David Lloyd George
British Prime Minister 1916-1922, wartime coalition leader (1863-1945)
Also known as: Lloyd George, David Lloyd George
David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor (1863-1945), was the dynamic Welsh Liberal who replaced Asquith as Prime Minister in December 1916 and led the British war effort to 1922. Quigley names his administration 'the chief influence in Lloyd George's war administration in 1917-1919' as the moment the The Milner Group took direct charge of British government, supplying him with a four-man secretariat drawn from the Round Table — Kerr, Grigg, Adams, and Astor (T&H 158).
Rise during the war
Lloyd George began the war as Chancellor of the Exchequer under Asquith, moved to the new Ministry of Munitions in 1915, became Secretary of State for War in mid-1916, and replaced Asquith as Prime Minister in December 1916 after a Cabinet crisis triggered partly by Milner's and Esher's manoeuvring. Quigley's analysis of the December 1916 transition is institutional: 'he established a Cabinet secretariat in 1916-1917 consisting of two proteges of Esher (Hankey and Swinton) and two of his own (his secretaries, Leopold Amery and W. G. A. Ormsby-Gore, later Lord Harlech)' (T&H 158). The Cabinet Office as a permanent institution dates from this moment.
The Milner Group secretariat
Quigley's most consequential claim about Lloyd George is that the Group provided the personnel through which his Prime Ministership operated. 'At the same time he gave the Prime Minister, Lloyd George, a secretariat from the Round Table, consisting of Kerr (Lothian), Grigg (Lord Altrincham), W. G. S. Adams (Fellow of All Souls College), and Astor. He created an Imperial War Cabinet by adding Dominion Prime Ministers (particularly Smuts) to the United Kingdom War Cabinet' (T&H 158). Of the AAE's 23 named Kindergarten alumni, 'five were in close personal contact with Lloyd George (two in succession as private secretaries) in the period 1916-1922' (AAE 45). The substantive output of that secretariat was the wartime Imperial War Cabinet, the negotiation of Egyptian independence, the Curtis-drafted Government of India Act of 1919, and the Versailles peace.
Versailles
At the Paris Peace Conference, Lloyd George operated through Kerr — 'Lothian, who served as British member of the Committee of Five which drew up the answer to the Germans' protest of May, 1919' (T&H 596) — and Hankey as secretary of the Supreme Council. Quigley records the 'belated stand on June 2, 1919, that the German reparations be reduced and the Rhineland occupation be cut from fifteen years to two. The memorandum from which Lloyd George read these demands was drawn up by' Kerr after consultation with Milner, Smuts, and H. A. L. Fisher (T&H 596). 'Lloyd George wanted to carry out his campaign promises of immediate demobilization, and Wilson wanted to get back to his duties as President of the United States' (T&H 282) — the haste cost the peace its careful preliminary procedure.
Tank controversy and military judgment
Lloyd George's wartime activism extended to weapons-acquisition policy, including the protracted dispute over tanks. 'This resulted in a violent controversy between Lloyd George and the generals, the former trying to persuade the latter that shrapnel was not effective against defensive forces in ground trenches' (T&H 244). He was overruled in his attempt to expand tank production: 'an order for manufacture of a thousand more was canceled without the knowledge of the Cabinet. This was overruled only by direct orders from Lloyd George. Only on November 20, 1917, were tanks used as Swinton had instructed. On that day 381 tanks supported by six infantry divisions struck the Hindenburg Line before Cambrai and burst through into open country' (T&H 245). Quigley uses these episodes to underline Lloyd George's pragmatic-and-impulsive temperament, in contrast to the Milner-Group ideologists around him.
Cited in
- anglo-american-establishment · p. 5 Quigley
during the three years 1919-1922, it publicized the idea of and the name 'British Commonwealth of Nations' in the period 1908-1918, it was the chief influence in Lloyd George's war administration in 1917-1919 and dominated the British delegation to the Peace Conference of 1919.
- anglo-american-establishment · p. 45 Quigley
five were in close personal contact with Lloyd George (two in succession as private secretaries) in the period 1916-1922, and seven were in the group which controlled and edited The Times after 1912.
- tragedy-and-hope · p. 158 Quigley
At the same time he gave the Prime Minister, Lloyd George, a secretariat from the Round Table, consisting of Kerr (Lothian), Grigg (Lord Altrincham), W. G. S. Adams (Fellow of All Souls College), and Astor.
- tragedy-and-hope · p. 244 Quigley
This resulted in a violent controversy between Lloyd George and the generals, the former trying to persuade the latter that shrapnel was not effective against defensive forces in ground trenches.
- tragedy-and-hope · p. 275 Quigley
Lloyd George replaced Asquith in England; Clemenceau replaced a series of lesser leaders in France; Wilson strengthened his control on his own government in the United States.
- tragedy-and-hope · p. 596 Quigley
it was under pressure from seven persons, including General Smuts and H. A. L. Fisher, as well as Lord Milner himself, that Lloyd George made his belated stand on June 2, 1919, that the German reparations be reduced and the Rhineland occupation be cut from fifteen years to two.