7th Earl Beauchamp: WW1 Liberal
Contemporary reports of the 7th Earl Beauchamp’s position in the national government of 1914/15 are detailed in the biography notes of David Dutton, Professor of Modern History. In summary we hear that for much of his career William Lygon was obliged to grapple with the intractable problems of Liberal decline, and his fortune, especially locally in Dymock, Kempley and Redmarley was dissipated shoring up the party finances.
“In the absence, before December 1916 of cabinet minutes, it is not easy to determine the nature of Beauchamp’s contribution to the turbulent political years before the outbreak of the First World War.
Such evidence as there is suggests that he was rather overshadowed inside a cabinet of political heavyweights such as Lloyd George, Winston Churchill, Edward Grey and R.B. Haldane, as well as Asquith himself. He was, judged one colleague, except on ‘office questions’ a ‘silent member of the Cabinet’.
That observer’s judgment had only marginally changed by March 1915, as Beauchamp neared the end of his ministerial career: ‘Beauchamp is a nonentity of pleasant manners, a good deal of courage, and a man of principle, but with no power of expression.’
With some show of reluctance on his part, Beauchamp was moved to the post of First Commissioner of Works in November 1910. In this position he proved to be a useful committee man while more colourful figures occupied the political limelight. In April 1912 he sat on a cabinet committee to deal with the wave of strikes in the transport system and in December 1913 he chaired the Central Land and Housing Council, designed to advance Lloyd George’s Land Campaign.
By this stage he was regarded as being on the radical wing of the party and in January 1914 presented Asquith with a letter signed by Hobhouse, McKenna, Runciman, McKinnon Wood, Simon and himself opposing Churchill’s extravagant estimates at the Admiralty. With the approach of European war he was among the group of about seven ministers who hesitated over the declaration of hostilities. ‘All agreed we were not pre- pared to go into war now, but that in certain events we might reconsider our position, such as the invasion wholesale of Belgium.’ This group lunched at Beauchamp’s house, which was conveniently close to Westminster, on 2nd August to discuss their position. The following day, after the cabinet had discussed the formal statement to be made by the Foreign Secretary, Asquith announced that, with regret, he had received the resignations of John Morley, John Burns and John Simon. Beauchamp ‘leant forward and asked to be included’. In the event he, along with Simon, withdrew their resignations when Asquith pointed out that, should the cabinet break up, the only result would be to allow the Unionists [Tories] to enter the government.
Beauchamp now returned to the post of Lord President of the Privy Council to fill the vacancy created by Morley’s resignation. When a coalition was formed in May 1915, the necessity to make room for Unionist ministers made him an inevitable casualty. He himself regarded Churchill as the ‘primary cause of trouble’, believing that the First Lord should be the first victim of the governmental reconstruction.”
As the demands of war threatened to encroach ever further upon traditional Liberal principles, Beauchamp became President of the Free Trade Union in 1916 in succession to Arnold Morley. Once Lloyd George became Prime Minister, he moved increasingly into a position of opposition to the government and he was sympathetic to Lord Lansdowne’s call for a compromise peace.”
David Dutton Hon. Professor of Modern History at Liverpool University
Listen to The Seventh Earl Beauchamp Audio Story
“The lives of the Earls Beauchamps are intricately bound with the history of Kempley”
See the Beauchamp Dymock Estate 1919 Auction Map on our maps Archive page
Who’d be a liberal ? : Then and Now – a Moment.press editorial drawing parallels between Earl Beauchamp and another ‘ousted’ liberal leader Charles Kennedy.
