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David Lloyd George
David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor, OM, PC (17 January 1863 - 26 March 1945) was a British Liberal politician. As Chancellor of the Exchequer (1908-1915), he was a...view moreDavid Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor, OM, PC (17 January 1863 - 26 March 1945) was a British Liberal politician. As Chancellor of the Exchequer (1908-1915), he was a key figure in the introduction of many reforms which laid the foundations of the modern welfare state. His most important role came as the highly energetic Prime Minister of the Wartime Coalition Government (1916-1922), during and immediately after WWI. He was a major player at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 that reordered Europe after the defeat of the Central Powers.
Born in 1863 in Chorlton-on-Medlock, Manchester to Welsh parents, he was brought up as a Welsh-speaker and remains the only Prime Minister to have spoken English as his second language. He was educated at Llanystumdwy National School and was admitted as a solicitor in 1884, having taken Honours in his final law examination. He set up his own practice in 1885.
In 1889 he became an Alderman on the Carnarvonshire County Council which had been created by the Local Government Act 1888. He was returned as Liberal MP for Carnarvon Boroughs in 1890 and remained an MP for 55 years. In 1906 he was made President of the Board of Trade and then later promoted to Chancellor, becoming one of the great reforming chancellors of the 20th century, introducing state pensions for the first time and declaring a war on poverty.
During WWI, he focused on the job of Minister for Munitions, organising and inspiring the war effort. At the end of 1916 he formed a government, won the coalition in 1918, and in 1919 signed the Treaty of Versailles, which established the League of Nations and the war reparations settlement. When the Conservatives broke up the coalition, he handed in his resignation and spent the 1930s with journalism and travel, and writing his memoirs.
He was created Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor in 1944, and died the following year aged 82. He is buried on the banks of the River Dwyfor.view less