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At the outbreak of war in August 1914, Lloyd George occupied the second place in the government. He had been Chancellor of the Exchequer for six years, and while he remained the most important ‘Radical’ member of the Cabinet, in the realm of foreign policy there was, at least from 1911, in reality little dividing him from his Liberal ‘Imperialist’ colleagues such as H.H. Asquith and Sir Edward Grey. Like them he was determined to maintain the strength of the Empire, convinced of the need for a strong navy to protect it, and aware of and determined to resist any German ambitions for dominance in Europe at the expense of Britain’s Entente partners. This was underlined in particular by his intervention in the Agadir crisis of 1911 and would be again by his eventual support for British entry into the war in August 1914.

Lloyd George’s chapters on the Third Battle of Ypres1 or Passchendaele are the centrepiece of his indictment of the British generals of the Great War, in particular Haig and Robertson.2 Passchendaele for Lloyd George was one of the greatest follies of the war, and the importance he placed on these chapters may be gauged by the fact that they were published for greater impact as a separate pamphlet. They contain the most bitter and passionate denunciation of Haig and his strategy to be found in the War Memoirs.

By the time of Kitchener’s death in June 1916, Lloyd George had completed his task at the Ministry of Munitions. The new ministry was well established, he had successfully wrested control of the munitions industry from the military, and British forces abroad were beginning to be adequately provided with shells, guns and other requirements. A move to the War Office was ostensibly a promotion, but the reduced powers of the office of Secretary of State meant that Lloyd George did not gain any significant influence over British strategy or military operations. His achievements were modest and his tenure frustrating. In any event he was Secretary of State for a mere five months, until political developments brought him to the Prime Ministership and thus greater power over and responsibility for the national war effort. How Lloyd George used Prime Ministerial power and how this is presented in the War Memoirs is the subject of subsequent chapters.

Few political memoirs of the Great War have been as influential or as controversial as Lloyd George’s War Memoirs. Over the years these volumes have made a significant contribution to shaping the historical and popular perceptions of the key events and especially the personalities of the 1914–18 conflict. When the Memoirs first appeared in 1933–36 the responses of critics and the reading public testify to the passionate reaction to his arguments and criticisms.1 In particular, many were outraged by the attacks on the generals, some praised the literary style and many the extensive documentation. It is no surprise that the Memoirs stirred controversy. The public and private memory of the war was still fresh in the minds of the adult population, and Lloyd George was an important figure in British politics even after his resignation in 1922.