Introduction

Reginald McKenna had been first lord of the Admiralty, home secretary, chancellor of the Exchequer, and chairman of the largest bank in the world for over twenty years. McKenna's period as first lord of the Admiralty stood for his nephew, as it did for most of those who knew or know about him, as the office of his greatest influence and achievement. McKenna's own reticence was symptomatic of his comparative failure as a politician. Manuscript sources often bore little resemblance to their better-known published versions, and writers have found, perhaps to their own surprise, the prominence with which McKenna appears in the gloom of a search room in contrast to the warmth of a bookshop McKenna's nevertheless remained one of the last leading Liberal lives left unwritten. The chronicle of McKenna's life made possible provides the opportunity to assess his significance and his uniqueness.