Biography John Davies examines the life of Ivor Davies (1915–1986), who would have been the Liberal candidate at the Oxford by-election in 1938. KeeperKeeper ofof thethe LiberalLiberal FlameFlame
n the late s, Ivor Davies was one of the It was Davies’ misfortune that the years of his po- brightest of the Liberal Party’s rising young litical prime coincided with the bleakest period of I stars. For the leadership of the Union of Uni- the Liberal Party’s electoral fortunes, culminating, versity Liberal Students and for the candidacy in after the Carmarthen by-election, in its reduc- Central Aberdeenshire he was preferred respec- tion to five Members of Parliament with the major- tively to Frank Byers and Jo Grimond, who be- ity of those dependent to an extent on the formal or came two of the most noted Liberals of that gen- informal agreement of the Conservatives not to field eration. He was three times elected President of his a candidate. Consequently he was never afforded the university Liberal Club and a profile in the student opportunity to serve in Parliament, which many magazine concluded that ‘he has many of the po- thought to be his due. Drawing words from the old tentialities of a great man’. He was certainly seen hymn, One Church, One Faith, One Lord, he was in as a coming man in the Liberal Party and constitu- the habit of referring to himself and his small band encies were almost queuing up for the services of of supporters as ‘the faithful few’. The present Liberal this eloquent and personable young Liberal. He Party has every reason to be grateful to these few turned down a far from unpromising candidacy in who kept the flame burning in its darkest days and Bewdley. His celebrity within the party was such maintained and developed bases from which it was that it came as no surprise when he was chosen to possible to elect Liberal Members of Parliament in fight a by-election of the highest profile in Oxford happier times for the party. at the time of the Munich Crisis. Ivor Davies was born in Pontrhydygroes, Davies came from the Celtic, nonconformist Cardiganshire, on August . He was the sec- tradition of many of the Liberal activists of that pe- ond son of Roderick Glyn Davies, a noted Minister riod. His political beliefs were in the main radical of the Congregationalist Church and Elizabeth and to the left of the Liberal Party of the day. His Florence, neé Morgan, daughter of the local doctor. election addresses frequently led on world peace In those days, this area of Wales was undisputed Lib- and support for the United Nations. He supported eral territory and Ivor became a convinced and pas- unilateral nuclear disarmament and opposed con- sionate Liberal in the radical Welsh tradition. His po- scription and German rearmament. He was an ar- litical hero was David Lloyd George, with whom his dent free trader and advocate of separate Parlia- family was acquainted. Throughout his whole life, ments for Scotland and Wales. He pressed continu- his home was full of books, pictures and memora- ally for the full implementation of the Beveridge bilia connected with the great Welsh statesman. Report, for affordable housing for those on low in- His father’s ministries took him first to Kent and comes and for Keynesian programmes of public then to Shepherds Bush and to Acton in London, works. He was very strongly anti-racist. His agenda where Ivor received his early education. The family included profit sharing and partial nationalisation. then moved to Morningside in Edinburgh and Ivor He wished to reduce indirect taxation and reform completed his education at George Watson’s College purchase tax, leasehold obligations and industrial and Edinburgh University. rates of taxation. He was opposed to comprehen- While at University he edited the undergraduate sive schools and farm subsidies. magazine The Student and quickly gained a reputation
22 Journal of Liberal Democrat History 34/35 Spring/Summer 2002 as an outstanding debater in the Liberal made representations to Labour Party and Davies stood aside and handed cause. He was elected President of the Headquarters and were met with a over his organisation to Lindsay … Union of University Liberal Societies. blank refusal. It was not until Transport The election itself came as something On leaving university, he worked as a House agents came into the Division of an anti-climax after the historic journalist on the Liberal News Chronicle. and saw the exact position that some preliminaries. Hogg was a first-rate His writings for this and for other news- progress was made. Mr Gordon- candidate and made rings round papers and magazines added to his Walker was most reluctant to with- Lindsay, whose classroom style and standing within the party and he was draw, but three days before nomina- uninspiring delivery were ill-fitted soon adopted as Liberal candidate for tion day he agreed to do so and a for the hustings … An unusual fea- Central Aberdeenshire. move was promoted to persuade Mr ture of the contest was that a number In October , a by-election oc- A.D. Lindsay, the Master of Balliol, to of prominent Liberals, who had de- curred in Oxford as a result of the death go forward. clared their inability to speak for their of the sitting Conservative member, and own candidate, found it convenient He required little persuasion; few Ivor Davies was chosen by the local Lib- to visit Oxford to support Lindsay. candidates can have manifested a eral Association to fight the seat. The greater enthusiasm to be adopted. By Ivor Davies said that during the nego- Conservative candidate was Quintin this time the local Liberal Association, tiations he formed a high opinion of Hogg and the Labour candidate Patrick and even their candidate, were disap- Pakenham’s integrity and a poor opin- Gordon-Walker, both later Cabinet pointed that their sound work was to ion of his ability, and vice versa for Ministers for their respective parties. . be in vain and took some persuading Crossman. The Munich Agreement had been to withdraw from the fight. After an One of the arguments put forward for signed at the end of September and the emotional and fervid meeting, their adopting Lindsay as candidate was that issue of appeasement dominated the correct course of action became plain ‘everyone knew him’. Because he was a campaign. This was the first and most famous in a series of by-elections in which a Popular Front was formed against the Government’s foreign policy. The Labour Party opposed any co- operation with the Liberal Party, but the Liberal Party Executive passed a resolution in October declaring that ‘because of the present emergency it is ready to subordinate party consid- erations and to cooperate wholeheart- edly with men and women of all par- ties, who realise the gravity of the time.’ Davies entered the campaign against the wishes of the Liberal Party leader- ship, and received no support from the national party organisation. According to Davies’s own account:
The contest had not been in progress long before it became quite clear that the Liberals were succeeding beyond their most sanguine expectations. The prospect of success was small but the Labour candidate seemed destined to be a bad third. In view of the interna- tional situation, Davies offered early in the contest to withdraw, if Gordon- Walker would do the same, to allow an independent anti-Munich candi- date to go forward. The offer was treated with scorn, but as the pattern became plain, the local Socialists in their alarm reconsidered the position quickly. Their leaders … Frank Pakenham and R.H.S. Crossman …
Journal of Liberal Democrat History 34/35 Spring/Summer 2002 23 great figure in the university, his donnish John Junor, later editor of the Sunday supporters assumed that everyone in the Express, who was fighting the neigh- town would know him as well. They did bouring constituency, he toured the not. Over half the electorate had no idea Highlands and Islands speaking for the who he was. There was great interest in Liberal cause. The Scottish Labour the by-election among undergraduates, Party was interested in attracting his many of whom did not have a vote, and political talents to their ranks, and it was a fair amount of apathy among towns- suggested that he might be offered the people, who had. The Popular Front safe seat of Dunfermline Burghs, but candidate and some of his supporters Ivor was a resolute Liberal and spurned were, however, unwilling to campaign in these advances. a way that would win the popular vote. In the streets of Central Aberdeen- The street slogan was ‘Oxford Wants shire, local schoolchildren who sup- Lindsay. Hitler wants Hogg’, but, cam- ported the Liberals sang this rhyme paigning in the city, Lindsay palpably about the three candidates: lacked the common touch. As a distin- Vote for Spence guished philosophy don and Lindsay And you’ll get no pence. supporter put it: ‘If he can’t win on his Vote for Hay own merits, without being vulgar, better Ivor Davies in 1955 And you’ll get no pay. to lose’. Hogg was elected by just under Vote for Ivor , votes. mental health, drug abuse, aid to travel- And you’ll get a fiver. Ivor Davies had always been a strong lers and the winding up of the National advocate of the League of Nations and – not to be taken literally, of course! In Liberals. Johnson had an eccentric streak an opponent of fascism and had been in- what proved to be a poor general elec- and at one time mounted furious oppo- volved in some fierce demonstrations tion for the Liberals, Ivor finished sition to the dangers he saw in the intro- against Sir Oswald Mosley. When the strongly in third place, very close be- duction of winking indicators on cars, Second World War was declared, he en- hind the Labour candidate. insisting that arm-operated indicators listed in the Royal Air Force on the first Following the election, his in- should continue. The situation that we day and rose through the ranks to be- terest in international affairs and world would now face on modern motorways come Flying Officer, acting Flight Lieu- peace led to him taking the post of Re- had he prevailed can barely be imagined. tenant. He served in Burma and was gional Officer for the United Nations Johnson owned the Marlborough wounded in the drive for Rangoon. In Association in the North East of Eng- Arms Hotel in Woodstock but later con- he married Jean McLeod, who land. He returned to Scotland in to centrated his energies on his small pub- had been a fellow student at Edinburgh, contest what was now West Aberdeen- lishing firm Christopher Johnson (later in his father’s church. They had three shire. He increased his vote but again just Johnson Publications). Ivor was his co-di- children who followed them in their failed to overtake the Labour candidate. rector and in published his own interest in politics. His daughter Mary, He had, however, established the strong book, Tr ial by Ballot, a political history of prior to her tragic early death in , base that contributed to Liberal electoral the years to , regarded by aca- had followed her father as President of victories later in the century. demics as one of the best accounts of the Edinburgh University Liberal Club and In , he moved his family to Ox- period. He was also heavily involved in had been elected a Liberal councillor in ford to work in partnership with Donald writing and editing the best-selling I was the London Borough of Havering. His McIntosh Johnson, an old friend from Churchill’s Shadow by Detective Chief In- son John was Parliamentary candidate the days of the wartime party truce, who spector W. H. Thompson, who had for Labour against Mrs Thatcher in had come very close to winning guarded Churchill during the war. He Finchley in and councillor and Chippenham in as an Independent later moved to become Chairman and Group Leader in the London Borough Liberal but later became Conservative Managing Director of the book distribu- of Barnet. MP for Carlisle. It was reported that at tion company Trade Counter which ex- Both Ivor and his wife were oppo- one time Johnson and Davies had de- panded and prospered under his leader- nents of the party truce that prevailed vised a scheme whereby they would di- ship. He served for many years on the during the war. Jean acted as agent to vide the country in two and each fight Distribution and Methods Committee of the journalist Honor Balfour in the cel- all by-elections in their respective halves. the Publishers Association and was Secre- ebrated Darwen by-election of Ivor Davies never allowed politics to in- tary of the Independent Publishers when, standing as an Independent Lib- terfere with friendship and he retained Guild. Both his sons also worked in eral, she came within seventy votes of strong and lasting links with those like publishing. John was a Director of the defeating the National Government Johnson and Honor Balfour who left the Publishers Association for twenty-four candidate. Liberal Party. In fact, he supported years. His second son, Michael, worked At the end of the war, Ivor returned Johnson in the particular campaigns he initially with his father at Trade Counter, to fight Central Aberdeenshire. With pursued in Parliament on such issues as was a co-founder of Wordsworth Editions
24 Journal of Liberal Democrat History 34/35 Spring/Summer 2002 and later established his own book busi- file, this action did not endear him to With his wife Jean, he also built ness in Ware, Hertfordshire. the party hierarchy. He was also scath- upon his interests in the Oxford com- Back in Oxford, Davies quickly ingly attacked in the press by Bernard munity, chairing the North Oxford threw himself into local Liberal politics Levin, who described him as ‘the star- Grove House Club and the Victim Sup- and was selected as parliamentary candi- ing-eyed idiot from Oxford’. None- port Group. Jean was a magistrate in date for the election. The Liberals theless, his contribution to the Party Oxford for fifteen years and a founder had not contested Oxford in , and Council and committees was suffi- of Norreys House, a residential home he lost his deposit, polling just above ciently valued for him to be seen as one for young women. Ivor adhered firmly votes. He fought the seat again in of the front figures in the general to the Christian faith of his father and and in and by then had raised election campaign. was a deacon and secretary of the Liberal vote to a creditable . He chaired the Oxford Campaign for Summertown United Reform Church. Ivor Davies first stood for Oxford Nuclear Disarmament. He developed In , the Liberal leader, David Steel, City Council in in the East Ward strong links with the University Liberal nominated Ivor for the award of the where he finished bottom of the poll. Club, particularly when his son John was CBE for political and public service. For many years thereafter there was no at Christ Church, and was appointed He died two years later and is buried in set of council elections at which he was honorary Vice-President. Good friends the family grave at Strata Florida, not a candidate. After several efforts in and supporters in Oxford included Lord Cardiganshire, with his wife Jean, who the North Ward, he concentrated on his and Lady Beveridge, Lord and Lady died eighteen months afterwards. home ward of Summertown & Franks and Bob Hawke, later Labour Ivor and Jean Davies gave a great Wolvercote. He was diligent and consci- Prime Minister of Australia. deal to the people of Oxford, who entious on local issues, from the build- The links with the University Lib- showed their recognition by packing ing of motorways to the removal of the eral Club proved his undoing. A group into the church in Summertown for infamous Cutteslowe Wall and built up a of dons, led by Max Beloff, pressed for their funerals. At Ivor’s, the Minister, considerable local following. At that one of their number to be the Parlia- Donald Norwood, told the congrega- time, the Labour Party rarely contested mentary candidate and Ivor was not re- tion ‘how proud we have all been of the seat. In , aided by a swing to the selected for the election. He was our Ivor’. Cwm Rhondda was sung and Liberals in the wake of the remarkable deeply disappointed by this decision. the parting blessing was given in Welsh. Orpington by-election victory, he Those who voted against him claimed At Jean’s funeral, Olive Gibbs read the gained the Summertown & Wolvercote he was ‘too old and past it’. The refer- lesson and Honor Balfour gave the val- seat on Oxford City Council, being ence to his age was unfair, for he was edictory address, in which she spoke among the first Liberals to serve on that still some months short of fifty, but movingly of the bright young woman council for many years. He became clearly, after four candidatures, there who had come with her to Darwen and Vice-Chairman of the Libraries Com- was pressure from some quarters for a served so valiantly in the momentous mittee. He lost the seat in . Here, as change. In essence, this was a contest by-election forty-five years before. ever, politics did not impede friendship. between Town and Gown of the type Tr ibutes flowed in the local press. He built strong and enduring relation- for which Oxford is renowned. Al- Ivor Davies was an able and eloquent ships with the Oxford builder and Con- though university-educated, Davies as- man, both on the political platform and servative councillor, Harry Bowdery, the sociated himself much more with the in the pulpit, where he was a tireless lay Chief Clerk of the Council, Gilbert people of the city than the dons in the preacher. His was a fine life, guided by Phipps, and the left-wing Labour coun- colleges. Beloff was right wing in his the deepest Liberal principles. He cillors Olive and Edmund Gibbs. In her views, hated CND and later became an would have loved to have been a Lib- autobiography, Olive Gibbs, twice ardent Thatcherite and Conservative eral Member of Parliament and often Lord Mayor of Oxford, Chair of Ox- life peer. Davies’ hero in an Oxford said with complete sincerity and hon- fordshire County Council and of the na- context was the populist former Liberal esty that he would literally have given tional CND, praised his ‘life-long politi- MP Frank Gray. The conflict may be his right arm for six months in the cal and personal integrity’ and described summed up in the response of the out- House of Commons in the Liberal Ivor and Jean as ‘close personal friends’. spoken Ted Rosser, former Morris car cause. He would have been delighted to Ivor Davies’s last redoubtable campaign worker and successful Oxford business- have lived to see the outcome of the for election to what was then Oxford- man, who stood in tandem with Ivor and general elections and to shire County Council was in the North Davies on many occasions, to Beloff af- see the results of all his hard work in his Ward in , at the age of sixty-six. ter the selection: ‘They may call you old stamping grounds come to fruition, He remained on the radical side of Beloff, but all I say is bugger off’. when the constituencies of Oxford Liberalism. At the Liberal Party Assem- Rosser and the other regulars of the West & Abingdon and Gordon in Ab- bly in Edinburgh in , he led a re- City Liberal Association showed their erdeenshire both returned Liberal volt against the platform on the recog- appreciation of Ivor Davies’ services by Democrat MPs. nition of East Berlin and was elected to making him their President, a post from the Liberal Party Council. Although he which he continued to enthuse the became a hero to many of the rank and Liberal cause for many years. concluded on page 47
Journal of Liberal Democrat History 34/35 Spring/Summer 2002 25 peace when the war turned against But to suggest that, had Lloyd George Britain in the spring of . It must, rather than Neville Chamberlain been ‘Let us open to them the of course, be admitted that such a in power in the late s, some sort of door of the House of narrative would be difficult to con- Anglo-German understanding would Commons’ struct, for in the years after the end of have been arrived at, presupposes that continued from page 21 his premiership in Lloyd George’s Britain could, in anything other than attention was understandably directed the very short term, have lived in be displayed. Till we have done this, let away from international affairs and harmony with a Nazi Germany us not presume to say that there is no towards the domestic problems of the rampant and unrestrained in continen- genius among the countrymen of British economy and the Liberal Party. tal Europe. Isaiah, no heroism among the de- That said, Lentin shows that Lloyd There is plenty here to stimulate the scendants of the Maccabees. George was in no sense Hitler’s dupe. reader, though at the end of the day he Sir, in supporting the motion of my All the same, it is difficult to avoid the may still decide that Lloyd George will honourable friend, I am, I firmly be- conclusion that he misjudged his man. forever escape the conclusive grasp of lieve, supporting the honour and the There were aspects of Hitler to which historical comprehension. As his long- interests of the Christian religion. I Lloyd George was instinctively drawn, term secretary, A. J. Sylvester, once put should think that I insulted that reli- not least because Hitler was enacting it, ‘his character is the most complex I gion if I said that it cannot stand un- in Germany some of the social and have ever known’. aided by intolerant laws. Without such economic policies which the Welsh- laws it was established, and without man had unsuccessfully urged upon David Dutton is Reader in History at the such laws it may be maintained. It tri- the National Government in Britain. University of Liverpool. umphed over the superstitions of the most refined and of the most savage nations, over the graceful mythology of Greece and the bloody idolatry of Keeper of the Liberal Flame the northern forests. It prevailed over conctinued from page 25 the power and policy of the Roman Empire. It tamed the barbarians by John Davies is the eldest son of Ivor Davies, Economist 19 August 1950, The Press and Jour- whom that empire was overthrown. born in and educated at the universities nal 13 May 1950, and elsewhere. 13 Ivor Davies: obituary in The Bookseller by John But all these victories were gained not of Oxford and Sheffield, recently retired from Davies, 5 December 1986, p. 2240. by the help of intolerance, but in spite the Publishers Association where he was Di- 14 ‘Mr Davies adopted for Oxford’, Oxford Mail, 7 of the opposition of intolerance. The rector of the Educational Publishers Council, June 1952. 15 ‘City Tory majority slashed’, Oxford Times, 16 whole history of Christianity proves the Council of Academic and Professional October 1964 p. 28. that she has little indeed to fear from Publishers, the Serial Publishers Executive, 16 ‘Mr Ivor Davies to stand for Oxford City Coun- persecution as a foe, but much to fear the Copyright Licensing Agency and the cil’, Oxford Mail 28 February 1953. from persecution as an ally. May she Publishers Licensing Society 17 Oxford City Council Liberal election address, Wolvercote Ward 1970. long continue to bless our country 18 Our Olive (Oxford 1989) p. 95. with her benignant influence, strong 1 Edinburgh University Personality Series No. 11 19 Bernard Levin, writing as Taper in The Spectator, in her sublime philosophy, strong in – Ivor R.M. Davies in The Student, 1 February September 1961. 1938, p 161. 20 ‘Ivor Davies – the Man for Oxford’, Liberal her spotless morality, strong in those 2 Reported in The Bulletin (Aberdeen) July 1937. News General Election Campaign edition 1964, internal and external evidences to 3 Election addresses: Oxford 1938, Central Aber- p. 1. which the most powerful and compre- deenshire 1945, West Aberdeenshire 1950, 21 ‘A royal reward’, Oxford Mail, 1 November Oxford 1955, 1959, 1964. 1984 p. 7. hensive of human intellects have 4Profile of the Rev. Roderick G Davies in The 22 ‘Man of influence for four decades’, Oxford yielded assent, the last solace of those Christian World, 16 May 1940, p. 3. Mail, 3 December 1986 p. 2. There was no who have outlived every earthly hope, 5 e.g. lead feature in Glasgow Weekly Herald, 5 obituary in Liberal News. December 1936: ‘The Milk Muddle’ by Ivor the last restraint of those who are R.M. Davies, p. 8. raised above every earthly fear! But let Bibliographical Note: At their deaths in 6 Ian Bradley – ‘Oxford 1938 – the first ‘War’ not us, mistaking her character and her the late s, Ivor and Jean Davies left be- vote’ – The Times, 27 October 1978, p. 16. interests, fight the battle of truth with 7 Ivor R M Davies, Trial By Ballot (London, 1950), hind them a significant collection of press the weapons of error, and endeavour pp. 143–44. cuttings, election literature and other docu- 8 Quoted by Tom Harrisson, co-founder of Mass to support by oppression that religion ments related to their political activities. Observation, in Picture Post, 5 November 1938. which first taught the human race the 9 ‘Recount Drama ends Darwen Contest’ in These have been drawn upon for this article great lesson of universal charity. Northern Daily Telegraph, 1943. and, where attributed and relevant, some of 10 ‘Central Aberdeenshire – Result of Poll’ in Huntly Express 27 July 1945 p. 3. them are cited in the footnotes. The content of 11 See article by Robert Ingham, ‘Donald Johnson the article, however, also owes much to eye- – the last Liberal Imperialist’, Journal of Liberal witness observation and conversations within Democrat History 25, Winter 1999–2000, p. 31. 12 Reviewed in Times Literary Supplement 23 June the family and with friends of the subject 1950 p. 383, Truth 18 August 1950 p. 167, The over many years.
Journal of Liberal Democrat History 34/35 Spring/Summer 2002 47