DAvid AND FRANCES Dr J. Graham Jones ame Margaret Lloyd at Cerrig-y-Druidion in Denbigh- George died at her shire (while in a mad rush en route uses A. J. Sylvester’s beloved north Wales from Bron-y-de, his home at Churt, detailed diaries in the home Brynawelon, in Surrey, to Brynawelon, Cric- Criccieth on the cieth), and had to be informed of custody of the National Dmorning of 20 January 1941 after a his wife’s death by his friend Lord mercifully brief illness. Although Dawson of Penn, the esteemed Library of Wales to the couple had been semi-estranged royal physician, over the telephone. examine the tortuous for many years, spending only Dawson had told him softly, ‘Your relatively brief intervals in each wife died at twenty past ten this build-up to the marriage other’s company, usually dur- morning’. The situation was, in the ing the month of August, Lloyd words of Lloyd George’s Principal of Lloyd George and George was still devastated. Part Private Secretary A. J. Sylvester, Frances Stevenson at of his grief could be explained by ‘most pathetic. LG was broken and his unfortunate, tragic failure, he sobbed at the other end of the Guildford Registry attributable to exceptionally heavy telephone: I heard him. I expressed falls of snow across the country, to my deep grief for him; he sobbed, Office on 23 October reach the deathbed scene in time. “She was a great old pal”. I said, The old man had been forced to “You are very brave”, but he said: 1943. spend the previous night at a hotel “No, I am not”’.1 30 Journal of Liberal History 74 Spring 2012 DAvid AND FRANCES The following day the London October 1931, and a close personal until after Lloyd George’s death in train was able to get through to friend to Megan Lloyd George, had March 1945. In her heart of hearts, Criccieth bearing their elder son rushed to Brynawelon as soon as Frances considered Sylvester vain, Richard, widely known as Dick, she had heard of Dame Margaret’s over-ambitious and touchy. Behind and his wife June, and their second death. The scenes she then saw had his back she would always laugh son Gwilym and his wife Edna. confirmed her view that the Lloyd at him and his voice which had a Members of the family were thus Georges were ‘a genuine circle, con- strong nasal twang overlaying a reunited in their profound grief. sisting of people who did not merely marked Staffordshire accent and his The immensely tragic and moving put up with each other, but were tendency to rub his hands together events of these days made a very genuinely fond of each other how- rather subserviently which made deep impression upon Sylvester, ever much they had to put up with’. him appear, in her view, a modern clearly an emotional man: ‘I shall Upon her arrival at Brynawelon, day Uriah Heep. Sylvester in turn never forget LG’s face when he ‘Lloyd George threw his arms about accused Frances of being prim, stiff, drew up in the Rolls Royce driven me, burst into tears and sobbed out and intent only on providing com- by Dyer. I have never seen anybody that he would never forget me com- fort for Lloyd George and personal looking so near death. His face ing at that moment’.3 self-seeking. was an awful colour. For the first Generally A. J. Sylvester was Dame Margaret’s funeral took time in my life I saw him wearing a extremely loyal to Lloyd George place just three days after her death woollen scarf’. Although there had whom he served devotedly, some- on Thursday, 23 January. A pri- long been an extremely deep rift times at considerable personal cost vate funeral service at Brynawelon between father and son, and Dick and sacrifice to himself, for more at 2 p.m. saw Lloyd George once had long considered that Lloyd than twenty-two years. He was more ‘overcome with grief and in George had treated his mother also most fond of Dame Margaret floods of tears’. Thereafter the cof- shamefully for decades, now, ‘LG who tended to take his side in fam- fin was borne the two miles from fell into Dick’s arms and sobbed. ily squabbles. He, in turn, was at Brynawelon to the Criccieth public Supported on the arms of his fam- pains for the rest of his life to try ceremony on a simple traditional ily he boarded the train and went to ensure that she was given the farm wagon, pulled by sixty-five to sleep’. Only Sylvester and their attention and respect which, he felt members of the Criccieth home son-in-law Sir Thomas Carey- convinced, she deserved. He also guard, each of whom was carry- Evans, himself a medical man too enjoyed a reasonable rapport with ing an individual wreath. All shops and married to their second daugh- Megan. With Frances Stevenson, and private houses had their blinds ter Olwen ever since 1917, felt suf- however, Sylvester’s relationship tightly pulled down along the ficiently composed and in control to was at best uneasy. In her view, he route taken by the funeral proces- go to see the body of Dame Marga- had displayed an enormous van- sion.4 Lloyd George, still sobbing, ret lying in her coffin: ‘She looked ity when he had dictated to Lloyd rode behind the farm wagon with very peaceful. LG did not see her. I George that he must be known as his two sons, his younger brother do not think he has ever seen death: ‘Principal Private Secretary’ as William George and ‘little David’, I learn that he did not even see part of the deal when he had re- the elder son of Major Gwilym Mair. Neither did Dick or Gwilym joined Lloyd George’s staff in 1923. Lloyd George, still only ten years see her’. A little later Sylvester met Frances, recognising that he would of age. At the cemetery there were Megan Lloyd George in the hall at undoubtedly be a useful asset as to be no women mourners. The Brynawelon – ‘She just fell into an addition to LG’s personal staff, sheer poignancy of the scene was my arms. The scenes I witnessed had magnanimously shrugged increased by the fact that Dame between members of the family her shoulders and did not quibble. Margaret was to be buried in the were most pathetic’.2 Thelma Caza- But a latent, simmering antago- Left: Frances same grave as their eldest (and let, the Conservative MP for the nism between the two persisted, and David Lloyd favourite) daughter Mair Eluned, Islington East constituency since although it was somewhat masked George in 1943 who had died at the family home at Journal of Liberal History 74 Spring 2012 31 DAvid AND FRANCES Routh Road, London, at just sev- 1941 would inevitably prove short- The death native village of Llanystumdwy enteen years of age back in Novem- lived and largely cosmetic. For which he had bought, together with ber 1907 after a failed operation to years on end she had deeply resented of Dame some forty acres of agricultural treat a burst appendix. At the time the fact that she had had to leave land, shortly before the outbreak her father had been the President of Bron-y-de, Churt each time Dame Margaret of the war in September 1939. The the Board of Trade under Sir Henry Margaret or Megan had decided to property had already been exten- Campbell-Bannerman. Subse- go there. Such a scenario she was Lloyd George sively reconstructed and modern- quently Mair’s simple grave had just no longer prepared to tolerate. ised, and orchards had been planted been turned into a Lloyd George The battle lines were being drawn. potentially on eight acres of the land containing family vault, crowned by a majes- As Sylvester put it in rather exag- no fewer than three thousand trees. tic sculpture of a teenage girl exe- gerated language in early Febru- meant a Frances clearly subjected the ailing cuted by Sir W. Goscombe John, ary, ‘The fight is ON, not only with wholly old man to considerable pressure. monumental sculptor par excel- Germany, but between Frances and ‘She either does not realise or does lence at the beginning of the twen- the family’.6 cataclysmic not care that this puts him in great tieth century. This vault was now Within just two days of Dame difficulties. For him to go to stay at re-opened for the first time thirty- Margaret’s funeral, Lloyd George change for Ty Newydd would be just another three years later as Dame Margaret had told Megan (who had inherited damn fool thing amongst many was finally laid to rest. ‘LG, stand- Brynawelon absolutely under the her hus- which he has done lately. It would ing between Dick and Gwilym, terms of her mother’s will) rather be the talk of the constituency, trembled and sobbed, but bore tactlessly that he could no longer band. He especially if she went with him his grief bravely. Dame Margaret afford to continue to pay her an which is what I think she is after’. would have been delighted if she allowance towards the upkeep had always Moreover, whenever Megan or could have seen the whole setting. of the property as he had previ- Olwen now visited Churt, Frances I have been to many important ously done. In Sylvester’s percep- assumed stubbornly refused to budge from funerals, none was so impressive as tive words, ‘Yet he is spending a the house, and she also began to this’.5 On the mountainside nearby fortune in having all sorts of peo- that he was squander Lloyd George’s money, stood Mynydd Ednyfed Fawr, the ple around him who do not earn for example on hiring a private car farm where Maggie had been born a fraction of their salaries’.