Notes Introduction 1. Anniker Mom bauer, Helmuth von Moltke and the Origins o(the First World War (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), p. l. 2. A line argued recently, for example, by Niall Ferguson in The Pity o( War (London: Penguin, 1998). 3. A 'breakthrough' or 'breakout' of the type envisaged by Douglas Haig never occurred, however, even in 1918. 4. 'King Albert Iof Belgium I, King George, the Kaiser and Poincare !President of France! were the only rulers who saw it through from the beginning to the end.' David Lloyd George, War Memoirs, 6 vols (London: lvor Nicholson & Watson, 1933-:{6), VI, pp. vii-viii. Hereafter War Memoirs and vol. no. 5. Many reviewers of the War Mrmoirs commented critically upon Lloyd George's attacks on the generals in their reviews of earlier volumes. In reply, Lloyd George provided in the sixth and final volume a li st of the generals and admirals that he had praised. Noticeably absent were the two successive British Commanders-in-Chief of the BEF, French and Haig, and any of the First Sea Lords or Commanders of the Grand Fleet. See ibid., p. xi. 6. Except in so far as he did not remove Haig or order him to stop during the latter stages of Third Ypres. A fairly big exception I will argue. See ch. 7. 7. Thus in a literal sense the question sometimes posed regarding the War Memoirs- was Lloyd George 'pamphleteering' rather than writing a serious contribution to history - must be answered in the affirmative. 8. Most notably by George 'N. Egerton, 'The Lloyd George War Memoirs: A Study in the Politics of Memory', fuunwl o( Modern History, 60, 1, March 1988, pp. 55-94; for other studies of the War Mrmoirs, see also Thomas jones, l.loyd Grorsc (London: Oxford University Press, 1951 L pp. 267-73; Trevor Wilson, 'A Prime Minister Reflects: The War ,vfemoirs of David Lloyd George', in John A. Moses and Christopher Pugsley (eds), The German Empire and Britain's l'acifk IJommions 1871 - 1919: Essays on the Role ofAustralia and New Zealand in an Age o( Imperialism (Claremont, CA: Regina Books, 2000), pp. 37-52. For contemporary accounts of Lloyd George's memoir writing, see the diaries by his secretaries, published as Colin Cross (ed.), Li(e with Lloyd George: Tile Diary o(A./. Svlwstl'r (London: Macmillan, 19 75) and A .f.l'-. Taylor (ed.), Lloyd Gl'Otse: A lJi<II ,V/Jy Frances Stevrnson (London: Hutchinson, 1971 ). 9. See Wor .Memoirs, Ill, pp. 1162-65; John Grigg, l.loyd c;emse: War Leader 19/6- 7918 (London: Allen Lane/Penguin, 2002), pp. 52-53 (the fourth and final volume of Grigg's b1ography of Ll oyd George ); Robert K. Massie, Cas tles o( Steel: Britain, c;oman;· and tile Wi1111ing o{ tile Great War at Sm (New York: Random House, 20(B ), pp. n0-31; Peter Rowland, David Lloyd George: ;\ lliugmpily (New York: 1\lacmillan, 1975), pp. :{96-98, 707-70H. 10. Ibid., pp. 2:{7-3H. 204 Notes 205 11. War Mmwirs, ll, ch. 23; john Grigg, Lloyd George: From Pmce to War 1912-1916 (London: HarperCollins, 1997 ed.), pp. 326-41; R.j.Q. Adams, Honar Law (London: john Murray, 1999), pp. 203-13. 12. See War Memoirs , V, ch. 80; Grigg, Lloyd George, IV, ch. 27; David French, The Strategy of the Lloyd George Coalition 1916-1918 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995), pp. 234-35; Adams, Bonar Law, pp. 268-72. 13. The important last volume of John Grigg's biography of Lloyd George was published too late to be fully taken into account in the present work. 1 Writing the War Memoirs 1931-36 1. For a sample of reviews, see pp. 195- 98; elsewhere, for a good survey of reviewer's reception of the War Memoirs, see George W. Egerton, 'The Lloyd George War Memoirs: A Study in the Politics of Memory', Journal of Modern History, 60, 1, March 1988, pp. 78-86. For readers' letters, see House of Lords Record Office (HLRO) Lloyd George MSS (hereafter LG MSS) G/236-38. 2. Successively, the War Council, the Dardanelles Committee, the War Committee and the War Cabinet. 3. Winston S. Churchill, The World Crisis, 6 vols (London: Thornton and Butterworth, 1923-31). Churchill's The Second World War, 6 vols (London: Cassell, 1948-54), is, as Egerton suggests, a better comparison: 'War Memoirs', p. 86. 4. See, for example, A.j.P. Taylor (ed.), Lloyd George: A Diary by Frances Stevenson (London: Hutchinson, 1971), p. 264. 5. One reviewer thought it 'amazing that a man commencing author [sic] in his seventieth year should have written a million words, every letter of them stamped with his own personality'; Times Literary Supplement, review of volume VI , 28 November 1936, p. 981. 6. Colin Cross (ed.), Life with Lloyd George: The Diary of A .f. Sylvester (London: Macmillan, 1975), p. 109. 7. For example, see Paul johnson in the New Statesman, where he describes the War Memoirs as 'unreadable' and 'unread'; 19 September 1969. 8. Egerton, 'War Memoirs' , p. 66. Egerton's appraisal is shared by other historians, for example Kenneth Morgan: 'Lloyd George's memoirs, as source material and as literature, have stood the test of time far more successfully than have many such essays in self-justification, better than Churchill's writings on the 1914-18 war, and perhaps on the 1939-45 war as well'; Kenneth 0. Morgan, Lloyd George (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1974), p. 211. 9. Times Literary Supplement, review of volume V, 26 September 1936. 10. Daily Mail, 26 October 1934. 11. Egerton, 'War Memoirs', pp. 84-5. 12. Quoted in Thomas jones, Lloyd George (London: Oxford University Press, 1951), pp. 269. 13. Ibid. Liddell Hart, on his experience in advising Lloyd George on the Memoirs , observed, 'I had arguments with LG that were almost as violent as those with his opponents, and regard him as a brilliant prosecuting counsel rather than a historian'; Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives (LHCMA) Liddell Hart MSS I /312/78: Liddell Ha rt to Professor Norman Gibbs, 28 january 1958. 206 Notes 14. Egerton, 'War ,\Jemoirs', p. 65. 15. HLRO LG MSS G/208: Mr Lloyd George's War Memoirs, Vol. V, Sales Manager of lvor Nicholson and Watson (signature illegible), 22 September 1936. Frances Stevenson noted in September 1934: 'Today is published Vol. Ill of the War Memoirs. D. is very satisfied, as is also Ivor Nicholson- 6,000 advance copies (more than double previous vols.)', Stevenson Diary, p. 278. 16. Details in Egerton, 'War Memoirs', p. 79. 17. National Library of Wale5 (NLW) A.j. Sylvester MSS (hereafter Sylvester MSS): uncatalogued, 'Beginning', no date. At the time I consulted these papers they were uncatalogued, happily this is no longer the case. 18. Egerton, 'War Memoirs', pp. 58-61 and Peter Rowland, Lloyd George: A Biog;raphy (New York: Macmillan, 1975), pp. 572-73. 19. HLRO LG MSS G/216: Swinton to Fuller, 7 November 1922. 20. NLW Sylvester MSS: uncatalogued, 'Beginning', no date. 21. See Swinton's memoir Owr My Shoulder (Oxford: George Ronald, 1951 ), p. 224. 22. NLW Sylvester MSS: uncatalogued, 'Beginning', no date. 23. HLRO LG MSS G/2 I 6: Swinton to !.loyd George, january 1924. 24. Thus during his first twelve months as a columnist Lloyd George earned £.30,000; Rowland, Lloyd George, p. 593. 25. War Memoirs, I, pp. vii-viii. 26. Although it was probably not the 'National Government' he would have wanted; on Lloyd George and the formation of the National Government, see Philip Williamson, National Crisis and National Govemment: British Politics, the Economy and Empire 1926-1932 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992), pp. 275-76, 354-55. 27. There were, however, subsequent attempts to include Lloyd George in the Government. See, for example, the exchange of letters between Liberal candidate Captain Frederick Boult, MacDonald and Sylvester. Boult suggested to MacDonald that Lloyd George be invited to join the Government and MacDonald seemed to take him seriously: 'Do you think there is the least chance of his accepting·' It would be a colossal blunder to give him the chance of boasting that he had been approached and had refused.' Lloyd George, however, was not interested, and did not reply to Boult personally. Boult concluded the exchange on an optimistic note: 'Mr Lloyd George did not see me, or reply personally to my letter. I enclose the correspondence in case you care to sec it. Personally I still think that he would take on the job if he were asked'; MacDonald MSS PRO 30/69/1177: correspondence, 13 October-2 November 19:12. 28. War Memoirs, I, p. viii. 29. HLRO LG MSS (;/2 I 2: Lloyd George to Hankey 10 April 1933. 30. From Private to Field Marshal (London: Constable, 1921) and more importantly Soldiers and Statesmm1914-1918, 2 vols (London: Cassell, 1926). 31. Memories and Reflections, 2 vols (London: Cassell, 1928): The Gmesis of t11e War (London: Cassell, 1923). 32. Twenty Five Years, 2 vols (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1925). 33. The World Crisis. 34. Sir George Arthur, Lifi' of Lord Kitc17ener, 3 vols (London: Macmillan, 1920). 35. C. E. Callwell (ell.), Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson: His Life and Diaries, 2 vols (London: Cassell, 1927). Notes 207 36. j.H. Boraston and G.A.B. Dewar, Sir Douglas Haig's Command, December 19th 1915 to November 11th, 1918 (London: Constable, 1922); Brigadier-General john Charteris, Field Marshal Earl Haig (London: Cassell, 1929). Alfred Duff Cooper's Haig, 2 vols (London: Faber & Faber, 1935-36), was still to come.