DAVID LLOYD GEORGE 1863-1945
As Chancellor of the Exchequer in the 1908-15 Liberal government, Lloyd George helped to pass the 1911 National Insurance Act, legislation that helped create the basis of the welfare state. He then served in Asquith's War Cabinet as minister for munitions and secretary of war. However, disgruntled with the leader's management of the war, he helped to engineer Asquith's removal in December 1916 and became Prime Minister himself.
Lloyd George clashed repeatedly with General Haig over the latter's conduct of the war. He also later claimed that he had helped to defeat the U-boat threat by forcing the Admiralty to adopt the convoy system.
Lloyd George represented Britain at the Paris Peace Conference and helped to mediate disputes between US President Wilson and French Premier Clemenceau . Britain's dominions were anxious to press their own demands for empire, and so much of Lloyd George's attention was devoted to the expansion of British imperial interests. Britain emerged from the war with territories in Tanganyika (now Tanzania), South West Africa (Namibia) and Togoland (Togo), and mandates in Palestine and Mesopotamia (Iraq).
Lloyd George's reputation suffered after the war when it was alleged that he had offered honours in return for financial gain. By this stage, Britain was racked by high unemployment, economic problems and troubles in Ireland, and Lloyd George was forced to resign in 1922. He never held high office again and declined an offer to join Winston Churchill's War Cabinet in 1940.
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