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Portrait of David Lloyd George

Prime Ministers · 20th century

David Lloyd George

1863–1945 · British (Welsh)

Liberal

In office: 1916–1922

David Lloyd George, the "Welsh Wizard", was the radical Chancellor behind the 1909 People's Budget and prime minister of a wartime coalition from December 1916. He led Britain to victory in the First World War, helped negotiate the Treaty of Versailles and concluded the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921. The last Liberal prime minister, he fell in 1922 when Conservatives voted at the Carlton Club to leave his coalition.

How to spot them

  • ▸'The Welsh Wizard' or 'The Goat'; the only PM whose first language was Welsh
  • ▸People's Budget of 1909; Minister of Munitions
  • ▸'Homes fit for heroes'; the 'coupon election'
  • ▸Versailles alongside Clemenceau and Woodrow Wilson
  • ▸Sale of honours scandal (Maundy Gregory); last Liberal PM

In office

The 'People's Budget' as Chancellor (1909)

Land and super-taxes to pay for pensions and Dreadnoughts; rejected by the Lords

Introduction of the convoy system and an Imperial War Cabinet (1917)

Wartime measures of the small war cabinet he created

Representation of the People Act 1918 giving votes to women over 30 (1918)

Also gave the vote to all men over 21

The 'coupon election' and the promise of 'homes fit for heroes' (1918)

Coalition candidates endorsed by a letter nicknamed the coupon

Treaty of Versailles (1919)

Negotiated with Clemenceau, Wilson and Orlando at the Paris Peace Conference

Anglo-Irish Treaty creating the Irish Free State (1921)

Signed with Michael Collins and Arthur Griffith

The Chanak Crisis and the Carlton Club meeting (1922)

Threatened war with Turkey; Conservative MPs then voted to leave his coalition

Key ideas

  • Radical 'New Liberalism': taxing land and wealth to fund welfare
  • Presidential-style wartime leadership through a small war cabinet and personal secretariat

Quick-fire facts

  • •Born in Manchester in 1863 but raised in Llanystumdwy, Caernarfonshire
  • •MP for Caernarvon Boroughs for 55 years (1890–1945)
  • •Minister of Munitions from 1915 after the Shell Crisis
  • •Mansion House speech of 1911 warned Germany during the Agadir Crisis
  • •The sale of honours scandal led to the Honours (Prevention of Abuses) Act 1925
  • •Married his secretary and mistress Frances Stevenson in 1943
  • •Created Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor shortly before his death in 1945

Drill it — 8 cards

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Sources