David Lloyd George (1916-22) - Prime Minister - Parliament

David Lloyd George was born in 1863. The Lloyd family were staunchly Nonconformist and his early years were marked by a heavy involvement in the Disciples of Christ Chapel. He was a Liberal MP and became the youngest member of the House of Commons.

His dynamic oratorical skills brought him to the attention of the leaders but he was considered to be far too radical. It was not until his positions under Campbell-Bannerman and Asquith that his political career really flourished. The majority of his policies were criticized and many Conservatives accused him of being a Socialist.

In 1916 however he collaborated with the Conservatives and managed to remove Asquith from office. Lloyd George attempted to introduce a number of progressive reforms, but backed in by the Conservatives, these were to no avail. Eventually he was ousted by the Conservative members of his cabinet.

David Lloyd George, Budget Speech – 1909:
This is a war Budget. It is for raising money to wage implacable warfare against poverty and squalidness. I cannot help hoping and believing that before this generation has passed away, we shall have advanced a great step towards that good time, when poverty, and the wretchedness and human degradation which always follows in its camp, will be as remote to the people of this country as the wolves which once infested its forests.

David Lloyd George, speech – 21st July 1911:
“Personally I am a sincere advocate of all means which would lead to the settlement of international disputes by methods such as those which civilization has so successfully set up for the adjustment of differences between individuals.

But I am also bound to say this - that I believe it is essential in the highest interests, not merely of this country, but of the world, that Britain should at all hazards maintain her place and her prestige amongst the Great Powers of the world. Her potent influence has many a time been in the past, and may yet be in the future, invaluable to the cause of human liberty. It has more than once in the past redeemed Continental nations, who are sometimes too apt to forget that service, from overwhelming disaster and even from national extinction.

I would make great sacrifices to preserve peace. I conceive that nothing would justify a disturbance of international good will except questions of the gravest national moment. But if a situation were to be forced upon us in which peace could only be preserved by the surrender of the great and beneficent position Britain has won by centuries of heroism and achievement, by allowing Britain to be treated where her interests were vitally affected as if she were of no account in the Cabinet of nations, then I say emphatically that peace at that price would be a humiliation intolerable for a great country like ours to endure”.

David Lloyd George, War Memoirs – 1938:
“Modern warfare, we discovered, was to a far greater extent than ever before a conflict of chemists and manufacturers. Manpower, it is true, was indispensable, and generalship will always, whatever the conditions, have a vital part to play. But troops, however brave and well led, were powerless under modern conditions unless equipped with adequate and up-to-date artillery (with masses of explosive shell), machine-guns, aircraft and other supplies.

Against enemy machine-gun posts and wire entanglements the most gallant and best-led men could only throw away their precious lives in successive waves of heroic martyrdom. Their costly sacrifice could avail nothing for the winning of victory”.