of 1902 which nonconformists agonia gold scheme, with which ruffians at election meetings. He bitterly condemned for favour- he himself had an indirect finan- spoke with Lloyd George and ing and subsidising the schools cial connection.32 Bryn Roberts at a great anti- of the Established Church. On a more serious personal war rally in Caernarfon, which Lewis, unlike Lloyd George, issue, Lewis gave Lloyd George in fact proved to be distinctly had professional expertise in the the strongest backing during the more orderly than one of Lloyd organisation of education and Edwards paternity and divorce George’s at Bangor.35 Lewis was much technical experience in case when Lloyd George was one of four ‘pro-Boer’ Welsh the development of intermediate accused in late 1896 of adultery members (Lloyd George, Hum- schools. But he had no qualms in and fathering an illegitimate phreys Owen and Bryn Roberts endorsing Lloyd George’s strat- child. Lewis’s response was being the others), in the vote on egy that the Welsh county coun- tough and to the point. He told Sir Wilfrid Lawson’s anti-war cils should collectively act to Lloyd George: ‘the line you are motion in the Commons on 25 thwart the operation of the Act taking is right and necessary. I July 1900 when the Liberal Party in Wales. Indeed he often gave am confident you will come divided three ways.36 Lewis’s his friend useful tips on the legal out of the business stronger sense of moral outrage was such loopholes that could be identi- than ever.’33 Lewis’s position that he even considered resign- fied to their political advantage. was far more straightforward ing his seat rather than trim to For Lloyd George’s oratory and than, say, the Liberal member the jingo views of some in his tactics, his admiration knew no

Journal of Liberal History 57 Winter 2007–08 23 lloyd george’s flintshire loyalist

bounds. When they both took King at a social engagement at The years on Lloyd George’s remarkable part in meetings at Cardiff in Lord Tweedmouth’s, Lewis lent success in settling a threatened May 1902, Lewis observed: ‘I him his own, since they were of Liberal national railway strike the previ- have heard Lloyd George make roughly the same size.42 They ous October. many brilliant speeches but the were also frequent partners on hegemony Lloyd George’s further four speeches he delivered at the golf course, notably at Lewes begun by advance to become Chancellor Cardiff were a perfecttour de force. in matches arranged by Timo- of the Exchequer in April 1908 He did not repeat himself by a thy Lewis, Liberal Welsh MP the election after Asquith became Prime single sentence and every part and the husband of one of Lloyd Minister propelled Lewis’s idol of the speech was on the same George’s mistresses. landslide to new heights of constructive high level.’39 He was equally The years of Liberal hegem- statesmanship. The ‘People’s enthusiastic over Lloyd George’s ony begun by the election land- of January Budget’ speech on 30 April using the Educational Revolt to slide of January 1906 brought a 1906 brought 1909 was badly delivered, Lloyd promote Welsh national objec- golden period for Lewis no less George rattling through his tives as over disestablishment in than Lloyd George. He observed a golden lengthy text and almost losing 1895. When the Welsh members, his friend’s rapid ascent to power his voice: Lewis was at hand to influenced by cautious figures with unbridled admiration period for provide a restorative glass of egg like Bryn Roberts and Hum- and affection. He endorsed his and milk. But it was ‘the most phreys-Owen, were divided attempts to sort out the Welsh Lewis no less daring budget we have ever seen over tactics on 12 November clauses of Birrell’s abortive Edu- than Lloyd … one of the most remarkable tri- 1902, Lloyd George ‘swept eve- cation Bill of 1906, even though umphs of LG’s career’, especially rything before him in the most this resulted in a phantom Welsh George. in the way he managed to arouse peremptory fashion and car- Minister of State who was soon enthusiasm on behalf of the taxes ried them in favour of the Eng- wiped out from the Bill. Lloyd to be levied to finance social lish plan’. Lloyd George’s and George’s triumphs at the Board reform.46 Like Gordon Brown Lewis’s ultimate aim at this point of Trade appeared endless. Over in 2002, Lloyd George had made appears to have been to create a the 1906 Merchant Shipping Act, ‘tax and spend’ policies popular. Central Board for Wales for ele- ‘LG has succeeded where Cham- Throughout the prolonged cri- mentary schools, in addition to berlain failed. To have brought ses of the Budget, the conflict that already set up for secondary about an entente between capi- with the Lords and the final schools in 1896, on ‘a red letter tal and labour and to have pro- passage of the 1911 Parliament day for Welsh nationality’. ‘LG moted a measure which is to the Act, Lewis was an unflinching showed tremendous determina- interest of shipowners and sailors and vocal supporter at every tion and driving force in carry- alike has meant a display extend- turn. The National Insurance ing the thing through.’40 ing over several months of tact, Act of 1911 was a further tri- During the tortuous nego- astuteness and a power of man- umph – ‘probably the greatest tiations of the next three years, aging men which has put LG in social scheme ever put forward revolt against the government the front rank of constructive in this or any other country’. and default over operating the statesmanship.’43 The President’s Lloyd George had raised the Act, combined with attempts rattling through most of the idea in colourful fashion when at negotiations variously with 1907 Patents Bill in three hours discussing policy with Lewis at Sir William Anson and Robert in committee only brought the Criccieth in April 1908, imme- Morant at the Education Board comment: ‘that wonderful man, diately after he became Chan- and even with A. G. Edwards, by tact, suavity, concession, cellor.47 Lewis also sympathised the serpentine Bishop of St. adroit manoeuvring and skil- with Lloyd George’s troubles Asaph, Lewis was constantly ful handling very nearly got the at the hands of the suffragettes, at Lloyd George’s side. He was Bill through …’44 In February and was severely critical of the a shoulder to lean on when his 1908, Lloyd George, emerging militant tactics being adopted hero was nearly roughed up by from the trauma of the death of by them at Lloyd George’s hostile crowds – admiringly, he his beloved youngest daughter, meetings. The latter con- noted how Lloyd George kept Mair, triumphed in the very dif- fided in Lewis his fear of being a mob at bay on St. Albans sta- ferent sphere of labour relations. murdered.48 Lewis, like Lloyd tion platform by the expedient He achieved his ‘third great tri- George, was a women’s suffra- of very deliberately lighting umph’ in conciliation by settling gist, especially when his first his pipe.41 Nothing, it seemed, the engineers’ strike, appeal- wife was alive, but a distinctly should come between a man and ing to the humaner instincts gradualist one. On balance, his his right to smoke. When Lloyd of the engineering employers’ enthusiasm for women’s suffrage George impatiently inquired leader, Sir Andrew Noble of the seemed to wane over the years; of Lewis whether he needed a munitions manufacturers, Arm- the disruption of Lloyd George’s court suit when meeting the strongs.45 This followed close day at the Wrexham

24 Journal of Liberal History 57 Winter 2007–08 lloyd george’s flintshire loyalist

in September 1912 provoked the prospects for a Welsh Disestab- George, there was no one to comment ‘the usual insane suf- lishment bill in 1907 when many speak for Wales throughout the fragette demonstration’.49 But Welsh Liberals and nonconform- entire ranks of government, but here again Lewis was totally ist leaders were critical of Camp- he used his powers of man-to- convinced that Lloyd George bell-Bannerman. A strongly man diplomacy extremely well. was on the right lines and would pro-disestablishment speech by In early March 1909 after private triumph in the end. Lloyd George in a convention meetings with Lloyd George, Apart from this hero-worship, at Cardiff ‘restored equilibrium’ Lewis was able to announce his own career was also progress- in Lewis’s words. There was grants of £4,500 to the Library, ing, even if only as a minister of further doubt when the Welsh £2,000 to the Museum, and the second rank. In December Church Bill of 1909 fell by the £16,000 of grants to the Welsh 1905 he did take a whipship, as wayside. Lewis could in the end Colleges. ‘LG has behaved Junior Lord of the Treasury, and point to the introduction of a with great courage and deter- retained that post for four years. conclusive Disestablishment mination.’52 A year later, there Lewis worked well with J. A. Bill in 1912, on which he spoke was even better news, with the Pease, the Liberal Chief Whip, several times, and to its poten- Chancellor agreeing to £4,000 a in trying to impose discipline tial enactment under the terms year to the Library and a further on ‘a great mob of new members, of the Parliament Act in 1914. grant of £500 per annum for most of them absolutely ignorant Lewis was very apprehensive at two years towards cataloguing of the ways of Parliament’, and the apparent lack of enthusiasm the manuscript collections: ‘A with much effect. Lord Althorp amongst English Liberals for courageous action on LG’s part’, told him that he was ‘the popular the Welsh Bill. ‘Many Liberal given the depleted state of the whip … it is because you are a members are apathetic and even nation’s finances.53 Lewis was Celt’, whatever that meant.50 In hostile to the passage of the Bill. able to persuade such local prima 1909 Lewis moved to the Local They say it will do them a great donnas as Dr John Williams, the Government Board under the deal of harm in their constituen- Library’s president, and John unpredictable leadership of John cies.’ However, Lloyd George’s Ballinger, its imperious librarian, Burns, whose egotism alterna- ‘magnificent’ speech on 25 April that there was a secure financial tively amused and dismayed him. (he accused the Cecil family of basis for this national treasure- It is clear that Lewis, a most It is clear seizing Church endowments house at last. capable administrator, under- and pillaging monastic estates Lewis was therefore a pivotal took a good deal of the more that Lewis, a in the time of Henry VIII, leav- and characteristic figure at this difficult and detailed business in ing them with ‘hands dripping high noon of Welsh Edwardian handling committees and depu- most capable with the fat of sacrilege’) ‘gave Liberalism. He was involved in tations in place of his wayward the Bill a lift which it greatly most of the political, social and President. Lewis stayed here administra- needed’.51 cultural achievements of the until after the outbreak of war in tor, under- More constructively, perhaps, period. He was also a voice for 1914, on the whole a congenial he lobbied Lloyd George with that style of progressive, reform- role for one long versed in the took a good much effect on behalf of his ist liberalism which captured minutiae of local government, cherished cause of the National the public mind before the First and one that considerably broad- deal of the Library, along with the Museum World War, a constructive phase ened his political horizon. Thus and the funding of the Univer- in our politics to which Tony when war broke out, he was more dif- sity Colleges. This was a life- Blair amongst others has looked immersed in the complexities ficult and long crusade of his: since his first back nostalgically. Lewis was a of a committee on poor relief in entry into Parliament he had perfect symbol of how the Old London. detailed pursued the question of museum Liberalism gradually yielded Many of his endeavours as a and library grants being applied to the New. The older issues minister, inevitably, were con- business in to Wales. As champion of the of disestablishment, Church cerned with Welsh issues, with new copyright National Library schools, temperance and land many positive results. Lewis was handling in Aberystwyth, Lewis was reform remained unfinished heavily involved with patron- committees extraordinarily effective. He business. But increasingly social age matters: for instance he used his friendship with Lloyd welfare was dominating the persuaded Lloyd George to sup- and depu- George to excellent purpose in public agenda. Lewis viewed all port the Oxford history don February–March 1909, at a time Lloyd George’s new enthusiasms Owen M. Edwards for the post tations in when the Chancellor was heav- with equanimity. At the same of Chief Inspector of Schools, ily engaged in dealing with the time, it is clear that for him the when the Chancellor himself place of his financial troubles of the naval reforms served in some measure had his doubts. Lewis was inevi- wayward estimates and preparing the as a bulwark against socialism. tably prepared to accept Lloyd People’s Budget. Lewis noted The national strikes of 1911–14 George’s assurance over the President. privately that, apart from Lloyd disturbed him as they did other

Journal of Liberal History 57 Winter 2007–08 25 lloyd george’s flintshire loyalist traditional liberals, with their his ­reluctant resignation in 1904 Lewis His friend ‘has taken a greater violence and apparent threat to as a consequence of some tortu- part in the world’s affairs than the constitution and economic ous local manoeuvres.57 Apart certainly any Welshman that ever lived’, fabric. He worried at the impact from significant pockets of non- Lewis reflected.60 of the 1912 miners’ strike, not conformists, there was a good showed He felt apprehension at least on the Flintshire miners industrial vote for the Liberals plenty of Asquith’s Liberal government in the small pits around Buck- in Connah’s Quay and Shot- giving way to a coalition in May ley in his own constituency. He ton, and Lib-Lab miners around intellectual 1915, and reluctantly accepted thought an ILP socialist like Buckley. Hence both the 1910 the new post of Under-Secre- was callously una- elections were won with some energy tary at the Board of Education ware of the attachment of Welsh comfort even though ‘territo- on 28 May. He would have pre- miners to ‘home and people and rial persecution was rife in some in this ferred a complete break from language’ and the importance parts of the county, particularly important office, he confided to his diary, to them of the rents they paid in Maelor and the Bodfari dis- giving vent to his usual concern on their cottages.54 Tom Ellis’s trict’, and the Trade ‘being very new post, at his delicate health. But, in old advice to him back in 1891 keen and active’.58 Lewis, now fact, he continued as an active, to focus in the longer term on into his middle fifties, was still especially in even robust minister, and was labour issues did not appear to full of zest for the fight, despite to serve in his new depart- bear much fruit in Lewis’s case. littering his diary with accounts piloting the ment for almost seven and a half Other Flintshire Liberals, like of endless colds and ‘chills’, and 1918 Educa- years. He struck up a good rela- Fred Llewellyn Jones, the solici- days spent almost incomprehen- tionship with his initial Presi- tor and coroner of Isfryn, Mold, sibly in bed. In June 1914, when tion Act dent of the Education Board, were to gravitate in time towards Lloyd George was shortly to tell Labour’s . the Labour Party. For Lewis that the London Mansion House through the This period saw Lewis launch could never be an option.55 audience that ‘the sky was rela- with a grant of £25,000 the But a combination of meas- tively blue’ in the international Commons supremely important initiative ured social reform (Lewis field, Lewis himself had a cheer- with much of the Department of Scientific became friendly with Lloyd ful tour of Germany, going on and Industrial Research, which George’s reforming doctor asso- from Hamburg and Bremen as far aplomb. he saw as bringing the universi- ciate, Dr Christopher Addison) as Berlin.59 His diary notes show ties and the business world closer and beguiling Lloyd Georgian no sign of detecting an imminent together. He worked even bet- labour conciliation would steady international catastrophe. For ter with Henderson’s successor the ship and keep the Tories at Herbert Lewis of Plas Penucha, it from December 1916, H. A. L. bay. To read Lewis’s diaries and seemed, smiling and serene blue Fisher, the distinguished Lib- letters down to August 1914 is skies also lay ahead. eral historian and future War- in no sense to gain an indication Then came the war. Of course, den of New College, Oxford.61 of what Dangerfield so mislead- it brought a seismic transforma- Lewis certainly showed plenty ingly described as the ‘strange tion in the role of Lloyd George, of intellectual energy in this death’ of Liberal England – or coalition with the Tory enemy important new post, especially Wales. Lewis enjoyed power. He and an eventual almost six years in piloting the 1918 Education felt that the Liberals had control in 10 Downing Street, fol- Act through the Commons of it, deserved it, and had the lowed by his abrupt ejection with much aplomb. Like Mark greatest Welshman in history in from office forever. Herbert Twain’s death, Lewis’s decline place to ensure that they retained Lewis followed him faithfully was distinctly exaggerated. it. The Tories, wrong-footed on at every turn. Like his colleague, After the ‘coupon election’ of National Insurance, yoked with he accepted the necessity and December 1918, he continued at difficult allies like the Diehard indeed morality of the war. It Education for almost four more peers, the Welsh bishops and was being fought, he believed, years, his energies apparently the Ulster Covenanters, unsure on behalf of liberal principles of undiminished. in their philosophy about either self-determination and natural Lewis followed closely the state or social cohesion,56 justice. He was fortified in this the twists and turns of Lloyd were not in Lewis’s view close view by having to handle the George’s political career dur- to returning to power at all, and reception of immigrant Bel- ing the war. As his oldest liv- certainly did not deserve to. gian refugees who migrated to ing friend, he saw the Prime His confidence was forti- Britain in the autumn of 1914, Minister quite frequently: his fied by his strength in his new which he did with character- diary records a series of lunches, county constituency. He had istic efficiency. Lloyd George’s breakfasts or political conversa- been elected for Flintshire in growing role in war strategy as tions with Lloyd George through January: his dour predecessor, well as war finance in early 1915 the war years, often at ­Downing Samuel Smith, had announced evoked only further admiration. Street. Lloyd George saw in

26 Journal of Liberal History 57 Winter 2007–08 lloyd george’s flintshire loyalist

Lewis a reliable, totally discreet he dismissed Maurice scorn- Central Welsh Board, as his observer of the political world fully as a disappointed general most reliable sounding-board on in general. Lewis’s expertise on not worth an undue amount of Welsh education. It was a con- the shipping industry was espe- bother.64 The ferocity of Lloyd structive time of change. Edu- cially useful to him during the George’s rhetoric (e.g. ‘cocoa cation, after all, was a foremost war years. He also introduced slop’) does not seem to have dis- element in the government’s the Premier to the progressive turbed him. proclaimed intention of a brave young naval officer and critic of In 1918 he loyally accepted new world of social reform after the Admiralty, Commander J. Coalition Liberal nomination the election. Things became far M. Kenworthy.62 Nearer home, for the new University of Wales more difficult from 1920 with Lloyd George used Lewis skil- seat: he himself had been active the rigours of economy and fully in March 1915 in persuad- in alliance with Lord Kenyon ‘anti-waste’ being applied to the ing Welsh Liberals that the in securing a parliamentary seat government’s educational pro- government intended to perse- for the Welsh university in the grammes. Lewis joined Fisher in vere with the disestablishment of Representation of the People strong defence of the day con- the Welsh Church, until it came Act, after an initial defeat on tinuation schools. They threat- into operational effect after the amendment.65 With his elec- ened a joint resignation against war, despite the government’s tion address rightly emphasising Cabinet proposals which ‘would temporary tactical confusions. his long service to Welsh edu- automatically have the effect of Prophetically, Lloyd George cation, he trounced a woman scrapping the Education Act’. He was recorded as saying that ‘he Labour candidate, winning 80.8 wrote to thank the Prime Min- believes that the great question of per cent of the vote. After the ister in backing them in Cabinet reconstruction which will arise election, indeed, for a time his in the face of economy propos- after the war will peremptorily career rose to new heights of als from the Chancellor, Austen push aside sectarian controversy’. activity. After receiving many Chamberlain.67 They got their Lewis concluded: ‘After all, but accolades (including from Fisher way but had an even tougher for him there would have been himself) for his role in carrying fight in resisting the Geddes Axe no Parliament Act and no Dis- through the new Education Act, which loomed over education in establishment Act’.63 he was also variously preoccu- 1921. In fact, the ministers had Throughout the tortuous pied with teachers’ superannua- somewhat more success in fend- political manoeuvres of 1916, tion, a Libraries Act, educational ing off educational cuts than is Lewis (like Ellis Griffith but grants for ex-servicemen and frequently represented, notably unlike Llewelyn Williams) the Royal Commission on the over the school entry age, the backed Lloyd George solidly For his part, University of Wales. In 1921, he size of classes, and maintain- over military conscription told E. W. Evans, editor of the ing the Burnham awards on (despite his own Gladstonian, H. A. L. Cymro, that his experience at the schoolteachers’ salaries. Lewis anti-military background). He Fisher clearly Education Board showed how felt able to claim afterwards that was amongst the hundred-odd far more could be achieved for the bulk of Fisher’s achievement who signed up secretly when regarded Wales within a British govern- for public education remained Addison, David Davies and oth- ment rather than in independ- undisturbed.68 ers canvassed Liberal MPs that Lewis, ent sorties on the political fringe. Politically, Lewis appeared to spring about the prospects of a Fisher’s educational policies had have no problem with the Coa- Lloyd George premiership in rather than brought tangible and measur- lition government. He saw in succession to Asquith. He was a the local able benefits to Wales: the ‘Fisher the Coalition a government of wholly committed supporter of formula’ would give Wales an national unity, ‘the embodiment the new Prime Minister from worthies on additional £100,000, while the of the spirit of accommodation’. December 1916 and stayed on Education Act of 1918 would ‘Party’, declared Lewis, ‘would at Education; if he was disap- the Central give new educational opportu- rather have no bread than half a pointed at failing to gain fur- nities to 20,000 boys and girls.66 loaf ’.69 Ever loyal to his master, ther promotion, Lewis does not Welsh Board, By comparison, the Secretary he was one of the Liberal min- show it. He backs Lloyd George as his most of State for Wales proposed in isters who attended the meeting at every turn, including the some Liberal circles by men like of the National Liberal Federa- crisis of the Maurice Debate reliable the shipowner MP Sir Robert tion at in May in May 1918 when the Prime J. Thomas, was a trivial matter. 1920, a famous brawl when gov- Minister was accused of falsely sounding- Manifestly, the youthful nation- ernment ministers were heck- representing the strength of the alist rebel of 1894 had long since led by Asquithian partisans and military reserves at the western board on vanished. walked out in collective defi- front. Lloyd George’s speech of Welsh For his part, H. A. L. Fisher ance.70 Lewis was also prepared self-defence, said Lewis, was ‘a clearly regarded Lewis, rather to take part in the turbulent ­triumphant vindication’ while education. than the local worthies on the Cardiganshire by-election in

Journal of Liberal History 57 Winter 2007–08 27 lloyd george’s flintshire loyalist

February 1921 when two Lib- But that of Herbert Lewis, who mate friend for nearly forty years, erals, one Lloyd Georgian, one had announced his resignation the focus of so much of his ener- Asquithian, contested the seat from Parliament long before and gies and his admiration, simply in a passionate atmosphere. He planned an extensive series of dropped him. In the great cam- told his wife Ruth, ‘This elec- overseas tours to tropical climes paign against unemployment tion is dividing up families in to celebrate freedom at last, and industrial stagnation, the the most peculiar way.’ The out- undoubtedly was. At least he crusades for the Green, Yellow come was a narrow, but decisive ended up with a knighthood. and Orange Books in 1925–29, defeat for the Asquithian Liberal Herbert Lewis’s last phase even as a name to be used in candidate, Lewis’s old ally of was conducted largely away election propaganda, Herbert Cymru Fydd days, W. Llewelyn from the limelight and on the Lewis need never have been. He Williams, now a bitter oppo- margins of politics. His major died in November 1933, almost a nent of Lloyd George, who had public concerns now were his forgotten man. broken with his old friend over continuing campaign to get But his achievement tran- conscription and later lreland.71 proper funding for the National scends the ages. Indeed, so many No doubt some of his bitterness Library of Wales, and his work of the badges of modern Welsh spilled over in the direction of for Bangor and the University of nationality – Museum and Herbert Lewis as well. Wales.73 He continued to cam- Library and University; county However there were limits to paign for improved grants for councils, county schools and the political compromises that the National Library, he bought administrative devolution along even Lewis might make. At the major collections of manuscripts with Welsh legislation from curious meeting of Coalition from his own funds to present Intermediate Education in 1889 Liberal ministers on 16 March to its archives, and he was to to Church Disestablishment in 1920, when Lloyd George and serve as its President. His impos- 1919 – are an essential part of Churchill tried to persuade ing bust casts its gaze on visitors his legacy. The Liberalism of them to endorse a ‘fusion’ with to the library today. His tragic pre-1914 remains the source of the Coalition Unionists, Lewis accident when he fell down a so much of the institutional and was one of many who dis- quarry at J. H. Davies’s home in cultural distinctiveness of mod- sented – perhaps the only time north Cardiganshire in 1925 and ern Wales, and Herbert Lewis in his career when he and Lloyd broke his spine otherwise effec- was not the least of its archi- George were at odds. ‘In Wales tively ended his career. Lloyd tects. Indeed, his supreme objec- it would be practically impos- George ignored him from now tive, that devolution for which sible to get anything in the on. Lewis had nothing more to he campaigned in vain in the shape of fusion between the offer. As has been noted, Lloyd 1890s, has now come into vig- local Associations.’72 Even in the George regarded him somewhat orous fruition, a hundred years very changed politics of post- quizzically as a long-term survi- late. In accounts of the career war, with the old aspiration of Lewis vor who was somehow miracu- of Lloyd George, the devoted Church disestablishment now lously still alive despite decades friendship of Herbert Lewis accomplished amidst a sense of remained of alleged ill-health. Prior to his is hugely underestimated. He anti-climax, Lewis remained accident, Lewis toured India. sustained his tempestuous col- the traditional Liberal of Glad- the tradi- He received Welsh and other league in numerous crises – the stonian days. He would not honours by the score. He had 1894 disestablishment rebellion, give up the old faith, the old tional Liberal become, as he approached his the Cymru Fydd crusade, the principles, certainly not the old of Gladsto- seventies, the classic embodi- South African War, the Educa- party name. In the end, he and ment of late Victorian and tion Revolt – when they were Lloyd George’s followers were nian days. Edwardian ‘official liberalism’ young colleagues and rough forced into a political cul-de- and a conformist nonconform- political equals. But as a source sac. The Liberal supporters of He would ity, a public-service professional, of disinterested advice and reas- Lloyd George had nowhere else a symbolic remnant of a disap- suring judgement, Lewis was to turn when the rank-and-file not give pearing past in a new society always there whenever Lloyd Tories broke with them in Octo- up the old dominated by the polarity of George felt he needed him – and ber 1922 over Lloyd George’s capital and labour. he frequently did. No doubt he handling of the Chanak cri- faith, the old Many politicians kept in close had to turn a frequent blind eye sis which threatened war with touch with him, especially Fisher as he pursued higher political Turkey. The Unionist revolt at principles, who developed a warm admira- causes. Neither Lloyd George’s the Carlton Club on 19 Octo- tion for his sterling qualities, and peccadilloes with money or ber 1922 abruptly turfed Lloyd certainly not used Lewis as a sounding-board women get a mention in his dia- George out of office and out of the old party for his concerns for the various ries. He backed his friend to the power. His political career, in crises of Liberalism in the twen- hilt when he was accused of cor- the event, was far from over. name. ties.74 But Lloyd George, his inti- ruption during the Marconi case

28 Journal of Liberal History 57 Winter 2007–08 lloyd george’s flintshire loyalist in 1912, while his observations 73. In a foreword to a book of Herbert 10 A. J. Sylvester, p. 63. on Dame Margaret (whom he the present writer’s, Taylor also 11 For these matters, see Kenneth O. greatly admired) never suggest advanced the view that Lloyd Lewis was Morgan, Wales in British Politics that the Lloyd George family George ‘was the greatest ruler 1868–1922 (Cardiff: University of home was anything other than a of England [sic] since Oliver one of those Wales Press, 1963 (new paperback nest of domestic bliss. But in the Cromwell’: Kenneth O. Morgan, who kept ed., 1992)), pp. 76 ff. broader context, Herbert Lewis Lloyd George (London: Weidenfeld 12 Ellis to Lewis, 31 October 1891 was one of those who kept Lloyd and Nicolson, 1974), p. 8. Lloyd George (NLW, D.R. Daniel papers, A19k). George politically and perhaps 2 J. M. Keynes, Essays in Biography 13 See especially his Addresses and personally honest – not at all a (London: Mercury, 1961 ed.), p. 36. politically Speeches (Wrexham, 1912); Neville straightforward task. He helped 3 Arnold Bennett’s Lord Rainqo Masterman, The Forerunner (Lland- to ensure that, throughout all (1926) depicts Lloyd George as and perhaps ybie: C. Davies, 1972); and Ken- the vicissitudes of party and the Scotsman Andy Clyth, while personally neth O. Morgan, ‘Tom Ellis versus coalition, of industrial turmoil Joyce Cary’s Prisoner of Grace (1952) Lloyd George: the Fractured Con- and economic decline, in war depicts him as the Englishman (? honest – sciousness of Fin-de-siècle Wales’, and in post-war reconstruc- Devonian), Chester Nimmo. in Modern Wales: Politics. Places and tion, his charismatic Welsh col- 4 The most helpful study of Lewis not at all a People (Cardiff: University of Wales, league remained at bottom the is the Welsh-language collective 1995), pp. 362 ff. same populist democrat and book edited by his daughter, Kitty straightfor- 14 Cf. Ellis to Lewis, 24 July 1889 committed progressive that he , Syr Herbert Lewis ward task. (NLW, Daniel Papers, A19k). had always been. Men such as 1858–1933 (Cardiff, 1961). Two of 15 Lewis to Ellis, 15 August 1891 (NLW, Lewis, like C. P. Scott, ensured the authors wrote centenary trib- Ellis Papers). See also J. Graham that Lloyd George stayed a man utes in Flintshire Historical Society Jones, ‘Alfred Thomas’s National of the centre-left, part of that Publications, Vol. 18 (1960) – Sir Ben Institutions (Wales) Bills of 1891–2’, fount of reformist energy which Bowen Thomas, pp. 131–41, and Welsh History Review, Vol. 15. No. 2 men like Beveridge, Keynes and W. Hugh Jones, pp. 142–55, the (December 1990). pp. 230–31 . Michael Young later replenished. latter dealing with Lewis’s work in 16 Cf. Samuel Smith to Lewis, 12 Sep- If Lloyd George never lapsed local government. A useful thesis is tember 1904 (NLW, Lewis Papers, into the fate of Joseph Chamber- Timothy P. Erasmus, Herbert Lewis A1/173). lain, still less of Ramsay Mac- and Welsh Radicalism: A Study of the 17 J. Arthur Price to J. E. Lloyd, 14 Donald, if he retained his radical Political Career of John Herbert Lewis October 1892 (University of Wales, impulses even during the later (1858–1933) With Special Reference to Bangor Library, Lloyd Papers, MSS. years of Hitler-worship and the the Period 1892–1906 (Bangor: Uni- 314, no. 449); Lewis to Ellis, 19 May final descent into an earldom, it versity of Wales, unpublished PhD, 1892 (NLW, Ellis Papers). was decent, honest free spirits 1988). The author summarised his 18 Ellis to Herbert Lewis, 7 and 18 like Plas Penucha’s guardian of conclusions in ‘In His Earnest Way: November 1892 (NLW, Ellis Papers, the faith, who kept him so. A Brief Outline of the Life and 2896, 2899); Lewis to Ellis, 17 and Political Career of Herbert Lewis 22 November 1892 (NLW, ibid., Kenneth O. Morgan (Lord Mor- (1858–1933)’, a lecture to the Flint- 1403, 1404); Rendel to Lewis, 14 and gan of Aberdyfi in the County of shire Historical Society, 31 October 15 November 1892 (NLW, Lewis Gwynedd) has been one of Britain’s 1992. I should like to pay my per- Papers). More generally, see Morgan, leading modern historians for over sonal tribute to the late Mrs Kitty Wales in British Politics, pp. 123–26. thirty years, and is known espe- Idwal Jones who gave me generous 19 Lewis to Ellis, ? May 1894 (NLW, cially for his writing on Welsh his- hospitality and guidance when I Ellis papers); David Lloyd George to tory, Lloyd George and the Labour first worked on the Lewis papers in William George, ? April 1894 (NLW, Party. His books include biographies Plas Penucha in 1960. William George Papers, 252). of David Lloyd George (1974), Keir 5 Erasmus, ‘In his Earnest Way’ , p. 4. 20 Marchant Williams, The Welsh Hardie (1975), Christopher Addison 6 For example, a cartoon by Will Members of Parliament, p. 22. (1980), (1997) and Morgan in T. Marchant Williams, 21 Lloyd George to Herbert Lewis, Michael Foot (2007). The Welsh Members of Parliament 22 June 1894 (Lewis Papers). The (Cardiff, 1894), p. 20. Lewis Papers are a rich mine of This article originally appeared in 7 Lewis’s Diary, 22 January 1906 information on the Cymru Fydd the Journal of the Flintshire His- (National Library of Wales, Lewis movement, 1894–96. torical Society (Vol. 36, 2003) and Papers B20). 22 W. R. P. George, Lloyd George: is reprinted here with the kind per- 8 Colin Cross (ed.) A. J. Sylvester, Life Backbencher (Gower Press: Lland- mission of the Editor, Mr G. Veysey, with Lloyd George (London: Mac- ysul, 1983), pp. 168–70; David Lloyd and of the author. millan, 1975), p. 63. George to his wife, 7 June 1895, in 9 A. J. P. Taylor (ed.), Lloyd George. A Kenneth O. Morgan (ed.), Lloyd 1 A. J. P. Taylor, English History Diary by Frances Stevenson (London: George Family Letters. c.1885–1936 1914–45 (Oxford: OUP, 1965), p. Hutchinson, 1971), p. 245. (Oxford and Cardiff: OUP and

Journal of Liberal History 57 Winter 2007–08 29 lloyd george’s flintshire loyalist

­University of Wales, 1973), p. 45 Lewis’s Diary, 25 February (ibid., B28). National Expenditure’, meet- 85. 1908 (ibid., B22). 60 Lewis’s Diary, 8 February 1915 ings between 10 January and 17 23 J. Bryn Roberts to H. H. 46 Lewis’s Diary, 29 April 1909 (ibid., B29). February 1922 (Public Record Fowler, 5 October 1895 (NLW, (ibid., B23). 61 See H. A. L. Fisher, An Unfin- Office, CAB 27/165), and Bryn Roberts Papers, 236); 47 Lewis’s Diary, 4 May 1911 (ibid., ished Autobiography (London: to Fisher, Asquith to Ellis, 30 November B25); Bentley B. Gilbert, David OUP, 1940) and the chapter 13 January 1922 (Bodleian 1895 (NLW, Ellis Papers); Mor- Lloyd George, Vol. I (London: by B. B. Thomas in K. Idwal Library, Oxford, Fisher Papers, gan, Wales in British Politics, pp. Batsford, 1987), p. 339. Jones (gol.), Syr Herbert Lewis, box 1). To a degree, Fisher was 156–58. 48 Lewis’s Diary, 24 November pp. 84–95. using statistical and other mate- 24 Lewis’s Diary, 1895 (NLW, l911 and 5 September 1912 62 D. Lloyd George, War Memoirs I rial supplied to him by Herbert Lewis Papers, B7); D. Lloyd (ibid., B25, B26). (London: Odham’s Press, 1938), Lewis. George to Lewis, 5, 11 and 31 49 Lewis’s Diary, 5 September p. 698. 69 Lewis, ‘Notes on the Coali- December 1895, 4 and 16 Janu- 1912 (ibid., B26). 63 Lewis’s Diary, 24 March and tion Government, 1920’ (NLW, ary 1896 (ibid., D/30/36–43). 50 Lewis’s Diary, 22 March 1906 15 March 1915 (NLW, Lewis Lewis Papers). 25 Lewis’s Diary, 16 January 1896 and 24 April 1907 (ibid., B20. Papers, B29). 70 Morgan, Consensus and Disu- (ibid., B8). B21); Cameron Hazlehurst and 64 Lewis’s Diary, 9 May 1918 (ibid., nity, p. 202. 26 Memorandum, Lewis to Lloyd Christine Woodland (eds.), A B32). 71 Lewis to his wife, 17 February George, 1897 (NLW, William Liberal Chronicle: Journals and 65 Lewis to Beriah Gwynfe Evans, 1921 (Lewis Papers) and Lewis’s George Papers, 4271). Papers of J. A. Pease. 1908 to 1910 30 January 1918 (NLW, Lewis Diary, 18 February 1921 (ibid., 27 Lewis’s Diary, 6 February 1899 (London: The Historian’s Press, Papers). B35). Also see Morgan, ‘Car- (NLW, Lewis Papers, B12). 1994, p. l4. 66 Lewis to E. W. Evans, 7 Janu- diganshire Politics: the Liberal 28 Lewis’s Diary, 27 April 1899 51 Lewis’s Diary, 25 April and 22 ary 1921 (ibid.). Ascendancy, 1885–1923’, in (ibid.). May 1912 (NLW, Lewis Papers, 67 Herbert Lewis to Lloyd George, Modern Wales, pp. 242–47. 29 Lewis’s Diary, 1895 (ibid., B7); B26); Lewis to his wife, 24 13 and 20 December and 72 Lewis’s Diary, 16 March 1920 cf. T. I. Ellis, Cofiant Thomas April 1912 (Lewis Papers). For ‘Nadolig’ 1920 (House of Lords (Lewis Papers, B34). Edward Ellis. Cyf. II (Liver- Lord Hugh Cecil and Lloyd Records Office, Lloyd-George 73 For important material on pool: Evans, 1948), pp. 122–23, George’s speeches, see H. of C. of Dwyfor Papers, F/32/22–24). Lewis’s work for the University for Ellis’s earlier enthusiasm for Parl. Deb., 5th ser., XXXVIII, 68 Kenneth O. Morgan, Con- College at Bangor, of which he Rhodes. 1294ff. sensus and Disunity: the Lloyd became Vice-President in 1906, 30 Lewis’s Diary (Lewis Papers, 52 Lewis’s Diary, 26 February and George Coalition Government, see J. Gwynn Williams, The B11). 11 March 1909 (NLW, Lewis 1918–1922 (Oxford: Clarendon University College of North Wales: 31 Lewis’s Diary, 1896 (ibid., B8) Papers, B23). Press, 1979) pp. 288–94. For Foundations 1884–1927 (Cardiff: refers to his enthusiasm for 53 Lewis’s Diary, 23 February 1910 Fisher’s comparatively success- University of Wales, 1985), pp. this (to me) incomprehensible (ibid., B26). ful resistance to the economies 125–27, and B. B. Thomas, op. game. 54 Lewis’s Diary, 1 March 1912 proposed by the Geddes com- cit., pp. 131–41. 32 Ibid. (ibid., B26). mittee and the Chancellor, 74 There are several reflective let- 33 Herbert Lewis to Lloyd George, 55 Fred Llewellyn Jones, later Sir Robert Horne, see ‘Report, ters from Fisher to Lewis in the 2 November 1896 (NLW, Wil- Frederick Llewellyn-Jones Proceedings and Memoranda later 1920s in the Lewis Papers liam George Papers, 4219). (1866–1941), one of the last of of the Cabinet Committee on in NLW, Class A. 34 Lewis’s Diary, 20 April 1900 the Liberal grandees of the (NLW, Lewis Papers, B13). Ellis-Lloyd George era, joined 35 Lewis’s Diary, 24 April 1900 the Labour Party in March 1918. History Group on the web (ibid.). However, he later rejoined the The Liberal Democrat History Group’s website, www. 36 The Times, 31 July 1900. Liberals and became Liberal liberalhistory.org.uk, is currently undergoing an extensive 37 Lewis to P. Harding Roberts, (later National Liberal) MP for revamp and reorganisation (see also advert on page 15). 23 July 1900 (NLW, Lewis Flintshire, 1929–35. Thanks to funding kindly provided by the Joseph Rowntree Papers). 56 See on this general theme, Reform Trust for the Liberal History Online project, we have been 38 Lewis’s Diary, 1901 (ibid., B14). Ewen Green, The Crisis of Con- able to extend the website’s content well beyond our original 39 Lewis’s Diary, 21 May 1902 servatism (London: Routledge, expectations, with the result that its internal architecture was no (ibid., B 15). 1995). longer able to cope well. So it has been radically redesigned to 40 Lewis’s Diary, 12 November 57 See John Owen to Lewis, 23 provide a more easily navigable internal structure. This is a lengthy 1902 (ibid.). June 1903, R. Llew Jones to process, however, and is not yet complete – please bear with us while it is in process! 41 Lewis’s Diary, 6 February 1904 Lewis, 22 August 1903, P. (ibid., B18). Harding Roberts to Lewis, 31 42 Lewis’s Diary, 6 March 1904 August 1903 (NLW, Lewis Email mailing list (ibid.). Papers, A/143, 150, 151) for If you would like to receive up-to-date information on the Liberal Democrat History Group’s activities, including advance notice of 43 Lewis’s Diary, 16 November aspects of these manoeuvres. meetings, and new History Group publications, you can sign up to 1906 (ibid., B20). 58 Lewis’s Diary, 24 January 1910 our email mailing list: visit the website and fill in the details on the 44 Lewis’s Diary, 9 August 1907 (ibid., B24). ‘Contact’ page. (ibid., B21). 59 Lewis’s Diary, 3–6 June 1914

30 Journal of Liberal History 57 Winter 2007–08 letters Three hundred years of Liberal history

Lloyd George’s school group’s website at www. There has been a lot of arbedllanystumdwy.com. interest recently in David There are also stories Lloyd George. The last about the campaign on the Liberal Prime Minister website of the Lloyd George was a finalist in the His- Society (www.lloydg- tory Group’s ‘Great Liberal’ eorgesociety.org.uk). competition (see pp. 4–15), Graham Lippiatt leadership candidate Chris Huhne chose him as his hero (see pp. 32–33), and a Prime Ministers’ wives statue of LG was unveiled In the review of Prime in Parliament Square in Ministers’ Wives – and One October. Husband ( Journal of Liberal It now seems that Plaid History 56, autumn 2007), I Cymru-led Gwynedd am not sure if the references Council want to close his to ‘Sarah Campbell-Ban- boyhood school in the vil- nerman and Annie Bonar lage of Llanystumdwy. Law’ are by Mark Hichens A number of Lib Dem (author) or Dr. J. Graham MPs, including all four Jones (reviewer). of the party’s Welsh MPs, However, Lady Camp- signed an early day motion bell-Bannerman always used in October protesting her second name, Charlotte, The History Group’s pamphlet is a concise guide to Liberal history: 300 years in 24 pages. Copies can be obtained, price against the closure threat. not Sarah (she was baptised £2 (£1.50 to Journal subscribers): You can follow the story Sarah Charlotte). Mrs Bonar of the campaign and help Law died in 1909, thirteen • Send a cheque (to ‘Liberal Democrat History Group’) to save this historic school by years before her husband LDHG, 38 Salford Road, London SW2 4BQ. Add 50p for postage (UK). signing the ‘Save Llanys- became Prime Minister. • The History Group’s exhibition stand at the Liberal tumdwy’ online petition Dr. Alexander (Sandy) S. Democrat spring conference in Liverpool in March. by logging on to the protest Waugh

Liberal Democrat History Group meetings programme 2008 Monday 4 February (National Liberal Club, London): Liberals and local government in London For details, see back page. Friday 7 March (Crowne Plaza Hotel, Liverpool): Salad days: merger twenty years on For details, see back page. Tuesday 15 April (National Liberal Club, London): Kettner Lunch meeting on David Lloyd George With Owen Lloyd George, the 3rd Earl Lloyd George of Dwyfor and grandson of the Liberal Prime Minister. The Kettner Lunch costs £15 for two courses and coffee. Places can be reserved by phoning Peter Whyte on 01344 423184. Saturday 14 June (London School of Economics): Torrington ‘58: Liberal survival and revival? A day conference to mark the 50th anniversary of Liberal victory in the Torrington by election. The conference will investigate the role and the development of the Liberal Party 1945–1979. As well as opening and closing keynote speakers, sessions will cover: • The Liberal record in local government • Campaigns • Leadership and leaders • Relationships with other parties Further details will be included in the next Journal. July (London): summer meeting Details yet to be finalised. September (Liberal Democrat conference, Bournemouth): fringe meeting Details yet to be finalised.

Journal of Liberal History 57 Winter 2007–08 31 OLD HEROES FOR A NEW LEADER

As we have done in Nick Clegg MP – Harry Willcock; Vaclav Havel each of the last two n recent weeks I’ve made debate at the Club, and it is said Liberal Democrat it clear that I’d be prepared that ‘freedom’ was the last word leadership elections, Ito go to court rather than be to pass his lips. forced to give personal informa- The arguments of Will- in 1999 and 2006, tion about myself to a compul- cock and the liberals of his day sory Identity Cards database. remain relevant. The Liberal in November the So it’s probably no surprise that Democrats continue to stand Liberal Democrat the first of my liberal heroes is against an over-bearing state a North London dry cleaner, and are willing to take a stand History Group asked Harry Willcock. for what we believe. both candidates for When stopped by police My second hero is Vaclav in 1950 and asked for his ID Havel – a man who married the Liberal Democrat card he refused, with the now high art and high politics. leadership to write a famous words: ‘I am a Liberal. I His leadership of the Charter am against that sort of thing.’ 77 manifesto group and then short article on their Harry was an active Lib- the Velvet Revolution was an favourite historical eral, having been a councillor inspiration to people of my and parliamentary candidate. generation who witnessed and figure or figures – the Thanks to his stand, which was admired his courage, and that of supported by Liberal MPs and other freedom fighters behind ones they felt had Lords at the time, the ID cards the Iron Curtain such as Lech influenced their own programme was first challenged Walesa. He showed that men of in the courts and then finally principle and character truly can political beliefs most, scrapped. He showed that one change the world. and why they had man willing to take a stand can Havel spent many years in change the system. prison and even when released proved important and What Havel The liberal argument put was kept under surveillance relevant. Their replies forward by Harry and others in and constantly harassed. Yet his and Willcock opposition was a fundamental determination to change the were posted on our share is a one; it was an argument about government of his country for website during the liberty and the relationship the better did not falter. He put willingness between the individual and the at the cornerstone of his activi- leadership election, and state. For them, the imposi- ties a belief in the importance are reproduced below. to take a per- tion of ID cards was intolerable of non-violent resistance. Few because of the power it gave to politicians can ever hope to Their heroes? Vaclav sonal stand the state, a power which was move people in the number of inevitably abused. ways that Havel did with his Havel, David Lloyd on issues of I was moved recently to see words and deeds. George and Harry freedom and the plaque in the National Lib- He is also a particular hero eral Club in Harry’s honour. of mine because many years ago Willcock. liberty. He died while participating in a I met him in his presidential

32 Journal of Liberal History 57 Winter 2007–08 OLD HEROES FOR A NEW LEADER

­palace in Prague. At the time What Havel and Willcock Lloyd George ­metropolitan politician: a I was working on the Czech share is a willingness to take believer that the best and purest Republic’s application to join a personal stand on issues of was an opti- instincts were to be found in the European Union and he freedom and liberty. It is, quite the misty valleys of his beloved gave a small group of us a con- simply, the essence of liberalism mist who Wales, from which he drew siderable amount of time. He is – and that is why they are my believed in emotional strength. Combined a small, quiet man, with a com- political heroes. with this optimism was a great pelling intensity about him. the power of sense of mischief, captured for me in the marvellous Low car- ideas to per- toon, a copy of which I have on my study wall. Lloyd George is suade and sitting, elfin-like, on the green Chris Huhne MP – David Lloyd George change the benches, hugging himself with mirth; never pompous, always y hero is David Lloyd be ever-sensitive to the moods world. able to see the folly and the George. An outsider, and motivations of their audi- ridiculousness of power and Mwith none of the ences. As Chancellor of the position. benefits of inherited wealth or Exchequer, he was the kingpin In the 1930s, he was the education, he became one of of the government’s attempt to only mainstream politician the most dynamic and brilliant force through social welfare and who understood John Maynard politicians ever to lead the Lib- overcome the opposition of the Keynes’s analysis of the causes eral Party. House of Lords. of mass unemployment and the He was a radical to his bones. The old age pension is his only statesman with the vision His early prominence came most durable domestic achieve- to banish it. It is the country’s partly through his campaign ment, and a testament to his loss that he was never given the against the Boer War. He helped New Liberal thinking. The chance to do so. to build an anti-war coali- roots of this tradition are the Lloyd George remains a fig- tion including not merely the wellspring of Liberal Democrat ure of controversy, but he had a advanced elements of the party, thinking today, whether com- real and lasting impact, both on outraged by imperial aggres- ing through the New Liberal – the country and on the party. sion, but also some of the most or ‘social liberal’ – tradition or He has the strongest claim conservative and rural elements, the social democratic tradition to be the father of the British who identified with the inde- that rejoined us in 1981. welfare state and he was a great pendent qualities of the Boers. I also find Lloyd George’s war leader at a time of desper- In government, Lloyd style as a politician appeal- ate national need. He brought George had a passionate belief ing. He was an optimist who Liberalism into the twentieth in his own ability to cajole and believed in the power of ideas century, adjusting successfully persuade, amply demonstrated to persuade and change the to the new politics of a mass during labour disputes as Presi- world, and he was always industrial democracy and ensur- dent of the Board of Trade. He prepared to throw himself ing that it stood for radical social was a great speaker, but also a into the political battle even and economic reform. He has great listener. The two are con- when the odds looked stacked been dead for sixty years – but nected: great speakers have to against him. He was an anti- his record should inspire us all.

Journal of Liberal History 57 Winter 2007–08 33 A Fine and Disinterested Spirit the life and activities of Aneurin Williams

During the early twentieth century, the liberal conscience of many radicals spurred them to speak openly on issues of importance, particularly with relation to British foreign policy. This group of dissenters, or ‘troublemakers’, as A. J. P. Taylor dubbed them, consists mainly of figures who have remained obscure.1 This is certainly the case for Aneurin Williams, a back- bench Liberal MP, who is death in Janu- The death of Mr Aneu- was engaged by an ary 1924 came just rin Williams removes extraordinary number fourteen months from the public life of this after losing his par- country a fine and disin- of causes, all of which liamentary seat and terested spirit, and leaves Hfollowing a prolonged period of many good causes bereft benefited enormously debilitating ill-health. However, of a devoted servant. He from his personal it did not go unnoticed; among ground many axes in his 3 2 the numerous tributes paid to time, but never his own. involvement. Barry him was the following from A. Dackombe analyses G. Gardiner, the former Daily Referring to the axes metaphor, his life and activities. News editor: the international lawyer Sir

34 Journal of Liberal History 57 Winter 2007–08 A Fine and Disinterested Spirit the life and activities of Aneurin Williams

John Fischer Williams observed father was particularly keen to long line of nineteenth-century that, ‘the axes were ground very support local efforts to maintain iron founders to hold such a posi- fine and the grindstone was no Welsh identity, culture and lan- tion. This early introduction to common material’.4 Among the guage. The family’s links with local politics served as a catalyst causes Williams championed Welsh culture were particu- for Aneurin and his two broth- were proportional representa- larly strong, as Aneurin’s great- ers: Illtyd, three years his senior, tion, the garden city movement, grandfather was the infamous served on Middlesbrough Town co-operation and co-partner- Edward Williams (1747–1826) Council between 1886 and 1892, ship, international peace and who, under his bardic name Iolo while Penry, seven years his jun- the League of Nations, together Morganwg, acquired consid- ior, became Liberal MP for Mid- with the rights of the oppressed. erable fame and notoriety as a dlesbrough.7 He also had two Always taking a leading and radical, poet, scholar, collector elder sisters: Mary, who married sometimes a pioneering posi- and creator – or literary forger local doctor John Hedley, and tion within these movements, he – of ancient Welsh poetry and Jane, who married John Belk, strove with unstinting devotion manuscripts.6 Aneurin was justly part-time Clerk to the Town to promote the twin ideals of proud of his Welsh ancestry and Council. justice and co-operation. ensured that Iolo’s extensive col- Aneurin and his brothers Aneurin Williams was born lection of manuscripts and letters were educated under the care of at Dowlais, Glamorganshire, on was deposited with the National the Rev. John Samuel Dawes, 11 October 1859, the second son Library of Wales, a process con- who ran a private school in of Edward Williams (1826–86), tinued by his children in the Surbiton.8 However, while Ill- who was at this time the Assist- 1950s and 1960s. tyd and Aneurin proceeded to ant General Manager of the The family was securely St John’s College, Cambridge, Dowlais Iron Company, and positioned at the heart of Tee- Penry failed to follow them. The later General Manager of Bol- side’s vibrant Welsh commu- exact reason for this is difficult to ckow and Vaughan’s expanding nity, which contributed to the ascertain, but the sudden dete- ironworks at Middlesbrough. unique atmosphere of Middles- rioration of their father’s health Such was Edward’s success that brough, a town with an unpar- just at the time Penry would he has been described as ‘one of alleled growth rate and a strong have been expected to go up to the giants of the iron age’, and by nonconformist Liberal tradition. Cambridge may well have been 1879 he was able to purchase the This in part helped shape Aneu- a contributory factor. Linthorpe Ironworks situated rin’s political ideas and philoso- While at Cambridge, Aneu- close to the River Tees. 5 Impor- phy, as did his father’s political rin read for the classical tripos tantly, this would provide Aneu- interests: Edward was a strong and was a regular speaker at the rin with valuable administrative advocate of universal adult suf- Union. On graduating he entered experience and sufficient means frage, disestablishment of the the Inner Temple, and was called to pursue his chosen path. in Wales, to the Bar in 1884. However, Despite leaving his native equal rights for Ireland and tem- during his legal training he Wales at the age of only seven, perance legislation. Edward was became so moved by the influ- Aneurin maintained a strong first elected to Middlesbrough ential penny pamphlet, The Bitter affinity with and interest in the Town Council in 1868 and in Aneurin Williams Cry of Outcast London: An Enquiry principality, especially as his 1873 became Mayor, one of a (1859–1924) into the Condition of the Abject Poor,

Journal of Liberal History 57 Winter 2007–08 35 a fine and disinterested spirit that he determined to work in Among the health, and subsequent death in analytical chemist of Newcastle- London’s East End to undertake June. Consequently, Aneurin on-Tyne, and niece of Sir Joseph what he termed ‘social studies’. In causes Wil- returned to Middlesbrough to Swan.12 The Middlesbrough June 1884, he approached Canon help his brothers in managing the climate was not conducive to Samuel Barnett, founder and first liams cham- family ironworks. His brother Helen, particularly following Warden of Toynbee Hall, in Lon- pioned were Illtyd had, since his graduation the birth of their first child; as don’s Whitechapel, to ascertain from Cambridge, become heav- a result of her increasingly deli- the possibility of becoming a res- proportional ily involved in the daily manage- cate health, Aneurin was forced ident. The university settlement ment of the ironworks, assisting to look for a healthier climate movement, of which Toynbee representa- his father who had increasingly in which to live. After a period Hall was the best-known institu- been precluded from active work living in the Dorking area they tion, proved a strong attraction tion, the due to ill-health. Illtyd would finally settled in 1892 on Hind- for many young graduates from garden city subsequently become chair- head, near Haslemere in Surrey, Oxford and Cambridge. Though man of the ironworks and later an area popular with late-Victo- not all were Liberals, many, like movement, he also became a director of the rian and Edwardian writers and Aneurin, were able to utilise their much larger Bolckow, Vaughan scholars. Its reputation as hav- experience to talk with authority co-operation & Co. Ltd. ing a healthy atmosphere also on urban social problems. Indeed Despite being removed from attracted Arthur Conan Doyle, for many future Liberal MPs, the and co- his new vocation in London’s whose first wife suffered from experience was of such impor- partnership, East End, Aneurin was deter- tuberculosis. Other neighbours tance that the settlements were mined to maintain his inter- of note included Gilbert Murray, regarded as an important training international est in public work. As a result the Hon. Rollo Russell, George ground for both politicians and he became heavily involved Bernard Shaw and the publisher civil servants. peace and in Local University exten- Algernon Methuen. As a conse- Suitably encouraged by his sion classes, assisting Middles- quence of this relocation, Aneu- discussions with Barnett, Aneu- the League brough’s poor, and of course rin could no longer play an active rin began to make plans to of Nations, Liberal politics, particularly part in the day-to-day manage- join the first Toynbee settlers. Home Rule for Ireland and the ment of the family ironworks. However, by September 1884, together disestablishment of the Church Instead, on the recommendation because of ill-health, which of England in Wales. His first- of Professor Alfred Marshall, was to plague him intermit- with the known publication was issued he turned his attention to the tently for the rest of his life, he during the passage of the Irish work of the Labour Association, was persuaded to take a recu- rights of the Home Rule Bill in 1886; here whose object was to promote the perative trip to North America. oppressed. he sketched out plans for each of idea and encourage the develop- After his break, he returned to the four ‘nations’ to have their ment of co-partnerships between Cambridge to study political own House of Commons to employers and employees.13 This economy under Professor Alfred debate and approve bills, which enabled him to develop lasting Marshall. Only in the autumn would then pass to a combined relationships with many Euro- of 1885 was Aneurin finally able Parliament of all four Houses pean co-operators, through his to take up his residence at Toyn- for a final reading and approval involvement with the Interna- bee Hall, also giving a series of or sending back, thereby replac- tional Co-operative Alliance, as lectures on political economy. ing the House of Lords as the a founder member and chairman These lectures would bring him second chamber.10 With the from 1908 until 1920. to the attention of Sidney Webb, introduction of the second The labour co-partnership who sought Aneurin’s help in Home Rule Bill in 1893, he set movement enabled him to come giving lectures to ‘extension’ out his concerns about how the into contact with various Mem- classes within working men’s differences between the Protes- bers of Parliament interested clubs, and attempted to persuade tant north-east of Ireland and in promoting worker involve- him to become a member of the the predominantly Catholic ment, such as , Fred .9 Despite Aneu- remainder of the country could Maddison and . It rin’s reservations, he was on be reconciled.11 This inter- was through such individuals good terms with several leading est in Ireland would continue and the politicised Haslemere Fabians, including John A. Hob- throughout his life; he made community that he gained first- son, Graham Wallas and George numerous visits there in order hand knowledge of the ‘pro- Bernard Shaw. to view at first hand the effects Boer’ groups at the end of the Unfortunately Aneurin’s of rule by Westminster. nineteenth century. Following period of social work was In 1888 Aneurin married the ‘khaki’ general election of brought to an abrupt end in the Helen Elizabeth Pattinson, the October 1900 he resolved to spring of 1886, with the seri- daughter of John Pattinson, an become more actively involved, ous deterioration of his father’s eminent and well-respected and was soon serving on the

36 Journal of Liberal History 57 Winter 2007–08 a fine and disinterested spirit executives of both the League J. Annan Bryce.14 Soon after the ­presented to Parliament by Gor- of Liberals against Aggression formation of the Liberal govern- don Harvey in 1904. and Militarism and the South ment in December 1905, Aneu- Together with some of his Africa Conciliation Commit- rin learned that he was to be put Land Nationalisation Soci- tee (SACC). The publication forward for the Medway seat ety colleagues, Aneurin was a of Conan Doyle’s The War in in Kent. As the first challenger founding member and director South Africa: its Causes and Con- to the incumbent Conserva- of First Garden City Limited, sequences in January 1902 caused tive since 1892, he was natu- the company that turned Eben- great consternation to Aneurin rally uncertain of his chances. ezer Howard’s pioneering vision and his colleagues. As a result His election address stressed the of a garden city into the reality he was commissioned by the need for free trade and social of Letchworth. Aneurin served SACC to write a detailed reply reform, while opining that any as its chairman between 1906 to this popular pamphlet, since progress and freedom at home and 1915, during Letchworth’s for most people the statements could only come as a result of founding years, a post he held made by Doyle were incontro- peace abroad.15 However, despite concurrently with his chairman- vertible and it was even rec- the national swing to the Liber- ship of the Land Nationalisation ommended reading for some als, Aneurin failed to secure his Society, and in consequence government ministers. The end much-desired victory by a mar- acquired a reputation as an of the war precluded the publi- gin of just 106 votes.16 expert on housing reform. cation of his anti-Doyle work, During the election cam- Aneurin had greater electoral research for which had been paign, Aneurin announced that success in January 1910, when aided by leading members of the he was in favour of land reform he was elected, together with pro-Boer community, includ- in both town and country. This Charles E. Mallet, for the two- ing Emily Hobhouse and John was not surprising, as he had member constituency of Ply- A. Hobson. since the turn of the century mouth. However, both lost their Importantly, the Anglo-Boer been a member of the execu- seats in the December election War provided a stimulus for tive of the Land Nationalisa- and Aneurin was left to con- Aneurin’s political ambitions, tion Society. The society’s aims centrate upon a therapeutic trip which culminated in his stand- were to get land properly valued to South Africa.17 This visit to ing for election in 1906. He was and taxed, and where possible the recently-established Union not alone among his former to encourage public owner- Group of Liberal of South Africa gave him the pro-Boer contemporaries in ship of land. Utilising Aneurin’s supporters opportunity to recover from a attempting to enter Parliament legal knowledge and experience with Aneurin serious case of neuritis in his arm in this election; others included the society was able to get the Williams, on visit and also enabled him to see at G. P. Gooch, Percy Alden and ‘Tax and Buy’ Bill drafted and to London, c.1914 first hand some of the nation and

Journal of Liberal History 57 Winter 2007–08 37 a fine and disinterested spirit

strong ­advocacy of peace and arbitration, and concern over military spending, as exempli- fied by the Dreadnought build- ing programme, were widely debated during his candidacy. This did not make him a pacifist, except in the eyes of his detrac- tors; rather he was what Martin Ceadel has termed a pacificist.21 Pacificism is defined as the belief that war can ultimately be pre- vented and abolished through reforms which establish justice in both international and domestic politics. War can only be justi- fied in order to safeguard politi- cal reforms and achievements. During the First World War Aneurin’s credentials as an inter- nationalist were firmly estab- lished. Since the beginning of the century he had worked closely people on whose behalf he had women over the age of thirty to Cartoon in with and James campaigned a decade earlier. vote in parliamentary elections, Consett Guardian Bryce to champion the rights of On his return he devoted provided they were household- (6 February subject peoples of the Ottoman his attention to the numerous ers or wives of householders. 1914) following Empire.22 Their involvement causes to which he had become Interestingly, Aneurin’s personal Aneurin was channelled through the Bal- Williams’s committed, including propor- support for women’s suffrage kan Committee and the British by-election tional representation. Through was not sufficient to receive the victory in Armenia Committee, extra-par- his work with the SACC, he backing of Mrs Fawcett of the January 1914. liamentary groups supporting the had come into regular contact National Union of Women’s principle of self-determination with Leonard Courtney and Suffrage Societies during the ‘Aa hope ye’ll like for the Macedonians and Arme- together in 1905 they had set 1914 by-election campaign for yor new Seat, nians respectively. Indeed he also out to revive the executive of the North West Division of Mr. WILLIAMS. supported the notion that the the Proportional Representation Durham.19 Instead, she gave Aa didn’t fancy Irish question should be settled Society.18 Following Courtney’s her support to G. H. Stuart, the cummin ower along these lines. death in 1918, Aneurin became Labour candidate. While Aneu- wi’ them other Following the outbreak of its chairman until 1921, and rin’s pro-suffrage views were in cheps, ye see war, and Turkey’s entrance on aa’ve cum ower then its treasurer for the final accordance with those of a large the side of the Triple Alliance, th’ wattor aal me two years of his life. As a result, majority of Liberals, a minority life in this boat, news soon reached Aneurin of his energies were soon directed of Cabinet ministers, including and aaltho yor a the Armenian massacres, the to finding ways of introduc- Asquith, were totally opposed new boatman aa beginnings of what has since ing proportional representation to women being given the vote, feel quite safe.’ been termed the first genocide to British elections. During his whereas the Labour Party advo- of the twentieth century. While first term in Parliament he intro- cated universal suffrage, regard- the emotive term genocide was duced the Municipal Elections less of gender. not employed by Aneurin and (Proportional Representation) The North West Durham by- his associates, they nonetheless Bill, which passed through the election, which took place on 30 regularly described the treat- House of Lords but failed due to January 1914, saw Aneurin chal- ment of the Armenians as being insufficient time. In 1916, how- lenged by both a Unionist and, co-ordinated with the intention ever, he was invited to join the for the first time, a Labour can- of ‘exterminating’ and ‘extirpat- Speaker’s Conference on Elec- didate. The entry of the Labour ing’ the Armenian race.23 While toral Reform and utilised his candidate in an area dominated the actual number of deaths has position to argue for both pro- by miners and iron workers, been disputed, it is estimated portional representation and dramatically reduced the Lib- that between one and a half women’s suffrage. While he was eral majority and although million and two million Arme- unsuccessful with the former, Aneurin was elected, marks a nians lost their lives.24 In addi- the resultant Representation of key stage in the transition of tion to raising public awareness, the People Bill (1918) did enable this seat to Labour.20 Aneurin’s Aneurin was instrumental in the

38 Journal of Liberal History 57 Winter 2007–08 a fine and disinterested spirit establishment of the Armenian 1918, establishing the League of good.30 As it turned out, how- Refugees (Lord Mayor’s) Fund Nations Union, which would ever, the endorsement was very to provide much-needed aid. become one of the most suc- short-lived and Aneurin went The first two months of the cessful peace organisations dur- to the poll against both Coali- war saw Aneurin developing ing the inter-war period. At tion and Labour candidates. ideas for a League or ‘Society of the insistence of Davies, who Despite strong opposition he Nations’, which would mutu- financed the Union during its was returned as the MP for the ally protect members through first months, Aneurin’s role re-designated Consett constitu- what was later to be known as was severely curtailed, and his ency, by a margin of just under ‘collective security’. From his significance has as a result been 300 votes.31 On returning to standpoint, the use of sanctions eroded to such an extent that Westminster he sat as part of the or mutual protection against ‘by the time all the Archbishops rump of Liberals to be returned aggressive nations was the only and party leaders had come in, without the coupon. He was possible way to achieve a last- Aneurin Williams had lapsed joined by his brother Penry ing peace.25 As previous disar- He believed into comparative obscurity’.28 who, despite being issued with mament policies and arbitration in social While Lloyd George declared the coupon, had repudiated it. treaties had failed, the League his support for the League of Since the formation of the members should be required to reform and Nations concept, it never really coalition government, in May enforce the just rights of each played a part in the 1918 general 1915, Aneurin had decided to member against aggressors by the liberty election campaign. Following sit on the opposition benches, the use of coercion, either eco- the Armistice, he announced and as a result was deemed by nomic or military. While the of the indi- that in the forthcoming general some to be an ‘extreme radical’. eventual League of Nations vidual and, election be would be standing Although he was sympathetic to failed on several counts to live as the leader of the coalition, the aims of the Union of Demo- up to Aneurin’s expectations, it despite its rather than simply as a Liberal. cratic Control, he decided against was, he believed, the first step Further, on 29 November, while following his friends and col- towards something greater. disunity, speaking at Newcastle-on-Tyne, leagues into the movement and Aneurin’s ideas were initially he declared that only Liberals their subsequent path towards published in The Contemporary he saw the who had shown they could be Labour.32 Whether he ever seri- Review, under the editorship of Liberal Party depended upon to support the ously contemplated a move to his old pro-Boer and Balkans coalition, and had not taken Labour is difficult to tell, but it colleague G. P. Gooch. Fol- as being the ‘advantage of temporary dif- is evident that he saw that many lowing its publication, Aneurin ficulties in order to overthrow independent Liberals would actively sought out individuals best means the Government’ would receive naturally gravitate towards the sympathetic to his beliefs and his endorsement.29 In his sights, Labour Party. He believed in this nucleus became the League of achiev- it was claimed, were those who social reform and the liberty of Nations Society. They sought ing this. had voted against him in the of the individual and, despite gradually to raise public aware- Maurice debate in May 1918, its disunity, he saw the Liberal ness of the need for a League of Throughout, in which Asquith had proposed Party as being the best means Nations, by publishing discus- a motion to investigate claims of achieving this. Throughout, sion documents and organis- Aneurin that the government had mis- Aneurin remained a radical Lib- ing public meetings. Aneurin, led Parliament over the strength eral and never considered him- together with fellow Liberal remained of British forces on the western self a true Asquithian, nor did MP Sir Willoughby Dickinson, a radical front. While Aneurin’s brother he truly embrace Lloyd George steered the Society through its and most of his friends and col- with whom there appears to early years until David Davies Liberal and leagues had voted for the motion, have been a certain animosity. MP and his associates attempted he was amongst the eighty-five The presence of Lloyd George, to take control at its annual never con- to abstain or find themselves with Frances Stevenson, at general meeting in June 1918.26 absent from the House. nearby Churt, did little to fur- As a result, Virginia Woolf sidered him- The agreement with the ther endear him to Aneurin in observed that ‘the jingoes were self a true Conservatives was already pub- his latter years. defeated by the cranks’.27 Dav- lic knowledge, and so it came Ill-health continued to trou- ies then set up the alternative Asquithian, as a complete surprise when ble him, and in 1922 he was per- League of Free Nations Asso- Lloyd George’s agent, speak- suaded to take a recuperative trip ciation; however, Sir Edward nor did ing to the Newcastle press a few to Australia. During the voyage Grey, who had been invited to days earlier, identified Aneurin he received the devastating news be President, insisted the two he truly as a coalition candidate. Aneu- of his wife’s death, and this was societies begin negotiations embrace rin confided to his wife that rapidly followed by news of the for their eventual unification. he didn’t think Lloyd George’s forthcoming general election This duly occurred in October Lloyd George. ‘blessing’ would do him any following the Carlton Club

Journal of Liberal History 57 Winter 2007–08 39 a fine and disinterested spirit

‘coup’. In Aneurin’s absence, his Ursula Williams an impressive sight campaigning Williams and former American children campaigned hard but (standing on in the male-dominated mining President Woodrow Wilson, could do little to halt the ‘wave right of picture), community of north-west Dur- at the Armenian Church of St of socialism which swept over daughter of ham; however, the forty-eight Sarkis, in London’s Kensington. the county of Durham’.33 Defeat Aneurin Williams, per cent of the vote she secured His role in raising awareness of with women was not totally unexpected as the was insufficient to oust the sit- the plight of the Armenians was campaign 35 Labour base had been building workers during ting Labour MP. The Conserv- highlighted in the Welsh cam- since their first foray during the the 1923 election atives failed to put up a candidate paign for official recognition of 1914 by-election, and following in this election, and they would the genocide, which culminated the 1918 election, Aneurin had only contest one of the remain- in the dedication of the Welsh accurately foreseen the migra- ing four elections before the out- national memorial to the Arme- tion of moderates to the Con- break of the Second World War. nian Genocide in Cardiff on 3 servative Party and the radicals Aneurin’s last public act November 2007. to Labour.34 was to engage in a debate in As a parliamentarian, Aneu- By the time of the December The Times and the Westminster rin Williams left no lasting leg- 1923 general election, Aneurin’s Gazette regarding the outcome acy, although he was appointed health was such that he was una- of the 1923 election and the need Chair of the Public Accounts ble to accept the appeals of his it demonstrated for proportional Committee in 1921. His contri- Durham constituents to stand representation – particularly as bution outside Parliament was again. Instead, the local Lib- without it he foresaw the Liberal far greater, working tirelessly eral Party adopted his daughter, Party being squeezed out.36 on behalf of the causes he pas- (Helen) Ursula, as their candi- He died on 20 January 1924 sionately believed in, invari- date. Despite being only twenty- and was buried at Grayshott ably to the detriment of his own seven years of age and too young Church, Hampshire. At his health. He expected no personal legally to vote, she had consid- funeral there were representatives reward or aggrandisement from erable experience assisting her and messages of condolence from his actions, and to those who father during the 1918 election a wide spectrum of society and knew him he was ‘conspicuous and with her brother, Iolo, on the numerous causes he advo- for ability and self-effacement’. their father’s behalf during the cated. As a fitting tribute, on 10 November 1922 election. In a February that year, a joint memo- Barry Dackombe is a PhD research hard-fought contest she made rial service was held for Aneurin student at the Open University,

40 Journal of Liberal History 57 Winter 2007–08 a fine and disinterested spirit whose thesis examines the brough, from January 1910 to Astor, C, 7,650; Rt. Hon. Sir Press, 1915). expression of Liberal interna- December 1918, and Middles- H. M. Durand, C, 7,556; the 26 Sir Willoughby Dickinson tionalism between the Boer War brough East, December 1918 to December results were, W. W. (later Lord Dickinson of Pain- and the First World War through November 1922, and December Astor, C, 8,113; A. S. Benn, C, swick) was Liberal MP for St the involvement of Aneurin 1923 to October 1924. 7,942; C. E. Mallet, L, 7,379; A. Pancras North , 1906–18 and Williams and his associates with 8 Rev. Dawes held a Doctorate Williams, L, 7,260. David Davies (later Lord Dav- a series of single-issue pressure of Divinity from Trinity Col- 18 See Jenifer Hart, Proportional ies of Llandinum) was Liberal groups. This biography has been lege, Dublin and a PhD from Representation: Critics of the Brit- MP for Montgomeryshire, made possible through access to the University of Jena, Ger- ish Electoral System, 1820–1945 1906–29. Aneurin Williams’ personal many. His children included (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 27 Anne O. Bell (ed.), The Diaries papers, which are still in the care Elizabeth, who was the first 1992), ch. vii. of Virginia Woolf (London: Pen- of his family and are currently woman to receive a DLitt, and 19 Mrs Fawcett to Aneurin Wil- guin, 1979), Vol. i, pp. 157–58. being catalogued by the author. was one of the new additions to liams, January 1914, Dame 28 Sir John Squire, The Honey- the Oxford Dictionary of National Millicent Fawcett Papers, suckle and the Bee (London: 1 A. J. P. Taylor, The Troublemak- Biography (Oxford: Oxford Manchester Archives and Local William Heinemann, 1937), p. ers: Dissent over Foreign Policy, University Press, 2004). Studies, M50/2/9/7. 64. 1792–1939 (London: Hamish 9 Aneurin Williams Papers (Pri- 20 The election results were: 29 Trevor Wilson, The Downfall of Hamilton, 1957). vate Collection), Letter from A. Williams, L, 7,241; J. O. the Liberal Party 1914–1935 (Lon- 2 Aneurin was MP for Ply- Sidney Webb, 5 Jan 1887. Hardicker, C, 5,564; G. H. Stu- don: Collins, 1966); The Times, mouth, January to December 10 The pamphlet was originally art, Lab, 5,026. 30 November 1918, p. 9. 1910; North West Durham, to be printed under the pseu- 21 See Martin Ceadel, in 30 Aneurin Williams Papers, 1914–18; Consett, 1918–22. He donym of ‘Federal’; however, Britain, 1914–1945: The Defining Letter to H. E. Williams, 24 does appear in the Dictionary of the final version instead identi- of a Faith (Oxford: Clarendon November 1918. Labour Biography, ed. Joyce Bel- fies him as ‘A.W.’;Home Rule by Press, 1980); Martin Ceadel, 31 The election results were: A. lamy and John Saville (London: Development: An Alternative Plan Thinking About Peace and War Williams, L, 7,576; R. Gee, Macmillan, 1974), Vol. I, pp. Home (Middlesbrough: The (Oxford: Oxford University Coalition National Democratic 346–47. Printing and Publishing Co., Press, 1988); Martin Ceadel, Party, 7, 283; G. H. Stuart- 3 The Nation, 26 January 1924. 1886). Semi-detached Idealists: The Brit- Bunning, Lab, 7,268. 4 J. F. W. [John Fisher Williams] 11 Aneurin Williams, Home Rule: ish Peace Movement and Inter- 32 In the Dictionary of Labour Biog- ‘Aneurin Williams: A Personal An Appeal for Conciliation and a national Relations, 1854–1945 raphy, ed. Bellamy and Saville, Tribute’, Representation: The National Settlement (London: (Oxford: Oxford University he is erroneously cited as being Journal of the Proportional Repre- William Ridgway, 1893). Press, 2000). a Member from February sentation Society, no. 42, Febru- 12 Sir Joseph Swan was the Brit- 22 Noel Buxton was MP for North 1915. While Charles Trevelyan ary 1924, p. 4. ish inventor of the electric light Norfolk, Jan. 1910–1918 (L) attempted to get him to join the 5 South Wales Daily News, 14 May bulb and later went into part- and 1922–1930 (Lab). He was UDC’s General Council, he 1910; see also David J. Jeremy nership with Thomas Edison elevated to the House of Lords declined, preferring to concen- and Christine Shaw (eds), Dic- to manufacture light bulbs in in 1930; James Bryce was MP for trate his efforts on the League tionary of Business Biography: A Great Britain. Tower Hamlets, 1880–1885 and of Nations concept (Aneurin Biographical Dictionary of Busi- 13 This was later renamed the South Aberdeen, 1885–1907. He Williams Papers, Williams to ness Leaders Active in Britain in Labour Co-Partnership Asso- was British Ambassador to the Charles Trevelyan, 8 January the Period 1860–1980, 5 vols. ciation so as better to reflect its United States 1907–13 and was 1915). (London: Butterworth, 1986), objects. created Viscount Bryce in 1914. 33 Wilson, The Downfall of the Lib- Vol. 5: S–Z, pp. 817–22. 14 Gooch was MP for Bath, from 23 See, for example, New York eral Party 1914–1935, p. 238; the 6 For further details on Iolo, see 1906 to January 1910; Alden was Times, 18 August 1915, letter election results were Rev. H. G. J. Williams, MP for Tottenham, 1906–18 from Aneurin Williams, and 10 Dunnico, Lab, 14,469; A. Wil- (Cardiff: University of Wales (Liberal), and for Tottenham October 1915, letter from Lord liams, L, 9,870; S. E. D. Wilson, Press, 1956); more recent work North, 1923–24 (Labour); Bryce; see also House of Com- C, 6,745. includes Geraint H. Jenkins, Bryce was MP for Inverness mons, Hansard (5th Series) Vol. 34 Aneurin Williams, ‘The Gen- Facts, Fantasy and Fiction: The Burghs, 1906–18. LXXV, 16 November 1915, col. eral Election and the Future of Historical Vision of Iolo Morganwg 15 University of Bristol Special 1770–1776, Aneurin Williams. the Liberal Party’, Contemporary (Aberystwyth: University of Collections, DM668 National 24 See Richard G. Hovannisian, Review, Vol. CXV (February Wales Centre for Advanced Liberal Club, 1906 General Armenia on the Road to Inde- 1919), p. 143. Welsh and Celtic Studies, Election Addresses, Vol. 2, p. pendence (Berkeley: University 35 The election results were Rev. 1997); and Geraint H. Jenkins, 292. of California Press, 1967), pp. H. Dunnico, Lab, 15,862; Miss A Rattleskull Genius:The Many 16 Warde polled 6,167 to Wil- 34–37. H. U. Williams, L, 14,619. Faces of Iolo Morganwg (Car- liams’ 6,061 votes. 25 See Aneurin Williams, Pro- 36 Noel and Harold Buxton, Travel diff: University of Wales Press, 17 In January 1910 the results posals for a League of Peace and and Politics in Armenia (London: 2005). were: C. E. Mallet, L, 8,091; Mutual Protection among Nations Smith, Elder and Co., 1914), p. 7 Penry was MP for Middles- A Williams, L, 7,961; W. W. (Letchworth: Garden City 126.

Journal of Liberal History 57 Winter 2007–08 41 man of mystery: JOHN CREASEY

The single-minded determination that John Creasey showed in pursuing a writing career despite receiving 743 rejection slips prior to his first sale suggests that he should have been ideally suited to be a Liberal parliamentary candidate in the difficult decade of the 1950s. However he stood only once for the Liberal Party, and his energies ultimately went in other directions. Ian Millsted reviews the life and political activities of John ohn Creasey was born wrote a piece about an imagi- Creasey, author of in Southfield, Surrey, nary conversation between Mar- almost 600 books, on 17 September 1908, shal Foch and the Kaiser which the seventh of nine chil- elicited the suggestion from his thrillers, crime movels dren. He suffered polio headmaster that he might earn a agedJ two, and as a consequence living for himself as a writer. Of … and mysteries. To could not walk until the age of his interest in politics, Creasey what extent did his six. His interests in writing and later wrote, ‘I have been a politi- politics were both manifest from cal animal all my life. At twelve Liberal views influence relatively early ages. As a student I was organising and speaking his writings? at Peterborough Road School at street corners for the Liberal in Fulham at the age of ten, he Party.’1

42 Journal of Liberal History 57 Winter 2007–08 man of mystery: JOHN CREASEY

Creasey left school at four- books was released in 1937 and compared to the national pic- teen and started work as a clerk. the next year the first of fifty- ture, and was probably due to a This was the first of many jobs eight ‘Toff’ books (though the combination of residual pre-war he passed through, often get- character had been known from support, Creasey’s skill at pub- ting into trouble or being fired magazines since 1933). Creasey licity and an unsuitable Labour for writing when he should have also wrote westerns, romances candidate. The outcome encour- been working. His family were and others, often under one of aged more support from the not always supportive or sympa- his many pseudonyms. He used party at large when a by-election thetic but he did manage to sell his first wife’s name, Margaret arose in the seat in Novem- his first short story at the age of Cooke, for some of the romance ber 1945. Wigoder was again seventeen and eventually had his titles. He also tried to include the candidate, but this time the first novel accepted at twenty- social issues in some of his sto- Labour Party put up a stronger three. Thereafter, and espe- ries (most obviously in the ‘Toff’ showing and the Liberals were cially with the start of his series books) and the title Vote for Mur- pushed into third place, with about ‘The Toff’, the floodgates der from 1948 reflects his ongo- 9,548 votes.4 Wigoder departed opened. He wrote at least 560 ing interest in politics. to pursue his legal career. books in his lifetime and still The childhood polio meant John Creasey was selected stands as one of the most prolific that Creasey was rejected for as candidate in late 1946 (and authors ever. ‘I’m a phenom- service in World War Two. He selected again for Bournemouth enon,’ he said. ‘I can’t explain was, though, active in many West following boundary myself.’2 His output is even more public spheres. He became a changes that split the constitu- remarkable given that even after public supporter of National ency). It was in this period, up becoming a full-time writer in Savings for which he was to the 1950 election, that he was 1935 he only wrote in the morn- awarded the MBE in 1946. He most active both locally and ings, leaving the afternoons free supported Oxfam, campaigned nationally. He was elected to for business meetings, watching for road safety and was a sup- the National Liberal Council, cricket and activities for his vol- porter of United Europe. and when the Liberal Assembly untary organisations. Creasey was more ready than opened in Bournemouth in 1947 Creasey wrote to make a liv- most for the resumption of nor- he was on the platform.5 ing, but he paid attention to his mal politics in 1945. By now res- Creasey was a frequent cor- craft. When his early writing ident in Bournemouth, he had respondent to local newspapers, was criticised by Dorothy L. become Chairman of that town’s which enabled him to maintain Sayers for carelessness he hired Liberal Association; though a high profile against the two an assistant to check the details. unfortunately it may not have bigger parties. They also give an His first novels were stand- extended much beyond Creasey. insight into his policy views at alone mysteries which were The Liberal candidate for the this time. He criticised the closed plot-driven and had a fast pace. 1945 general election was Basil shop, and opposed monopo- Plot and pace remained con- Wigoder, newly returned from lies.6 He was broadly in favour sistent features of his writing. war service. The campaign was of private enterprise as well as He soon started developing the based mainly on public speeches profit-sharing co-ownerships.7 various series for which he is best and letters to the influential local He opposed the first-past-the- known. ‘Department Z’ was the newspaper rather than canvass- post electoral system.8 He was in first series, from 1933 onwards, ing, but Wigoder polled over favour of the Health Act, though and ran to twenty-nine titles. fourteen thousand votes to come John Creasey he felt it needed some correction.9 The first of forty-nine ‘Baron’ second.3 This was a good result (1908–73) He was ­anti-communist and

Journal of Liberal History 57 Winter 2007–08 43 man of mystery: john creasey

­pro-Europe.10 He was against the away from Liberal politics. He to move further apart from each continuation of conscription.11 resigned from the party in 1956. other in policy terms over the Outside the newspaper col- ‘I left the party over Suez, not following few years. umns, a Liberal Party ‘Brains’ simply because I disagreed with Some insight into Creasey’s Trust’, with Creasey as question- its condemnation of Anthony thinking can perhaps be gleaned master, sold out for an audi- Eden, but because Suez seemed from one of his more political ence of two thousand.12 Despite the final proof that it was mor- books written at this time. Gide- this the local party did not fight ally indefensible for decisions on’s Vote was published in 1964 council elections at this time. affecting the lives of every one of (by Hodder & Stoughton Ltd.) The Conservatives selected us to be made by one party.’ This but would have been written at Viscount Cranborne to defend was written some time later13 least a year before – Creasey’s dis- Bournemouth West in the 1950 but maybe Creasey was already cipline meant he was always well election. Creasey addressed thinking along different politi- ahead of the publishing deadlines forty meetings during the cam- cal lines by this time. However and, indeed, new Creasey nov- paign but despite this, and his it is an odd criticism to make els were being published several high profile, the result was still of the Liberal Party at the time, years after his death as a result. third place. The 9,216 votes when it was affecting the lives Gideon describes himself as and 17.3 per cent share of the of people less than it ever had ‘politically a middle-of-the-road poll were good compared to before or since. The party had man who did not always agree the party’s national showing, been reduced to five MPs, and with middle-of-the-road politi- but down from the result Basil even they held differing views cians’ and this is probably how Wigoder had achieved in the on the Suez affair. It seems more Creasey saw himself. The main 1945 by-election. likely that Creasey was generally plot of the novel is the threat to Given the Labour govern- disillusioned with the party at the democratic process from ment’s narrow victory in 1950, this time and that Suez was the extremists on the left and right of another election in the near event required to finalise a deci- the political spectrum. A sub-plot future was not unpredictable. sion to leave. He did, however, involves Gideon’s son running as However, Creasey seems to have maintain his membership of the a Liberal in his school election been pursuing other interests at National Liberal Club. and coming a good second. this point and scaled down his Nor did the Suez affair mark The world tour was partly party activities. Neither he, nor Creasey’s last links with the Lib- a working holiday, as before. anyone else, stood for the Liber- eral Party. In 1962 he announced Creasey wrote, and sold, stories als in the seat in the 1951 election; that he would be appearing on and articles as he travelled. He in fact he was away on a world a Liberal platform with Jo Gri- completed one novel on the sea tour with his second wife, Eve- mond.14 Possibly his enthusi- voyage from Britain to southern lyn, and their two sons. He was, Gideon asm had been rekindled by the Africa. In South Africa, despite however, re-elected president of describes by-election result declaring that ‘multi-racialism is the local Liberal Association. in March of that year. He also the eventual answer’,16 he also said The 1950s were a busy enough himself as said, referring to the possibility of the anti-apartheid campaign- time for John Creasey without of becoming a Liberal candi- ers: ‘I listened to Scott, Paton, adding extensive political activ- ‘politically a date again, ‘I think it unlikely Huddleston and so many oth- ity. He was still producing a if I were approached at the right ers and thought – They’ve some dozen or so books each year. He middle-of- time that I would refuse’.15 How- axe to grind … but it looks to me co-founded the Crime Writers’ the-road man ever, he was due to leave the like a form of intellectual ideal- Association in 1953. With his country on a fourteen-month ism divorced from realism’.17 This family he travelled to America who did not world tour at this point, which was not a view likely to be shared (resulting in a travel book and took him away from domestic by an increasing number in the added business and publishing always agree politics in the physical sense, Liberal Party back in Britain. links). His well received novel and possibly away from Liberal By visiting such thriving Gideon’s Day (written under with middle- politics in the ideological sense. places as Hong Kong, Australia, the pseudonym J. J. Marric in of-the-road Whether he would have become Japan and the US, Creasey grew 1955) was made into a film by an active Liberal again had he to perceive a malaise infecting legendary director John Ford. politicians’ remained in Britain in 1962–63 Britain. This view may have He established the John Creasey is unknown. It does seem likely been reinforced or, possibly, Mystery Magazine in 1956 and and this is that many local associations inspired by many of the ex-pats became publisher of Jay Books would have been interested in a he met on his travels. Appropri- in 1957. He also moved from probably how candidate who would have been ately enough, two high-profile Bournemouth to Wiltshire. Creasey saw able to finance his own cam- television series of his characters It was not only lack of paign although, as shown below, ‘Gideon’ and ‘The Baron’ were time that led Creasey to move himself. Creasey and the Liberals were made at this time and were sold

44 Journal of Liberal History 57 Winter 2007–08 man of mystery: john creasey internationally. Creasey showed some disappointment that the BBC showed little interest in adapting his stories though he was surely better served by the entrepreneurial ability of Lew Grade whose company produced both these series. Creasey took no public part in the general elections of 1964 or 1966 but he did begin develop- ing the ideas that he pursued, in political terms, for the remain- der of his life. He established the All-Party Alliance in Janu- ary 1966. Although he fought elections under this label, it was more a pressure group than a political party. Its principal aim was to see elected a government of the best people from all parties in order to sort out the problems of the day. Creasey explained his beliefs further in the books Good, God and Man (1967) and Evolution to Democracy (1969). He fighting as an Independent on an One of Creasey’s he was trying to gain populist wanted fixed-term elections, a anti-Common Market platform. campaign HQs votes. The mention of capital cabinet made up in proportion to The presence of five names on for the All-Party punishment would have been votes for respective parties, and the ballot paper was unusual at a Alliance particularly significant in a no party whips. He suggested time when even three-cornered north-west constituency where an industrial democracy divided elections were not yet the norm. the details of the Moors murders between the four groups, state, In the event the Labour Party were still fresh in people’s memo- private enterprise, workers and retained the seat. Creasey came ries. He secured 1,123 votes (2.7 unions, and management. fourth with 2,755 votes and 6.4 per cent) and again came fourth. These ideas were put to the per cent. This was a remarkably Labour just held the seat against a test when a long anticipated strong result for an independent challenge from the young Win- by-election was held in Nunea- candidate for the time. Bennett ston Churchill (the grandson of ton following the resignation of was fifth. Sir Winston). Frank Cousins to return to trade Soon afterwards Creasey Creasey’s final campaign was union activity. Creasey had indi- stood again in the Brierley Hill also his most successful under cated as early as August 196618 by-election. Coming only six this label. The Oldham West that he might stand, and the poll weeks after Nuneaton there was by-election was set for June was finally held in March 1967. little time to campaign and his 1968. Creasey was joined on the In November 1966 he was asked result was 1,305 votes (2.2 per campaign trail by actor Rob- if he was still a Liberal at heart. cent) and another fourth place. ert Beatty. This time he polled He replied, ‘No, I am opposed The Conservatives held the seat 3,389 votes (13.2 per cent) and to some of their policies … I with an increased majority.24 third place, beating the Liberal remain a small-l liberal’.19 In the Even the support of Lanca- candidate. As was noted with run-up to the campaign Creasey shire and England cricketer Brian regard to his Bournemouth commented on the unwelcome Statham did not draw many more campaign, Creasey used local decline of Britain’s economy as votes in the Manchester Gorton newspapers to raise his profile in well as its national and interna- by-election in November 1967. elections, employing a combina- tional prestige.20 He wanted to In his election leaflet Creasey tion of direct correspondence see the balance of payments in called for a national referendum and newsworthy events, such as credit.21 He also paid attention on capital punishment, immigra- the celebrity support mentioned to local issues, calling for a local tion and the Common Market. above, to maintain a high pro- colliery to be kept open.22 This would have been in line file. Nuneaton and Oldham had Another former Liberal, Air with his belief in matters being local, daily evening newspapers Vice-Marshal Donald Bennett,23 taken out of the hands of party corresponding to the constituen- also stood at the by-election, machines, but also ­suggests that cies which may have ­maximised

Journal of Liberal History 57 Winter 2007–08 45 man of mystery: john creasey the impact of this technique. textual evidence suggest this was 1 All-Party Alliance, May 1968. This was not the case in Brierley written prior to the 1970 general 2 Personality (South Africa) 28 June Hill or Manchester Gorton. election but after his own by- 1962. The Conservatives won election campaigns. 3 The result was Sir C. E. L. Lyle Oldham West, gaining the seat The All-Party Alliance (Con) 34,544 (55.5%); B. T. from Labour. Creasey, no doubt continued as an organisation Wigoder (Lib) 14,232 (22.8%); R. encouraged by such a good and as late as April 1973 Crea- S. W. Pollard (Lab) 13,522 (21.7%). result for a non-aligned candi- sey was praising Dick Taverne As canvassing was little-used, date, announced that he would for his stand against the party Wigoder went to the cinema on concentrate on Oldham West machines.27 Ultimately the polling day as there was nothing at the next general election.25 In organisation changed its name,28 else to do. the event that never happened, merged29 and then folded, to 4 Rt. Hon. B. Bracken (Con) 22,980 and he announced in 1970 that the general disinterest of most. (46.8%); E. A. A. Shackleton (Lab) he would not fight the election. After completing one of his most 16,526 votes (33.7%); B. T. Wigoder The same year saw him divorced ambitious novels, The Masters of (Lib) 9,548 (19.5%). and subsequently marry his third Bow Street, in 1972 Creasey suf- 5 Bournemouth Daily Echo 23 April wife, Jeanne Williams. fered a heart attack. During his 1947. Even at this point Creasey did convalescence he married his 6 Bournemouth Daily Echo 12 Decem- not seem entirely done with the fourth wife, also his nurse, Diana ber 1946. Liberal Party. In July 1969 he Farrell. He died on 9 June 1973. 7 Bournemouth Times 9 May 1947. congratulated Wallace Lawler As well as the aforementioned 8 Bournemouth Daily Echo 16 Decem- on his victory in Birmingham MBE, Creasey was the winner ber 1947. Ladywood. He attended the Lib- of the Edgar Allan Poe Award 9 Bournemouth Daily Echo 1 April eral Assembly in September 1969 in 1962. He was President of the 1948. in an attempt to try to persuade Crime Writers’ Association in 10 Bournemouth Daily Echo 3 Novem- the party to embrace the ideas of 1966–67 and was awarded Grand ber 1948. the All-Party Alliance.26 Master of the Mystery Writers of 11 Bournemouth Times 17 Febuary The All-Party Alliance made America. 1950. an appearance in his fiction as John Creasey was very much 12 Western Gazette 2 May 1947. well. The 1971 novel, Vote for his own man and this served him 13 All-Party Alliance News May 1968. the Toff (Hodder & Stoughton spectacularly well in his writing 14 Southern Evening Echo 11 May 1962. Ltd), probably came as a sur- career. If it is a partial mystery 15 Ibid. prise to those people who read that a man of his undoubted 16 Johannesburg Star 15 October 196. his book without being famil- energies did not do more in the 17 Durban Tribune 27 October 1963. iar with his politics. There is a field of politics to which he was 18 Sunday Times 14 August 1966. mystery element to the story but also drawn, that may be fitting. 19 Birmingham Sunday Mercury 13 this runs secondary to the main Some of his views, even prior November 1966. plot, wherein the Hon. Rich- to the All-Party Alliance, may 20 Liberal News Commentary 23 Sep- ard Rollison, otherwise known seem maverick when viewed tember 1966. as ‘The Toff’, decides to run as from today but not necessarily 21 The New Daily 26 August 1966. an Independent candidate in a The point more so than those of some oth- 22 Country Evening Telegraph 16 January by-election on a political unity is made by ers who were Liberal candidates, 1967. ticket. The point is made by and even MPs, in the 1950s and 23 Briefly MP for Middlesbrough in many of the sympathetic char- many of the ’60s. Had he lived another ten 1945 and Liberal candidate at the acters in the book that the two- years would his antagonism to Croydon North by-election in party system is the cause of many sympathetic strikes have led him to support 1948. of Britain’s problems. Creasey Margaret Thatcher, or would he 24 Michael Steed was the Liberal can- even writes himself into the characters have been drawn to the mould- didate, polling 4,536 votes. Michael story under the name Jack With- in the book breakers of the SDP and the also supplied the observation ers who, as head of the All-Party Alliance? In either case he would regarding the importance of daily Alliance, comes to help Rollison that the two- have written even more of the evening newspapers in Nuneaton in the election. Although ’The books which remain popular and Oldham. Toff’ series was the one where party system and collectable today. 25 London Evening Standard 14 June Creasey had most often tried to 1968. address social issues the passages is the cause Ian Millsted is a teacher of Philoso- 26 All-Party Alliance News September detailing his political thinking of many of phy and Ethics. He lives in Bris- 1969. may well have been skipped by tol. The author’s thanks are due to 27 Evolution to Democracy 5, April 1973. the readers expecting a straight Britain’s Trowbridge Records Office, Richard 28 To ‘Evolution to Democracy’. mystery. Both Creasey’s normal Creasey, Michael Steed, Robert Ing- 29 With ‘The Organisation’. working practice and internal problems. ham and Lawrence Fullick.

46 Journal of Liberal History 57 Winter 2007–08 last two years. […] I don’t reviews regret much having put myself out of the running.’ Acland’s obituarist wrote that he ‘was a bright and enter- Politics and ponies taining platform speaker (on occasion, perhaps, too enter- Garry Tregidga (ed.): Killerton, Camborne and Westminster: taining, as he was somewhat unguarded in his obiter dicta)’; The Political Correspondence of Sir Francis and Lady Acland, and also that he had ‘the gift, 1910–29 (Devon and Cornwall Record Society, 2006) certainly valuable in a party man, of stinging his opponents Reviewed by Richard Toye into lapses of temper and good taste’. Such liveliness and pas- sion as is to be found in these ir Francis Acland 1910, in which he lost his seat. letters, though, is largely down (1874–1939) was a sig- In the second election of that to Acland’s first wife, Eleanor Snificant figure in Cornish year he got in at Camborne in (who died in 1933). In the 1920s, politics and, to a lesser degree, Cornwall, a seat that he held she wrote about the travails of in the Liberal Party nationally. until 1922. (His survival in 1918, the Liberal Party with a real He came from an established when so many of his fellow sense that something important political dynasty, but, as Garry Asquithian Liberals were swept was at stake. Her complaints Tregidga rightly observes in away, was largely down to luck: about the ‘local mugwumps’ his preface to this useful col- his would-be Conservative and the ‘Liberal party big-wigs’ lection of documents, he has challenger did not get back from may not have done full justice been neglected relative to other India in time to be nominated.) to the motives of those who members of his family. For In the 1922 election he fought were less radical than she was, example, his father, Sir Arthur the nearby Tiverton seat instead, but she undoubtedly had a Acland, and his son, Sir Richard and narrowly lost, before win- sense of personal involvement Acland, have received entries ning it in a by-election the fol- in politics. Acland himself, by in the Dictionary of National lowing year, and losing it again contrast, seems to have been Biography, but he himself has in 1924. The last seat he held not. This neglect may be unjust was North Cornwall, which he but it is not, I think, wholly won in a by-election in 1932. unaccountable. Up until 1916 he held a Sir Francis was a capable number of different junior political figure, with strongly posts, at the War Office, the held principles. First elected in Foreign Office, the Treasury, 1906, he did not always win the and the Board of Agriculture. seats he fought, but he invari- The fall of H. H. Asquith as ably found his way back to the Prime Minister marked the end Commons in due course some- of Acland’s ministerial career, how, and was still an MP at the although he was by no means time of his death. This record an irreconcilable opponent of of success was not at all bad Lloyd George. If the split in the when seen in the context of the Liberal Party had not occurred near-total collapse of the Lib- he might one day have held a eral Party from 1918 onwards. Cabinet job, but it is difficult According to his Times obitu- to view this termination in a ary, he did miss the House of particularly tragic light, not Commons during his enforced least because he himself appears exile from it in the 1920s and to have lacked ambition. After early 1930s. However, he had Asquith lost his seat in the 1918 a slightly semi-detached atti- election, the leadership of the tude to politics, about which he independent Liberals went (on sometimes talked, rather half- a temporary basis) to Sir Don- heartedly, of giving up. ald Maclean. Acland wrote: ‘I Acland sat first for Richmond lost my chance of doing it by in Yorkshire, from 1906 until being slack about all H[ouse]. the first general election of of C[ommons]. things for the

Journal of Liberal History 57 Winter 2007–08 47 reviews motivated mainly by a sense of ­potentially relevant material In some scene. James Moore’s book is duty. As Tregidga notes, in rela- does exist, at least for the 1930s, therefore a valuable corrective, tion to one of his 1917 letters to for example in the papers of ways Exmoor detailing the development of Eleanor, this could sometimes Basil Liddell Hart. Liberal politics at municipal stray into pomposity. The let- If the book is not quite as ponies are level during the period 1886–95 ter – written at a time when comprehensive as it might be, like the and showing how local Lib- Acland was thinking of giving it is nonetheless interesting eral politicians developed an up Parliament – runs: ‘I possess, and valuable. Tregidga’s wide- post-1918 increasing commitment to as you do, somehow such a very ranging introduction is a model schemes of social improvement large amount of general compe- of clarity, showing the relation- Liberal Party – promoting everything from tence that I don’t think I should ship between Cornish issues improved sewerage systems to for long be without pretty use- and the national picture in a – hardy, lov- public libraries. ful and honourable work.’ His highly effective way. One aspect able, difficult The author focuses on industriousness and lucidity may of Acland’s life that it does Liberal Party organisation have been admirable, but he is not mention is that in 1921 he to manage, in Manchester and Leicester, not a figure for whom it is easy became the first Vice-President the former of totemic signifi- to feel warmth. of the Exmoor Pony Society. and really cance for nineteenth-century The personal aspect of the (His forebears had done much Liberalism, the latter having Aclands’ life is not well rep- to save the ponies from extinc- quite small. some claim to be the capital of resented in this volume. For tion.) In some ways Exmoor Midlands Liberalism after the example, in 1924 their daughter ponies are like the post-1918 defection of Joseph Chamber- Ellen was killed in an accident Liberal Party – hardy, lovable, lain’s Birmingham following at the age of ten. This must have difficult to manage, and really the 1886 Home Rule split. He been a shattering blow to both quite small. It would be nice to shows how the Third Reform of them, and Eleanor wrote a extend the analogy and to say Act of 1885 acted as a trigger book of commemoration. Yet that Francis Acland played a for a challenge by radicals to they did not write about their seminal role in the preservation the control by local oligarchies pain in their letters to each of both, but although in both of local Liberal organisations. other; or at least no such letters cases he did his bit, this would This was particularly so in are published here, perhaps not not really be true. Although the selection of parliamen- having been preserved. The apparently dutiful where the tary candidates, where both editor was obviously power- Society was concerned, he Leicester and Manchester saw less to do anything about this seems to have been even less bitter contests for the Liberal deficiency. A more legitimate interested in ponies than he was nomination between patrician cause for complaint is that there in politics. figures favoured by the local are no documents here relat- establishment and more popu- ing to either the first four or Richard Toye is a Senior Lecturer in list candidates with a strong the last ten years of Acland’s the Department of History at Exeter following among party activ- parliamentary career. A quick University. He is the author of Lloyd ists. Although the latter were search of the National Reg- George and Churchill: Rivals for not always immediately suc- ister of Archives suggests that Greatness (Macmillan, 2007). cessful, the battles over selec- tion brought about, over time, a greater democratisation of party management. A similar process took place Municipal Liberalism 1886–1985 in municipal politics. In both Manchester and Leicester, James R. Moore: The Transformation of Urban Liberalism local government politics had (Ashgate, 2006) become, by the 1880s, some- thing of a cosy club, divorced Reviewed by Iain Sharpe from popular politics. In the former, appointments to the aldermanic bench created a bias he study of late-Victo- wonder given the richness and within the council chamber in rian Liberalism has been variety of Liberal thought, the favour of moderates rather than Tdominated by parliamen- dominant presence of Wil- radicals, while in Leicester, tary politics and intellectual liam Gladstone at the head overwhelming Liberal domina- movements, largely to the of the party, and the battles tion of the Town Hall meant exclusion of local and munici- among the party leaders after that local elections were not pal perspectives – perhaps no his departure from the political vigorously contested, with the

48 Journal of Liberal History 57 Winter 2007–08 reviews local Liberal Association hav- Dr Moore demonstrates how remained a vibrant and increas- ing little involvement in the little significance the Home ingly radical force in at least organisation of council elec- Rule crisis of 1886 and the Lib- two of England’s important tion campaigns. During the late eral Unionist schism had for urban centres. In that sense this 1880s and early 1890s, this was Liberalism at municipal level. is a well-researched and closely to change. In Leicester, for example, there argued book that adds signifi- An important catalyst for the was greater concern among cantly to our understanding of radicalisation of municipal poli- local Liberals with the cam- late-Victorian Liberalism. tics lay in the ultimately suc- paign against the compulsory Where I have doubts, however, cessful battles in both centres to vaccination programme that is with the conclusions the expand town and city bounda- was being enforced by the local author draws about the impact ries. Here, Dr Moore challenges board of guardians than with of this radicalism on the Lib- the conventional view that the the debates in Parliament on eral Party’s national fortunes. suburbs were havens of ‘Villa the Home Rule Bill. For some He sees it as contributing to Toryism’ – Conservative bas- time after the Home Rule split, a revival of Liberalism after tions within more radical urban Liberal Unionist councillors the trauma of 1886 and paving areas. In particular, he points found themselves in a rather the way for the so-called New out that the lack of ameni- ambiguous position – still will- Liberalism of the Edwardian ties within newly built estates ing to co-operate at municipal era. But in fact left-of-centre meant that suburban residents level with erstwhile colleagues parties are often less elector- were often keen for more active on local issues and reluctant ally successful when under local government. The expan- to enter into full alliance with the strong influence of radical sion of both Leicester’s and the Conservatives. As a result, activists. And of course this Manchester’s boundaries led in neither Leicester nor Man- was a period of electoral failure to a strengthening not of Con- chester did Liberal Unionism for the Liberal Party. The 1892 servatism but radicalism, with emerge as a significant force. general election produced an Liberal councillors, often with Likewise, the advance of unconvincing victory for the more progressive views than Labour during these years Liberals and the party lost the many of their party colleagues, was slow and inconsistent. two subsequent elections by representing suburban wards. Although Labour candidate landslide majorities. Even in Suburban residents were often were occasionally successful in Manchester, despite the vibrant enthusiastic supporters of ‘gas- individual council wards, ILP radicalism that Dr Moore iden- and-water socialism’. candidates in the working-class tifies, by the end of the period constituency of Manchester covered by this study, the Lib- North-East and in Leicester erals held just one of the city’s finished bottom of the poll in six parliamentary seats. 1895. In terms of municipal Gladstone’s adoption of the representation, Liberal organi- 1891 ‘Newcastle Programme’ sations seemed more willing to was done under a degree of embrace measures that would duress and was felt by many bring material benefits for the of his colleagues, including working class than to adopt his son Herbert, to have been working-class candidates. This a mistake. On the contrary, was a problem across the coun- one of the significant factors try at parliamentary level, as in the party’s revival after 1902 cash-strapped Liberal associa- was its deliberate eschewal of tions sought candidates who a radical programme that gave could pay their own expenses, hostages to fortune and alien- and it is interesting that Dr ated moderate voters. The Moore’s research suggests a party establishment consciously similar problem in achieving distanced itself from past com- working-class representation at mitments on Home Rule and municipal level. temperance. Instead, it tried The period 1886–95 has to project a moderate image in been considered by some his- order to win back voters who torians as one of stagnation for had been lost to the Union- the Liberal Party – possibly the ist parties. Instead of specific beginning of the death throes legislative commitments, the of Liberal England. Dr Moore’s party leadership stressed the book demonstrates that it importance of Liberal ministers

Journal of Liberal History 57 Winter 2007–08 49 reviews exercising their own judgement moderate Liberal values that Morgan and Emyr Price, in rather than being beholden to guided the party back to power their work on the young Lloyd a radical programme. Even if in 1906. George and the Liberal Party the author is right that ‘moder- in Wales in the late nineteenth ate’ Liberalism was in decline Iain Sharpe is researching a PhD at century. The important con- at local level by 1895, surely it London University on the Edward- tributions of other historians to was precisely a reassertion of ian Liberal Party. our understanding of a complex movement still regrettably lie buried in unpublished doctoral and masters’ dissertations. Some of the themes discussed Wales of the future in Mr Hughes’s impressive volume are fairly well known. Dewi Rowland Hughes, Cymru Fydd (University of Wales These include the discussion Press, 2006) of Alfred Thomas’s ambi- tious ‘omnibus’ measure, the Reviewed by Dr J. Graham Jones National Institutions (Wales) Bills of 1891–92, T. E. Ellis’s highly contentious decision his slim but significant linked with the traditional to accept the position of jun- volume, published in the organisation and personnel of ior whip in Gladstone’s fourth TWelsh language, is to nonconformist Liberalism. The administration in July 1892, be warmly welcomed. Cymru movement had published its and the steps which led to the Fydd was a patriotic movement, own journal, Cymru Fydd, since famous meeting at Newport in literally ‘Wales of the future’, January 1888, and it won the January 1896, an event which known in English as ‘Young backing of the Welsh popular heralded the ignominious col- Wales’, formed at London in press, particularly of the veteran lapse of the entire Cymru Fydd 1886, primarily by emigré Thomas Gee in Y Faner, and movement. Even so, the author Welshmen, on the model of of the youthful David Lloyd has marshalled a great deal of Young Ireland, its programme George, elected MP for the new evidence to embellish his appearing ‘a manifesto against Caernarfon Boroughs in April well-written narrative. Other old age’. It conceived its nation- 1890. Initially a cultural and themes covered in this volume alist mission in terms of a native educative movement, Cymru cultural and linguistic tradition, Fydd became, under the influ- and was based largely on the ence of T. E. Ellis and Lloyd Welsh intelligentsia. Its most George, a political campaign, prominent members included Ellis underlining ‘the necessity mediaeval historian John of declaring for self-govern- Edward Lloyd, Oxford don and ment’. Home Rule thus became litterateur Owen M. Edwards, central to the Cymru Fydd journalist Thomas Edward Ellis programme, while Michael D. (who became Liberal MP for his Jones and others even intended native Merionethshire in 1886), it to oust the Liberal Party and and barrister W. Llewelyn Wil- become an independent Welsh liams (in 1906 to be elected the national party. A new national- Liberal MP for the Carmarthen ist journal, Young Wales, was Boroughs), the last named launched in January 1895. asserting that the Cymru Fydd Yet Cymru Fydd, although movement was concerned with highly significant, has tended ‘true politics’. to be somewhat neglected The second branch of the by historians. The last time society was formed, signifi- a monograph was devoted to cantly, at Liverpool, but the the movement was more than movement was notably slow to sixty years ago when Wil- put down roots in Wales; the liam George, brother of Lloyd branch established at Barry in George, edited the volume 1891 was the first bridgehead Cymru Fydd (1945). Much valu- in south Wales. Thereafter able work on the movement branches were set up in many has been undertaken since then parts of Wales, often closely by scholars, notably Kenneth

50 Journal of Liberal History 57 Winter 2007–08 reviews are highly original: details of Initially a transition from nonconform- footnotes do not appear in the the organisation of the Cymru ist, Liberal Wales in the late bibliography of sources used. Fydd society and the nature cultural and nineteenth century to secular, One final grouse – the price. At of its individual branches, the Labour Wales in the twentieth. £35, the volume, which runs significance of the first Welsh educative The volume is attractively to just over 200 pages, is on the county councils, elected in movement, produced, with a picture of a expensive side. January 1889 (and the coun- youthful Tom Ellis on the dust- One can but hope that the cillors and aldermen elected, Cymru Fydd jacket, but it contains only one author will now feel able to most of whom are shown to be photograph inside – a frontis- make his highly important middle-class nonconformists), became, piece of those present at a his- research work available to an the component elements within tory seminar convened by the English audience. It would be the highly disparate Welsh under the Oxford Union in 1884, among sure of a warm reception. Parliamentary Party after 1886, influence of them again a young Tom Ellis. and the structure and nature of More illustrations and cartoons Dr J. Graham Jones is Senior Welsh Liberalism during these T. E. Ellis and would have added to the appeal Archivist and Head of the Welsh crucial years. The text is embel- of an attractive tome. Some of Political Archive at the National lished by a number of helpful Lloyd George, the many sources cited in the Library of Wales, Aberystwyth. charts and tables. In the wake of this compel- a political ling analysis, much fascinat- campaign. ing information emerges on a Learning the lessons of history: John Stuart Mill and politics number of Welsh politicians, today (continued from page 17) notably Thomas Edward Ellis (Merionethshire) of course, along these outdated lines. On struggle between capitalism and but also Stuart Rendel (Mont- tax, Mill made a sharp distinc- state socialism, it seemed to have gomeryshire), J. Herbert Lewis tion between earned wealth, little to say. Now liberal democ- (Flint Boroughs), D. A. Tho- acquired through individ- racy has ‘won’, the thoughtful mas (Merthyr Tydfil), Alfred ual effort and initiative, and efforts of the liberals of the 19th Thomas (later to become Baron unearned riches, acquired century are ripe for re-harvest- Pontypridd) (East Glamorgan) through inheritance. He advo- ing. The need to provide a more and, not least, the youthful cated a single rate of income secure political and intellectual David Lloyd George (Caernar- tax – an idea in vogue among footing for our liberties is urgent. fon Boroughs). We also catch some right-wingers today – but Familiarity with freedom has fascinating glimpses of the atti- also argued for supertax on bred if not contempt, then per- tude towards Wales of successive inheritance to prevent the pass- haps complacency. Liberal soci- Liberal Prime Ministers W. E. ing down between generations ety is a historic achievement, but Gladstone and Lord Rosebery. of ‘enormous fortunes which it does not stand up on its own: Not that this volume rep- no one needs for any personal each and every one of us has to resents the last word on Cymru purpose but ostentation or make it anew. ‘The worth of a Fydd. Further work needs to improper power’. State, in the long run, is the be undertaken on the noncon- In a mental universe of left worth of the individuals com- formist ethos which underlay and right, there is a danger that posing it,’ warned Mill. ‘With the movement and its unique liberalism is seen occupying small men no great thing can distinctive culture, on the a neutral, soggy centre – the really be accomplished.’ closely intertwined land and Switzerland of political argu- tithe questions, and on the ment. True liberals are neither Richard Reeves is the author of John legacy of the movement after tame nor safe: Mill was thrown Stuart Mill: Victorian Firebrand, 1896 when attempts were made in jail aged 17 for distribut- published in November 2007. See to revive it. There were Cymru ing literature on contraception; page 2 for reader offer. Fydd branches in existence in threatened with death over his This article originally appeared some English cities right up prosecution of Governor Eyre, in The Guardian of 17 November until the Second World War. By who slaughtered hundreds of 2007, and is reprinted here with the far the weakest section of Mr Jamaicans; and introduced the kind permission of The Guardian. Hughes’s volume is the all-too- first bill to give women the vote, The article remains copyright Guard- brief chapter 10 (pp. 188–93) for which he was vilified in the ian News & Media Ltd 2007. which devotes just four short press. ‘Why is Mr Mill like a Contributions to the ‘Learning pages to a discussion of the sig- tongue?’ joked Punch. ‘Because the Lessons of History’ series are nificance of the movement and he is the Ladies’ Member.’ invited. They should be thought- its legacy. Yet that legacy was Liberalism suffered during the provoking and polemical, between highly significant, even in the 20th century. During the titanic 1500 and 2500 words in length.

Journal of Liberal History 57 Winter 2007–08 51 A Liberal Democrat History Group evening meeting liberals and local government in london Winning local elections has been a keystone in Liberal (Democrat) success in the years since the adoption of the community politics strategy at the Eastbourne Assembly in 1970. There have been many spectacular advances across London, from the heartland of the south-western boroughs to Southwark, Islington and, more recently, breakthroughs on Camden and Brent to share power. But there are still black holes – ten London boroughs with no Lib Dem representation; and places like Harrow and Tower Hamlets where the party controlled the council, only to see a near wipe-out follow.

In a meeting supported by the Lib Dem group on London Councils, the History Group will look at the performance of Liberals in local government in London since the 1970s.

Speakers: Cllr Sir David Williams, former leader of Richmond Council; and Lib Dem member of the Greater , Mike Tuffrey AM. Chair: Cllr Stephen Knight.

7.00pm, Monday 4 February 2008 (after the History Group AGM at 6.30pm) Lady Violet Room, National Liberal Club, 1 Whitehall Place, London SW1

A Liberal Democrat History Group fringe meeting salad days: merger twenty years on Twenty years ago a new political party was born from the merger of the Liberal and Social Democratic parties – the Social & Liberal Democrats (or ‘Salads’, as the party was disparagingly nicknamed by its opponents). This meeting will explore the political background to the merger and the byzantine process of negotiation through which it which it came about. Did it really deserve the description of ‘merger most foul’?

Speakers: Lord Clement-Jones, member of the Liberal merger negotiating team; Lord Goodhart, member of the SDP merger negotiating team; and Professor David Dutton, Liverpool University.

8.00pm, Friday 7 March 2008 Princes 2 Suite, Crowne Plaza Hotel, Liverpool