In his preface Robert Blake writes, 'The title of this book is
taken from a remark attributed to Asquith after he had attended
Bonar Law's funeral in Westminster Abbey. ''It is fitting, '' he is
reputed to have said, ''that we should have buried the Unknown
Prime Minister by the side of the Unknown Soldier.'' I have used
this phrase, not because I consider that Asquith's remark was
either just or true, but because, however unfairly, it has come to
be the verdict of most people today. Even in his own lifetime Bonar
Law's origins, career, character, and the reasons for his success
acquired something of an aura of mystery which the passage of time
has done nothing to remove. It is my hope that this book may dispel
that erroneous impression.'
It does. Neither flamboyant nor possessed of the statesmanship
of Lloyd George or Winston Churchill, Bonar Law nevertheless was a
remarkably successful politician, especially a party politician.
Before his brief Premiership in 1922-23, he had been the Leader of
the Conservative Party for eleven years from 1911 and in that time
had played a vital part in almost every political issue. During the
1914-18 war his role was crucial. It was his decision which brought
about the first coalition of 1915 and the exclusion of Winston
Churchill from the Admiralty. He was largely responsible for the
withdrawal from the Dardanelles and the overthrow of Asquith in
1916. It was his support that allowed Lloyd George to become Prime
Minister and it was the withdrawal of that support that led to the
end of the Coalition Government in 1922. The fact that the
Conservative Party survived the chaotic war years, unlike the
Liberal Party, and survived with an outlook sufficiently
enlightened to cope not inadequately with the problems of the
post-war era, was the achievement of Bonar Law more than any other
single person.
By nature melancholy, this disposition was aggravated by
personal tragedy: first his wife died and then his two elder sons
were killed in 1917. For all that he remained someone who inspired
affection in such otherwise diverse characters as Lloyd George, F.
E. Smith (Lord Birkenhead), John Maynard Keynes, Edward Carson and
Lord Beaverbrook.
General
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