Former British Prime Minister Lloyd George dies (3-26-45)

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The Pittsburgh Press (March 27, 1945)

Lloyd George, Britain’s premier in First World War, dies

Elder statesman, stricken recently by flu, lauded as ‘one of greatest figures’

LONDON, England (UP) – Messages of tribute poured in today for David Lloyd George, the doughty warrior who led Britain to victory in World War I but lost a race with death before the Allies again could crush his arch for – Prussian militarism.

The white-haired elder statesman, twice Prime Minister of Great Britain, died in his sleep last night at his country home near Criccieth, Wales.

He was 82, but he waged a gallant battle against death during the last five weeks apparently in hope of seeing victory over the Germans for the second time.

Last New Year’s Day he was given the title of Earl of Dwyfor, although history probably will remember him best as David Lloyd George, the man who struggled 55 years for a strong Britain.

Field Marshal Jan C. Smuts, Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa, said in a tribute broadcast over BBC that “a very great figure has departed – one of the greatest.”

Linked with Churchill

Marshal Smuts had been very close to Lloyd George in the last war and said the former Prime Minister would be remembered for “his profound humaneness, his brilliant versatility, his sure intuition and his arduous spirit.”

“He was in that war what Winston Churchill is in this,” Marshal Smuts said.

Lloyd George entered public life in 1890, when as “the little Welsh solicitor,” he became a member of Parliament. He had radical ideas, which shocked some of the British “upper classes,” but he was a resolute foe of Prussian militarism.

In 1916, he became Britain’s Prime Minister and emerged victoriously as one of the Big Four who negotiated the Versailles Treaty. His passing leaves Vittorio Orlando of Italy the only survivor of the four. The others were President Woodrow Wilson and Georges Clemenceau of France.

Suffered flu attack

Lloyd George had been in failing health for some years and returned to his 40-acre farm, overlooking Cardigan Bay, last December. After an attack of influenza in mid-February, he weakened rapidly and his physicians did not expect him to live more than a week.

But he fought on gamely for five weeks with his second wife, Countess Lloyd George, constantly at his bedside.

Yesterday his condition became critical and he lapsed into a coma. His four children were notified. Two of them, Maj. Gwilym and Megan, were fellow members of Commons.

Lloyd George led Britain to victory in World War I and welded a powerful influence in shaping the nation’s policy in the second.

The story of Lloyd George, a giant in statecraft for more than a quarter of a century, is a story of rags to riches. A son of a Welsh preacher-teacher and minister’s daughter, he rose to the leadership of his country in an hour to crisis.

Although born in Manchester, England, January 17, 1863, he was a Welshman through and through.

Lloyd George’s beloved wife, Dame Margaret Lloyd George, died in 1941 at Criccieth Caernarvonshire, where they were married in 1888.

When he was 80 years old, October 24, 1943, Lloyd George was married to his private secretary since 1913, Miss Frances Stevensen, 55.

‘Blond bewilderment’

Years earlier, when he was fighting the post-war battle of diplomacy at Versailles, she was known as the “Blond Bewilderment of Versailles.” The delegates wondered why such a woman knuckled down to the drudgery of being a statesman’s secretary.

A leading political figure of the Liberal Party since 1906, Lloyd George’s active leadership of the party ended in 1931. A severe kidney ailment forced him to ease up.

In the last years before 1939, Lloyd George was credited with frequently voicing public worry about the course of events leading to the war. His attacks on the government were credited with unseating Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain.

As in the first war, he denounced smugness or complacency in the conduct of World War II. He took the lead in proposing new advances in the diplomatic and political, as well as the military, fields of war.

He warned that the Munich agreement in September 1938 was an immediate prelude to war and that if some new policy were not found Britain would find herself in a “war without friends.”

After the collapse of Poland, he advised Britain to become close trends with the United States and Russia.

Opposed risks

In February 1940, he opposed involvement in any Scandinavian or Balkan “diversion” attempts and advised Britain not to “run any more risks.” He warned that big forces would be needed on the Western Front for the German attack which would surely come.

When the Norwegian campaign failed, he took the leading part in forcing the government to public debate. He condemned the entire war policy and called on Mr. Chamberlain to “get out.” His campaign was largely instrumental in bringing in Mr. Churchill as War Premier.

Lloyd George descended from a farming family that had tilled the soil in Pembrokeshire, Wales, for generations, His youth was one of poverty and hard work. His father died when he was 18 and his family was taken in by an uncle who was a bootmaker. At 14, he decided to become a lawyer and was admitted to the bar at 21.

Career started in 1890

Lloyd George’s political career began in 1890, at the age of 27, when he campaigned against the village squire and won a seat in Parliament.

In 1905, Lloyd George became president of the British Board of Trade and, after putting through several major bills, became Secretary of State for War in 1915.

A year later, he forced the resignation of the Prime Minister, Lord Asquith, and became Premier himself. His premiership lasted until his party was defeated by the Conservatives in 1922.

Toured U.S. in 1923

In 1923, he toured the United States and Canada and the next year took his position in Parliament as co-leader with Lord Asquith of the reunited Liberal Party.

While he was reputed never to have benefited financially from his long political career, he made a fortune estimated at $225,000 from writing.

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Editorial: Lloyd George

To this generation, the name David Lloyd George was something out of the history books, or perhaps it represented an 80-year-old man who married his secretary. But to those who fought the First World War, he was a hero.

What Winston Churchill has done this time in lifting and leading a united Britain, Prime Minister Lloyd George did in 1916 and on to victory. In that war, there was a phrase for it – Britain “sees it through.” The Prime Minister then, as now, was the symbol of that spirit which is the pride of Britain’s friends and the envy of her enemies.

But his wisdom at the Paris Peace Conference, and after, was not equal to his wartime leadership.

Americans found his career particularly interesting because it was poverty-to-power. The orphan of a humble teacher, he picked up a little law and his oratory put him in the House of Commons. There he stayed 54 years until, last New Year’s Eve, he received an earldom.

Now he is dead at 82. We are glad the statesman who contributed so much to earlier British reforms and helped save Britain in the last war, lived to see the dawning rays of 1945 victory.

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“Lloyd George knew my father,
Father knew Lloyd George!”

One of the most slippery and yet fascinating characters of the 20th century, he dominated Parliament during his premiership, yet alienated most of his allies by the time his time in office ended. Churchill clearly still respected (and perhaps feared) L.G., but never gave him a position of power or influence during his own Premiership (and likely a good thing for him, too).

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Völkischer Beobachter (March 28, 1945)

Lloyd George gestorben

Stockholm, 27. März – Wie Reuters meldet, ist Lloyd George am Montag im Alter von 82 Jahren gestorben.

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Der letzte der großen Schuldigen von Versailles, der so unendlich viel Leid und Jammer gebracht hat, ist nunmehr von dieser Welt geschieden. Als Sohn eines Lehrers wurde er 1863 in Manchester geboren, und schon in jungen Jahren verstand er sich populär zu machen, so dass er mit kaum 27 Jahren als liberaler Abgeordneter ins Unterhaus kam. Sein Temperament war gefürchtet, seine Wendigkeit in der Politik brachte ihn bald in die Höhe. Im Weltkrieg wurde er, der schon 1905 erstmalig Minister gewesen war, 1915 mit der Leitung des neugegründeten Munitionsministeriums betraut und nach Kitcheners Tode 1916 Kriegsminister. Wenige Monate später stürzte er den Premierminister Asquith und übernahm seinen Posten. Zwei Jahre nachher erreichte er den Gipfel seiner Macht und war mit Clemenceau und Wilson Beherrscher der Welt. Versailles ist der Meilenstein, der diesen Höhepunkt seines Lebens kennzeichnet.

In späteren Jahren graute ihm scheinbar wohl selbst vor dem Unheil, das er mit angerichtet hatte und aus dem er neue Katastrophen entstehen sah. Manche seiner Veröffentlichungen und Reden zeigen das; das neue Deutschland Adolf Hitlers beeindruckte ihn sehr, so dass er nach einem Besuch des Reiches 1936, wobei er auch mit dem Führer eine längere Aussprache hatte, wiederholt zugunsten des nationalsozialistischen Deutschlands Stellung nahm. Wenig später aber war der alte Liberale hei der Oppositionsgruppe Churchill-Eden, die gegen Chamberlain sich stellte. Sein Alter ließ ihn schließlich immer mehr in der Ruhe seines Landsitzes verweilen und seine fünfbändigen Erinnerungen an die große Zeit seines Lebens sind Augenzeugenberichte und demgemäß historisch wertvolle Darstellungen. Es gibt Leute, die Lloyd George als Staatsmann bezeichnen, aber er war doch immer nur ein Politiker. Sein Werk ist der Beweis dafür.

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The last of the great culprits of Versailles, which brought so much suffering and misery, has now departed from this world. The son of a schoolteacher, he was born in Manchester in 1863, and even at a young age he knew how to make himself popular, so that he was elected to the House of Commons as a Liberal MP when he was barely 27. His temperament was feared, his agility in politics soon brought him to prominence. During the Great War, he, who had already been a minister for the first time in 1905, was entrusted with the management of the newly founded Ministry of Munitions in 1915 and became Minister of War after Kitchener’s death in 1916. A few months later he overthrew Prime Minister Asquith and took over his post. Two years later, he reached the peak of his power and, together with Clemenceau and Wilson, was ruler of the world. Versailles is the milestone that marks this high point in his life.

In later years, it seems that he himself dreaded the disaster that he had helped to cause and from which he saw new catastrophes emerging. Some of his publications and speeches show this; Adolf Hitler’s new Germany impressed him so much that after a visit to the Reich in 1936, during which he also had a lengthy discussion with the Führer, he repeatedly took a stand in favor of National Socialist Germany.
A little later, however, the old Liberal was part of the Churchill-Eden opposition group, which opposed Chamberlain. His age finally allowed him to linger more and more in the peace and quiet of his country estate and his five-volume memoirs of the great period of his life are eyewitness accounts and thus historically valuable accounts. There are those who describe Lloyd George as a statesman, but he was only ever a politician. His work is proof of that.

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Italian Premier Orlando is still around, as of March 1945.

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