When the peerage was announced the papers were very complimentary, referring to Askwith as ‘the strikebreaker’ and ‘great ameliorator’ and claiming that ‘Next to the Prime Minister, he is probably the most successful mediator in labour troubles the country has ever known’, though Askwith would have preferred not to be mentioned alongside Lloyd George. The Morning Post, whose editor, H. A. Gwynne, was a great friend of the Askwiths, paid him a discerning tribute:

As soon as news of Askwith’s retirement and his elevation to a peerage became known, congratulatory letters began to flood in from far and wide, from people he had worked with in labour disputes, to colleagues in the civil service, and even from some of the employers’ associations that had so much cause to be grateful to him – the Association of Master Lightermen and Barge Owners, Boiler Makers and Steel Ship Builders, the Shipbuilding Employers’ Federation and the Cotton Spinners and Manufactures Association among others.