Churchill leads tributes to the ‘greatest Welshman’ (1945)

The tributes for the former ​British Prime Minister were led by the current British leader Mr Winston Churchill who declared in the House of Commons: “He was the greatest Welshman whom that unconquerable race has produced since the days of the Tudors. We may, indeed, be thankful that he voyaged with us through storm and tumult with so much hope and guidance to bestow.

“There was no man gifted, so eloquent, so forceful, who knew the life of the people so well.”

Churchill continued: “When I first became Lloyd George’s friend and active associate, now more than 40 years ago, this deep love of the people and profound knowledge of their lives and of the undue and needless pressure under which they lived impressed itself indelibly on my mind.

“Then there was his dauntless courage, his untiring energy, his oratory, persuasive, provocative, now grave, now gay. His swift, penetrating comprehensive mind, which always grasped at the root or what he thought was the root of any question. was another most striking feature in his nature.”

Churchill said Lloyd George had been “the champion of the weak and poor” but that most people were “unconscious of how much their life had been shaped the laws for which he was responsible”.

“I was his lieutenant in those bygone days and shared in minor way in the work. I have lived to see long strides taken and going to be taken on the paths of insurance by which the vultures of utter ruin are driven from the dwellings of the nation. I am sure that as time passes, his name will not only live but shine on account of the great laborious constructive work he did for the social and domestic life of our country. When the calm, complacent, self-satisfied tranquilities of the Victorian day exploded in the world convulsions and wars of the terrible 20th century, he had another part to play on which his fame will stand with equal or even greater firmness.”

Sir Perfy Harris, Lady Astor and Mr Greenwood also spoke, and in the House of Lords Lord Beaverbrook, Lord Privy Seal, said that Earl Lloyd George was “the idol of the nation, the Prime Minister under whose aegis Germany was overthrown and the Empire saved”.

The News Letter noted that there was to be a Welsh national service of remembrance at Caernarvon and a memorial service in Westminster Abbey on April 10, 1945.

What the News Letter said on the passing of Lloyd George in March 1945: “The death of Earl Lloyd George of Dwyfor, which occurred yesterday, severs one of the rapidly dwindling political links with the war of 1914-18 and closes a great and eventful career which extended over more than half a century.

“Few men in their time have provoked, or have been the subject of, fiercer controversy, and not many - certainly among contemporary statesmen will present a more difficult problem in assessment to historians of the future.

“His own generation can no more deny his qualities than it can shut its eyes to his defects, or condone the methods by which he pursued some of his political purposes.

“At a time of great national crisis - the war of 1914-18 - he rendered the country invaluable service.

"General Smuts has described him as the ‘Architect of Victory’, which is true in so far as his premiership provided driving force which up to then had been woefully lacking, and it is said that when peace was restored Mr Bonar Law, his closest associate in the Coalition of that time, advised him strongly to retire from Parliament and be content with an abiding place in British history.

“Subsequent events amply demonstrated the wisdom of that counsel, for his post-war career was, in large measure, descent from the heights.

“To Lloyd George political controversy was as breath to his nostrils, and he re-entered the arena to fight political friends, at times, just as fiercely as he fought political foes.

“The elder statesman’s mantle never appealed to him, even if it could have been made to fit. There were occasions when, as a contributor to trans-Atlantic newspapers, he seemed in danger of becoming a liability to the country rather than an asset.

“He was, too, largely responsible for the so-called ‘Irish settlement’, declaring in his flamboyant way that henceforward England’s sorrow would be Ireland’s sorrow and England’s joy Ireland’s joy. The falsity of that prediction, however, need not be laboured here.

“Nor is it necessary to recall his peculiar methods of controversy in the campaign against the House of Lords which, after the rejection of his People’s Budget, led up to the passing of the Parliament Act.

“He laid the foundations, on the other hand, of the social services which, rightly or wrongly, have become an increasing responsibility of the state.

“After fifty-four years’ service in the House of Commons at Westminster he accepted membership of the House of Lords, though he has not lived to take his seat.”

The News Letter’s editorial concluded: “Doubtless that recognition of his services to the country could have been his at any time he wished, in which case he would have followed in the footsteps of contemporaries like Balfour, Asquith, and Baldwin; but those whose memories go back to Limehouse days must have regarded it as one of life’s ironies when, in his old age, he agreed to enter the gilded chamber which, years before, he had so scornfully derided.”