The death of Herbert Henry Asquith and the subsequent course of events: A timeline from April 1911

[pipisme]

Herbert Henry Asquith, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, collapsed and died on Sunday 2 April 1911 in 10 Downing Street. (1) The cause of death was hypertension caused by high alcohol consumption. He was 58 years old and was survived by his wife, Margaret, and their four sons and three daughters. He had been Prime Minister for three days short of three years, since 5 April 1908. It was known in political circles that Asquith was a heavy drinker, but not by the general public. He enjoyed brandy and wine.

The next day, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, David Lloyd George, led tributes to Asquith in the House of Commons. He was followed by the leaders of the Conservative and Unionist Party, and the Irish Parliamentary Party, Arthur Balfour and John Redmond respectively, and by the chairman of the Labour Party in the House of Commons, Ramsay MacDonald. Later that month a memorial service was held for him in Westminster Abbey.

The Liberal Party now needed to choose a new leader, and therefore Prime Minister. There was no heir apparent as there was when Asquith succeeded Henry Campbell-Bannerman three years earlier. There was not a set procedure for choosing the party leader. The new leader would be the man who had the backing of a consensus of the 269 Liberal MPs.

Lloyd George and the Foreign Secretary, Sir Edward Grey, both wanted to be party leader and Prime Minister. Grey was backed by right wing MPs. Lloyd George had the support of not only radical MPs, but also the bulk of the Liberal Party in the House of Commons. On 8 April 1911 he became party leader and Prime Minister, at the age of forty-nine.

(1) In OTL he nearly collapsed on that date. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Henry_Asquith, reference (104).

 

[ArtosStark]

Lloyd George and the Foreign Secretary, Sir Edward Grey, both wanted to be party leader and Prime Minister. Grey was backed by right wing MPs. Lloyd George had the support of not only radical MPs, but also the bulk of the Liberal Party in the House of Commons. On 8 April 1911 he became party leader and Prime Minister, at the age of forty-nine.

I would question a couple things here. First, and largest, I am not sure L-G was in a position to win the leadership in 1911. He had a few years as Chancellor, true, but he was a relatively new up and comer before that. He was definitely a man to watch for the future but I am skeptical that he had required base to win it. The Radicals were loud but they were a minority in the Liberal party, and had been in slight decline over the past years. He was not well liked outside of the Radical group.

Second, if there is only going to be one candidate considered from the Liberal Imperialist side, I am not sure it would be Grey. While well known and respected I think Haldane might be a more attractive prospect than Grey in 1911. He hits many of the same notes that Asquith did.

It seems more likely to me that Haldane, Grey and MacKenna among others might be front runners before L-G. He could still perhaps win if he were to come up the middle between such candidates as he would probably be the leading Radical vote, but I don’t think he could gain as clear a victory as is presented here in 1911.

 

[pipisme]

Thank you for your comments. On the vote on an amendment on 25 March 1912 to a government bill establishing district wage boards to fix minimum rates in the coal mining industry, 64 Liberal MPs voted against the government. On the vote on another amendment on 26 March, 47 Liberals voted against the government. (1) These figures give an idea of the number of Radicals in the Liberal Party, Though there were Radicals in government.

Haldane would not become Prime Minister because he was raised to the peerage as Viscount Haldane in March 1911. The Liberal Party would never accept a Peer as their leader and Prime Minister. Nor would McKenna because he had not held a senior cabinet post. He was First Lord of the Admiralty in April 1911.

I have thought about your comments, and have decided that Grey would be more likely than Lloyd George to become leader of the Liberal Party and Prime Minister. (2) He would have the backing of the solid centre of the party.

(1) See Liberals, Radicals and Social Politics 1892 - 1914 by H.V. Emy, Cambridge University Press, 1973.

(2) Here is his entry in Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Grey,_1st_Viscount_Grey_of_Fallodon.

 

[pipisme]

Grey made the following changes to Asquith's government on 9 April 1911:
David Lloyd George from Chancellor of the Exchequer to Foreign Secretary,
Sydney Buxton from President of the Board of Trade to Chancellor of the Exchequer,
Walter Runciman from President of the Board of Education to President of the Board of Trade
Herbert Samuel from Postmaster-General to President of the Board of Education,
Charles Hobhouse from Financial Secretary to the Treasury to Postmaster-General,
Charles Masterman from Under-Secretary of State Home Office to Financial Secretary to the Treasury
Harold Tennant from Parliamentary Secretary Board of Trade to Under-Secretary of State Home Office.

The full cabinet was as follows:
Prime Minister: Sir Edward Grey
Lord Chancellor: Lord Loreburn
Lord President of the Council: Viscount Morley
Lord Privy Seal: Earl of Crewe
Chancellor of the Exchequer: Sydney Buxton
Foreign Secretary: David Lloyd George
Home Secretary: Winston Churchill
First Lord of the Admiralty: Reginald McKenna
President Board of Agriculture and Fisheries: Earl Carrington
Colonial Secretary: Earl of Crewe
President Board of Education: Herbert Samuel
India Secretary: Viscount Morley
Chief Secretary for Ireland: Augustine Birrell
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster: Joseph (known as Jack) Pease
President Local Government Board: John Burns
Postmaster-General: Charles Hobhouse
Scotland Secretary: Lord Pentland
President of the Board of Trade: Walter Runciman
War Secretary: Viscount Haldane
First Commissioner of Works: Earl Beauchamp.

Ministers not in cabinet:
Attorney-General: Sir Rufus Isaacs
Solicitor-General: Sir John Simon
Paymaster-General: Lord Ashby St. Ledgers

Selected junior ministers attached to government departments:
Financial Secretary to the Treasury: Charles Masterman
Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury (Government Chief Whip): Master of Elibank
Under-Secretary of State Foreign Office: Thomas McKinnon Wood
Under-Secretary of State Home Office: Harold Tennant
Vice-President Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction Ireland: Thomas Russell.

 

[pipisme]

The House of Commons gave a second reading to the Women's Enfranchisement Bill on 5 May 1911, by 255 votes to 88 votes. This was a Private Member's Bill and would have given women householders the right to vote in parliamentary elections. (1) Women already had the franchise for local elections. After the vote, the Prime Minister, Sir Edward Grey, told the House of Commons that the government would give parliamentary time for the bill. It was sent to a Committee of the Whole House, and passed through all its stages in the Commons by 6th July 1911.

Its second reading was debated by the House of Lords on 29 November 1911, and rejected by 188 votes to 169 votes. In reply to a question from a Liberal MP the following day, Grey said that the government would use the Parliament Act to ensure that the bill became law. The Parliament Bill received the royal assent on 18 August 1911. It abolished the veto power of the Lords and limited the time they could delay non money bills to two sessions of parliament, and money bills to one month.

The Women's Enfranchisement Bill had already passed the House of Commons in one session. It was re-introduced in the Commons for a second time in February 1912, passed through all its stages by April, and rejected by the Lords in May. It was introduced again in the Commons on 16 April 1913, and passed through all its stages by 8 May 1913. It received the royal assent the next day.

(1) It was also known as the Conciliation Bill, and according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conciliation_Bills, the Conciliation Bills would have given the right to vote to just over a million wealthy property owning women. However the Liberal MP who moved the second reading of the bill said that it gave the franchise to women who were householders. See http://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1911/may/05/womens-enfranchisement-bill.

 

[pipisme]

As the Women's Enfranchisement Bill was going through the House of Commons for the first time, a government amendment was passed which gave adult women the vote on the same terms as men, in elections to the House of Commons. Also married women qualified on the their husband's qualification. That is if they were freeholders or leaseholders, or tenants who paid a minimum annual rent of £10 (about £ 3 17 shillings a week). However if they moved house to a different constituency, they would not be eligible until the next registration date.

Adult children living at home with their parents were not eligible for the vote,
unless, I assume, they contributed to the mortgage or rent. Also live-in domestic servants were not eligible, most of whom were female, nor were people in receipt of poor relief. Women who owned businesses qualified for the business vote, though I expect the number was small. But wives of business owners did not. Business owners had one vote for each business premises, in additional to their residential vote. A Plural Voting Bill which would have abolished the business vote, was thrown out by the House of Lords in 1912.

An estimated 40 per cent of adult males were not registered to vote, and I guess it would be roughly the same percentage for adult females. The compilation of electoral registers was the responsibilty of poor law guardians. However party agents claimed for their party in disputed cases of eligibility for the vote.

The Women's Social and Political Union ended their militant campaign for votes for women. Emily Davison did not run onto the race course during the 1913 Epsom Derby, and was mortally injured when she tried to seize the reins of King George V's horse. They and the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies campaigned for full adult female suffrage.

 

[pipisme]

Earl Loreburn resigned as Lord Chancellor on 12 June 1912, and Sir Edward Grey made the following changes to the government:
Viscount Haldane from War Secretary to Lord Chancellor,
Winston Churchill from Home Secretary to War Secretary,
Augustine Birrell from Chief Secretary for Ireland to Home Secretary,
Herbert Samuel from President of the Board of Education to Chief Secretary for Ireland,
Charles Masterman from Financial Secretary to the Treasury to President of the Board of Education,
Francis Acland from Financial Secretary to the War Office to Financial Secretary to the Treasury,
Earl Crewe from Colonial Secretary to India Secretary in place of Viscount Morley, who resigned,
Charles Hobhouse from Postmaster-General to Colonial Secretary,
Herbert Lewis from Parliamentary Secretary Local Government Board to Postmaster-General,
William Wedgwood Benn from a government whip to Parliamentary Secretary Local Government Board,
Harold Tennant from Under Secretary Home Office to Scotland Secretary in place of Lord Pentland, who resigned.

 

[clem attlee]

Wow! You bumped off Squiffy! This could be very interesting.

 

[pipisme]

Under the Succession to the Crown Act 1707, Masterman and Tennant were obliged to seek re-election to the House of Commons on being appointed to the cabinet. Tennant was easily re-elected in Berwickshre in a by-election on 22 June
1911. However Masterman's election as Liberal MP for West Ham North in the December 1910 general election, was declared void after his defeated Conswrvative petioned the courts. Masterman's election agent was found guilty of corrupt practices because he failed to check the accounts and election expenses. Masterman was not allowed to stand again in West Ham North, but he was elected in Bethnal Green South-West in a by-election on 22 June. (1)

Sir Edward Grey was a reluctant supporter of Irish Home Rule. He did not speak in the debate on the second reading of the first Home Rule Bill in May and June 1886, nor in the debates on the second Home Rule Bill in 1893 because he was a junior Foreign Office minister. However he was interested in Irish land reform. In 1890 he rebelled against his party leaders and voted for the Conservative government's Land Purchase Bill.

Grey was asked several times in 1912 by Irish Parlamentary Party and Liberal MPs, when a Home Rule Bill would be introduced in the House of Commons. He told them that it would be when there was parliamentary time, as the government had a heavy legislative programme.

The second reading of the Government of Ireland Bill was debated in the House of Commons over seven days on 15 to 17, and 21 to 24 April 1913. (2) It provided for the establishment of an Irish government and parliament which would be reaponsible for Irish internal affairs. The parliament would consist of an elected House of Commons of 164 members, and a Senate of 40 members nominated by the Irish government.

The following matters were excluded from the powers of the Irish government and parliament: the crown and the succession, foreign policy and defence policy, treason, navigation and overseas trade, lighthouses, coinage, weights and measures, patents, land purchase, national insurance, old age pensions, labour exchanges, tax collection, public loans which originated before 1913, and control over the police, which would transferred after six years. No laws were to be enacted to establish or endow any religious body. The Lord-Lieutenant would be the nominal head of the Irish government, which would be responsible to the Irish parliament. He would be appointed for a term of six years and need not necassarily be a Protestant, He would have the right of veto over Irish legislation acting on the advice of the British government. Forty-two Irish MPs were to sit in the UK House of Commons, down from one hundred and three.

The Irish parliament would have the power to increase the rates of excise duties, customs duties on beer and spirits, land tax and stamp duty. It could increase income tax and death duties up to a total of ten per cent of the yield. It could also levy new taxes for its own internal purposes, (3)

The bill received a second reading on 24 April by a majority of 96 votes. It then went to a Committee of the Whole House where it was debated line by line. After it passed the Commons, it went to the House of Lords which rejected it in January 1914 by a majority of 257 votes.

(1) This was as in OTL, except that the Bethnal Green by-election was on 8 July 1911. However when Masterman was appointed to the cabinet in February 1914, he was defeated when he stood for re-election in Bethnal Green, and did not return to the House of Commons until the December 1923 general election.

(2) This was a year less two to three weeks later than the second reading debate on the Government of Ireland Bill in OTL.

(3) The provisions of the bill were the same as those of the Government of Ireland Bill in OTL, and are taken from the book Home Rule and the Irish Question by Grenfell Morton, London: Longman Group Ltd 1980.

 

[pipisme]

Because of the Women's Enfranchisement Bill, George Lansbury did not resign as Labour MP for Bow and Bromley in November 1912 to fight a by-election on the issue of women's suffrage. In OTL the by-election on 26 November 1912 was a Conservative gain from Labour.

 

[pipisme]

The Irish Home Rule Bill was passionately and vehemently opposed by Unionists in the north of Ireland. Starting on Saturday 13 September 1913 in Belfast, it is estimated that over 470,000 people signed the Solemn League and Covenant, some in their own blood. Edward Carson was the first person to sign. They pledged themselves 'in solemn covenant throughout this time of threatened calamity to stand by one another in defending for ourselves and our children our cherished position of equal citizenship in the United Kingdom, in using all means which may be found necessary to defeat the present conspiracy to set up a Home Rule Parliament in Ireland. And in the event of such a Parliament being forced upon us we further solemnly and mutually pledge ourselves to refuse to recognise its authority.' (1)

In January 1914, the Ulster Unionist Council established the Ulster Volunteer Force. This was an unarmed paramilitary force. The Home Rule Bill was debated for a second time in the House of Commons in April and May 1914, and passed through all its stages. It was rejected by the House of Lords by a large majority at its second reading on 9 June 1914.

On Sunday 28 June 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, nephew of Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary, and his wife Sophie, made an official visit to Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia-Herzegovina. The Black Hand, a Serbian terrorist group, planned to assassinate Franz Ferdinand. Ferdinand's motorcade of three cars was on its way from Sarajevo railway station to the Town Hall. As it passed the Mostar cafe, an intended assassin threw his bomb. It bounced off the folded back cover of Ferdinand's car into the road. It then exploded under the car behind, wounding 17 to 20 people.

After the Town Hall reception, Ferdinand and Sophie changed their plans. They would instead visit in hospital those wounded by the bomb. At 10.45 am, they got into the third car in the motorcade, which went along Appel Quay. At the Latin Bridge, the first two cars turned right, followed by Ferdinand's car. General Oskar Potiotek, who was in that car, told the driver that he was going the wrong way. The driver stopped the car. (2) He put it into reverse gear and drove back to Appel Quay. In OTL, the driver accidently stalled the car's engine when he tried to put into reverse gear, thus giving Gavril Princip the opportunity to kill Ferdinand and Sophie.

Princip was waiting in front of Schiller's delicatessen to assassinate Franz Ferdinand. He saw Ferdinand's car going back down the street and shot at it with his pistol. The bullets hit the car, but did not hurt anyone. The motorcade crossed the Latin Bridge and went to the hospital,

In this timeline no one was killed in Sarajevo that day, and no more people wounded than those injured by the bomb. Therefore there was no Great War as it happened in OTL.

(1) This was wording as the Solemn League and Covenant signed from 28 September 1912 in OTL. It is taken from the book Home Rule and the Irish Question by Grenfell Morton, London : Longman Group Ltd, 1980.

(2) Up to here was as in OTL and taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Franz_Ferdinand.

 

[pipisme]

In November 1914, Eoin MacNeil, Professor of Irish History at University College, Dublin, founded the Irish Volunteers. This was a similar unarmed paramilitary force to the Ulster Volunteers.

The House of Commons debated the second reading of the third Home Rule for the third time on 8 to 12 March, and 14 March 1915. After it received a second reading it was sent to a Committee of the Whole House to be considered clause by clause, starting on 22 March.

 

[pipisme]

On 10 March during the second reading debate, William O'Brien leader of the All-for-Ireland Party, and MP for Cork City, said that his party realised the need to make concessions to Ulster. (1) He made the following proposals: MPs representing Ulster constituencies should have the right to veto legislation debated by the Irish House of Commons; the counties of Antrim, Armagh, Down and Londonderry should have the right to appoint their own judges, district magistrates and school inspectors. The Chief Secretary for Ireland, Herbert Samuel, said the government accepted these proposals. During the committee stage they were passed as amendments to the Home Rule Bill. The bill received its third reading in the Commons on 27 May 1915. The next day it received the royal assent and became law.

(1) See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All-for-Ireland_League.

 

[pipisme]

In spite of the amendments to the Home Rule Bill, the Conservatives and Ulster Unionist still opposed Home Rule for Ireland. In April 1915, arms for the Ulster Volunteers were landed at harbours on the east coasts of counties Antrim and Down. In June 1915, guns for the Irish Volunteers were landed at Howth, near Dublin, from Erskine Childer's yacht Asgard . (1)

The Land Enquiry was launched by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sydney Buxton, in June 1912. Its first report was published in October 1913. It found that over 60 per cent of agricultural labourers were paid less than 18 shillings (90 pence) a week, and twenty to thirty thousand less than 16 shillings (80 pence) a week. It recommended a living wage to be enforced by a form of wages tribunal. It also recommended a state housing initiative to provide the 120,000 new cottages which were needed.

The Departmental Committee on Land Taxation reported in March 1914. The Majority Report by seven members rejected the taxation of site-values. The Minority Report by six members advocated a local site-value tax, and that half of all future increases in local expenditure should be met by a tax on site values.

In his budget speech on 4 May 1914, Buxton told the House of Commons that the annual values and the total values of site-values had been assessed. It only remained to ascertain the value of agricultural improvements. The budget on 4 May 1915 provided for site-value taxation, which would not be implemented until after the general election due later that year.

(1) For Childers see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erskine_Childers_(author)

 

[pipisme]

The Marconi Scandal happrned as in OTL. (1) Between April 1911 and December 1914, the Conservatives gained 13 seats from the Liberals in by-elections. In chronological order they were: Cheltenham, Oldham, South Somerset, North Ayrshire, Manchester South, Crewe, Manchester North West, Midlothian, Newmarket, Reading, South Lanarkshire, Ipswich, The Hartlepools. They also gained North East Derbyshire from Labour, The Liberals took Londonderry City from Conservative, and Hanley, and Chesterfield from Labour. Tullamore was an Independent Nationalist gain from Nationalist.

(1) See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marconi_scandal.

 

[pipisme]

Marquess of Crewe took up office as Governor-General of South Africa on 8 September 1914, in place of Herbert Gladstone who returned to the UK. (1) Crewe was both Lord Privy Seal and India Secretary. Sir Edward Grey made the following changes to his government:
Earl Carrington from President Board of Agriculture and Fisheries to Lord Privy Seal,
Lord Lucas promoted from Parliamentary Secretary Board of Agriculture and Fisheries to President of the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries,
Francis Acland from Financial Secretary to the Treasury to India Secretary,
William Wedgwood Benn from Parliamentary Secretary Local Government Board to Financial Secretary to the Treasury.

The Plural Voting Act 1915 abolished the additional votes possessed by owners of business premises, and the university graduate franchise. So the university seats were abolished.

The general election for the Irish House of Commons was held on Thursday 15 September 1915. The number of seats won by each party were as follows:
Irish Nationalist: 97
All-for-Ireland: 31
Unionist: 27
Liberal: 4
Irish Labour: 2
Independent Nationalist: 1
--------------------------
Total: 162 (162)
--------------------------
The Irish Nationalist majority over all others was 32. Sinn Fein contested 28 seats, but did not win any, John Redmond became President of the Executive Council.

On 29 September 1915, King George V opened the Irish Parliament in Leinster House. (2) He also read the King's Speech setting out the Irish government's legislative programme for the parliamentary session. He and his wife, Queen Mary, were met by cheering crowds as they were driven through the streets of Dublin in the state coach.

(1) In OTL Sydney Buxton became Governor-General of South Africa. In this timeline he was Chancellor of the Exchequer.

(2) See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leinster_House.

 

[pipisme]

John Redmond appointed his cabinet on 21 September 1915. Its members were as follows
President of the Executive Council; John Redmond
Agriculture and Fisheries Secretary: James John O'Shee
Education Secretary: Stephen Gwynn
Finance Secretary: John Dillon
Home Affairs Secretary; Thomas O'Donnell
Local Government Secretary: John Joseph Clancy
Trade Secretary: Matthew Keating
Works Secretary: Denis Kilbride,

Ministers not in cabinet
Attorney-General: John Gordon Swift MacNeil
Postmaster-General: James Lardner
Solicitor-General: Edward Kelly,
There were also Under Secretaries for each cabinet department,

 

[pipisme]

A boundary commission was appointed in January 1914 to propose changes in constituency boundaries in England, Scotland and Wales. The Government of Ireland Bill set out the boundaries of the forty-two Irish constituencies which would be represented in the UK House of Commons when it became law.

The commission published its report in March 1915, and incorporated in the Representation of the People Bill. In early July 1915, an amendment proposed in the Committee Stage in the House of Commons for voting to be by proportional representation (PR) was rejected by a majority of 24 votes, and the alternative vote (AV) was substituted by a majority of 8 votes. After passing through the Commons, the bill went to the House of Lords. In late July, the Lords rejected AV and substituted PR. At the beginning of August, the bill returned to the Commons which rejected PR and re-instated AV. This was less than two weeks before the end of the parliamentary session.

 

[TimTurner]

Good TL.

 

[pipisme]

Good TL.

Thank you.

The Liberal government wanted the Representation of the People Bill to become law before the general election, which had to be held no later than 31 January 1916. That was five years after Parliament met on 31 January 1911 after the December 1910 general election. However the talk at Westminster was that the general election would most likely be in October or November 1915. At a conference between Commons and Lords, the Commons agreed to drop ATV and the Lords PR. The bill passed through all its stages in the Commons and the Lords. It received the royal assent and became law on 13 August 1915, the last day of the parliamentary session.

On 28 June 1915, Edward Hemmerde, Liberal MP for North West Norfolk, moved an amendment to the Representation to the People Bill to extend the franchise to all men and women aged 21 or over. Speaking for the government, the Home Secretary, Augustine Birrell, said tbat while it was sympathetic to the honourable member's amendment, he must ask honourable and right honourable members to reject it. If it were accepted, Conservative Peers would throw out the bill, and it would be lost.

From the Opposition Front Bench, Walter Long said that his party would have a free vote on the amendment. In the vote it was passed by 472 votes to 95 votes, all Conservatives. Some Conservative MPs voted for the amendment, but more abstained. In the House of Lords, the amended bill received a second reading, though 141 Conservative Peers voted against it. But enough Conservative Peers voted for it.

An official announcement was made to the press on 5 October 1915, that Parliament would be dissolved on 8 October, and a general election take place on Wednesday 28 October. For the first time, voting would be on one day, rather than spread over two to five weeks.