ABSTRACT
In both peace and war David Lloyd George was the central figure of British parliamentary life in the first quarter of the twentieth century. Lloyd George seemed to embody the vital radical nonconformist dimension of British politics. After 1906 Lloyd George’s early ‘old’ liberal and nonconformist political commitments were gradually superseded by an enthusiasm for the enlarging possibilities of state action. If any one person can be described as the architect of victory in the British war effort 1914-18 it was Lloyd George, and had he taken Bonar Law's advice and retired in December 1918 he might still be regarded primarily as a great war minister. Much attention has been devoted to the search for causes of the demarcation between Lloyd George's supporters and critics in the First World War. More significance should be attached to the limitations imposed by the fact that only 150 Liberal candidates were ‘couponed’ for the general election, which unexpectedly arose in conditions of peace.
