Winston Churchill: David Lloyd George and I are the “Prime Ministers victorious in war time”

This is the first time we have seen Churchill refer to himself as a victorious prime minister, shedding light on his view of his own roll in the struggle against Nazi Germany

Churchill, a noted historian, also crusades to preserve the historical documents of the two world wars, in a letter to the widow of David Lloyd George

David Lloyd George

In 1915 Lloyd George was appointed minister of munitions in Prime Minister Herbert Asquith’s wartime coalition government. But the war was not going well for Britain. In July 1916, the long Battle of the Somme began, and was a disaster, with the greatest number of casualties in British military history – 60,000. Lloyd George became secretary of state for war, but was increasingly critical of Asquith, as were many others. As German submarine warfare kicked in, in November the Germans began air raids on Britain. Britain was being bled dry, even as France was experiencing the same fate at Verdun. In December 1916, with the support of the Conservative and Labour leaders who saw defeat up ahead, LLoyd George replaced Asquith as prime minister. Lloyd George’s dynamism made sure he was regarded as the right man to give Britain’s war a much needed boost, and his achievements in the last two years of the war included introducing the convoy system for the Royal Navy and the unification of the Allied military command under the French general Ferdinand Foch. In May 1917, with fighting on the Western Front at a critical stage, Lloyd George brought Churchill back from disgrace and into the government as head of the key Munitions Ministry. With the end of the war in 1918 on Armistice Day Lloyd George declared: “This is no time for words. Our hearts are too full of gratitude to which no tongue can give adequate expression.” In 1918 his coalition won a huge majority in Parliament. It was the first election in which women were allowed to vote. In 1919 he signed the Treaty of Versailles, which established the League of Nations. Lloyd George was acclaimed as the man who had won the war.

Winston S. Churchill

For years, Churchill’s had been a voice in the wilderness, crying out against the mortal danger posed by Hitler’s Nazi Germany. However, Great Britain was lost in a pipe-dream of peace, and Churchill was ignored and even scorned. Many in the leadership classes in England saw him as a self-promoting warmonger, an unreliable hothead whose hair-brained schemes never worked. Some even saw him a a half-breed, not really English, because his mother was American. He was disliked by the the Conservative Party leadership, and even by the King.

Then the first wave of German military might overwhelmed Poland in September 1939, and Churchill was revealed as a prophet rather than a Cassandra. After a quiet winter, in April 1940 the Nazi juggernaut smashed into Denmark and Norway, followed shortly by invasions of France, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. In early May, as Norway tottered and the prospects for Britain became worse than bleak, elements in both the country’s major parties revolted against Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain’s management of the war. Members of Chamberlain’s own Conservative Party were insistent on a change of leadership, with Leopold Amery, on the floor of the House of Commons, quoting from Cromwell and saying: “Depart I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!” Chamberlain was naturally shaken by this and reluctantly agreed to resign. Some Conservatives initially promoted Lord Halifax as his successor, as in fact did King George VI. However, as the only leader not tainted by the disastrous appeasement policies of the 1930’s, it was obvious that Churchill alone could unite the nation. Moreover, the Labour Party, for all its old distrust of Churchill’s anti-Socialism, recognized the depth of his commitment to the defeat of Hitler and insisted on him. A coalition government was formed, headed by a War Cabinet of five, which included at first both Chamberlain and Halifax – a wise but also magnanimous recognition of the numerical strength of Chamberlainite conservatism – and two Labour leaders, Clement Attlee and Arthur Greenwood. The Cabinet became an agency of swift decision, and the government that it controlled remained representative of all major groups and parties. Churchill himself took, in addition to the leadership of the House of Commons, the Ministry of Defense, thus emphasizing his concentration on the conduct of the war. In fact, at this point, the Prime Minister’s life and career became one with Britain’s story and its survival.

Churchill’s task was to inspire resistance at all costs, to organize the defense of the island, and to make it the bastion for an eventual return to the continent of Europe. To do this, he needed to breathe a new spirit into the government and a new resolve into the people. His magnificent oratory, his immense confidence, and his stubborn refusal to accept anything but total victory, did just that, and rallied the nation, particularly during the dark days between 1940 and the turn of the tide in 1943. The speeches he made in accomplishing this are classics and among the most moving and important ever made in the English language. From his first blunt talk to the House of Commons on May 13, 1940, in which he warned “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat”; to his pledge to resist – “We shall fight on the beaches. We shall fight on the landing grounds. We shall fight in the fields, and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender!”; to his memorable plea for strength and courage – “Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, ‘This was their finest hour’”; through his remarks on the futility of the U.S. trying to avoid involvement in European problems – “There was no use in saying ‘We don’t want it; we won’t have it; our forebears left Europe to avoid these quarrels; we have founded a new world which has no contact with the old.’ There was no use in that;” his words effectively inspired the people. They held out alone, against all odds, until both the Soviet Union and United States entered the war, which led ultimately to success.

As historian Isaiah Berlin points out in his article, “Churchill in 1940”, writing of the type of emotion Churchill felt for the people of Great Britain, Berlin said, “He idealized them with such intensity that in the end they approached his ideal and began to see themselves as he saw them…So hypnotic was the force of his words, so strong his faith, that by the sheer intensity of his eloquence he bound his spell upon them until it seemed to them that he was indeed speaking what was in their hearts and minds. If it was there, it was largely dormant until he had awoken it within them.” Churchill was acclaimed as the man who had won the war.

On Preserving History

Churchill was a historian with a deep appreciation for history. He wrote 43 book length works in 72 volumes, including his 5-volume history of World War I called “The World Crisis”, and his 6-volume history of the Second World War. His first book was printed in 1898 – a history of the British war in Afghanistan entitled “The Story of the Malakand Field Force”, and the last in 1958 – “The History of the English-Speaking Peoples” – a remarkable span of 60 years. There were 28 books published containing collections of his speeches. He also wrote some 10,000 articles for newspapers and magazines over a period of decades on a variety of subjects, but mainly history. He was always concerned with preserving historical records for future historians.

Churchill Calls Himself and Lloyd George Victorious Prime Ministers in War Time, Even as He Seeks to Preserve Historical Documents Concerning Those Wars

Typed letter signed, on his letterhead, May 22, 1946, to Lloyd George’s widow, urging her to help safeguard her husband’s papers concerning World War I, as he was doing with those of World War II, and calling himself and Lloyd George prime ministers in “victorious war time.” “I had a talk with Sir Edward Bridges today. Naturally they have anxiety about the custody and destination of very important State documents, although belonging to a bygone era. I am executing a Trust Deed which safeguards the use of such documents, and I also feel it my duty to give guarantees for their safe custody so that they do not fall into bad hands, and the control of the Government on publication is effective. I have no doubt that you would be willing to make similar arrangements.

“Sir Edward Bridges told me he would get in touch with you and have a talk about it all. I should recommend you to conform with the arrangements which I am making, and I expect that will be found satisfactory for the very limited class of ex-Prime Ministers in victorious war time.

“Perhaps you will write to me after your have had your talk with Bridges.” Bridges was Permanent Secretary of the Treasury and Head of the Civil Service 1945–56, and spearheading the preservation project.

This is the first time we have seen Churchill refer to himself as the victorious wartime Prime Minister, with the light it sheds on his view of his own roll in the struggle against Nazi Germany, as well as the first mention we’ve seen of his crusade to preserve the historical documents of the two world wars.