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The British Veterans' Ticket of 1918

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 January 2014

Stephen R. Ward
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Extract

A confident and victorious David Lloyd George entered Central Hall, Westminster, on the morning of November 16, 1918. Five days earlier the Germans had agreed to an Armistice, and the “Welsh Wizard” was acclaimed by his countrymen as the architect of victory. His political coalition, formed in the dark days of December 1916, had successfully prosecuted the war; now he called together political elements of that coalition to continue in peace. There were Conservatives, Liberals, a few Labour men, and others who agreed that a peacetime coalition was best for Britain and that Lloyd George should continue as its leader. These men gathered to hear the Prime Minister announce an election for the second week of December. It was his intention, he told them, to present a unified front to the nation. He wanted the best men of each party on his side.

I wish it had been possible to get every party, every section of the community united for this task — the best brains of every party. Every party has good traditions; every party has traditions which it would rather forget. (Laughter and cheers.) Let us each own up for the other party. (Renewed laughter.) I would like to see for the next four and a half years the two — the three parties together. (A voice: What about the ex-soldiers?) Ah! He surely is in, he is not a separate party; you will find that in this election.

But the Prime Minister erred, for he found a party of veterans in the election.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of British Studies , Volume 8 , Issue 1 , November 1968 , pp. 155 - 169
Copyright
Copyright © North American Conference of British Studies 1968

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References

1. Manchester Guardian, Nov. 18, 1918.

2. Islington Daily Gazette, Nov. 25, 1918.

3. Hereafter referred to as the Federation.

4. Times, Apr. 23, 1917.

5. Liverpool Echo, June 4, 1917.

6. Salvidge, Stanley, Salvidge of Liverpool (London, 1934), p. 158Google Scholar.

7. Liverpool Echo, June 21, 1917.

8. Times, June 25, 1917.

9. Salvidge, , Salvidge, pp. 158–59Google Scholar. Cf. Churchill, Randolph, Lord Derby, King of Lancashire (London and New York, 1959, 1960), p. 276Google Scholar.

10. PRO, W.C. 166, 1, June 20, 1917, War Cabinet Minutes, Cab. 23/3.

11. PRO, W.C. 169, 14, June 26, 1917, ibid.

12. Liverpool Echo, June 29, 1917.

13. Westminster Gazette, June 29, 1917.

14. Times, Jan. 16, 1917.

15. PRO, G.T. 6079, Oct. 21, 1918, Cabinet Papers, Cab. 24/69. The weekly reports of the Directorate of Intelligence are an informative, though sometimes inaccurate, source on revolutionary movements in Britain during and after the war.

16. Blackpool Herald, June 25, 1918.

17. Hogge, J. M., “My Advice to the Discharged Men,” The Ex-Service Man, I (Sep. 25, 1918), 22Google Scholar.

18. Ibid.

19. British Legion Headquarters, Pall Mall, London, Minutes of the National Executive Council (Federation), June 4, 1918.

20. Ibid., Nov. 2, 1918.

21. Times, Nov. 18, 1918.

22. Liverpool Daily Post, Nov. 27, 1918.

23. Nottingham Journal and Express, Dec. 5, 1918.

24. Hereafter referred to as the Association.

25. One other organization, the Comrades of the Great War, refused to nominate candidates. Six M.P.s, with the help of Lord Derby, formed the Comrades a few months after the Abercromby by-election.

26. Lincoln Leader, Oct. 5, 1918.

27. Times, Dec. 12, 1918.

28. Liverpool Post, Dec. 5, 1918.

29. Times, Dec. 12, 1918.

30. For the first time in British elections, a candidate forfeited his deposit if he failed to get one eighth of the total vote.

31. Times, Election Supplement, Dec. 9, 1918. Seven men listed as Independent were actually on the ex-service ticket. One man listed as Federation belonged to the Association as did one listed as Independent. There were no Silver Badge Party candidates, but some Federation men took the Silver Badge “pledge.”

32. Ibid. Also from local newspaper sketches of candidates and personal interviews.

33. Thurtle, Ernest, Time's Winged Chariot (London, 1945), p. 59Google Scholar. Thurtle married George Lansbury's daughter, Dorothy, and was a budding socialist before the war. He later became a junior minister in Ramsay MacDonald's 1930-31 Government and Winston Churchill's wartime Government, but in 1918 he was a veterans' candidate making his initial bid for Parliament.

34. Times, Election Results, Dec. 30, 1918.

35. Islington Daily Gazette, Dec. 2, 1918.

36. Ibid.

37. Ibid.

38. Ibid., Dec. 13, 1918.

39. Wootton, Graham, The Politics of Influence (London and Cambridge, Mass., 1963), p. 206Google Scholar. Wootton discusses the 1918 election and the ex-service ticket with emphasis on T. F. Lister's campaign and the only successful veteran candidate, Robert Barker.

40. Ibid.

41. Liverpool Daily Post, Dec. 13, 1918.

42. Ibid., Dec. 30, 1918.

43. Times, Election Results, Dec. 30, 1918.

44. Potter, Allen, Organized Groups in British National Politics (London, 1961), p. 245Google Scholar.

45. Yorkshire Observer, Dec. 2, 1918.

46. Newcastle Daily Journal, Nov. 23, 1918.

47. Ibid., Nov. 30, 1918.

48. Times, Dec. 30, 1918.

49. Halifax Evening Courier, Dec. 5, 1918.

50. Yorkshire Observer, Dec. 30, 1918.

51. Wootton, , Politics, p. 138Google Scholar.

52. 108 H. C. Deb. 2003 (July 25, 1918).

53. Times, Dec. 10, 1918.

54. PRO, W.C. 511, 1, Dec. 10, 1918, War Cabinet Minutes, Cab. 23/8. Had the matter come before Commons, the War Cabinet decided to admit the act was “overlooked during the stress of war.” The act had been used, however, in 1917 to curtail meetings of embryonic soldiers and workers councils throughout the country. Cf. PRO, W.C. 200, 1, July 31, 1917, ibid., Cab. 23/3.

55. Times, Dec. 11, 1918.

56. Yorkshire Observer, Dec. 7, 1918.

57. Random selection of newspapers throughout Britain.

58. Times, Dec. 30, 1918; Western Daily Press (Bristol), Dec. 30, 1918Google Scholar; and others.

59. Times, Dec. 16, 1918; Annual Register, 1918, p. 164Google Scholar.

60. Woodward, E. L., Short Journey (London, 1942), p. 114Google Scholar.

61. See above, p. 166.

62. Thurtle, , Chariot, pp. 62–63Google Scholar.

63. Woodward, , Journey, p. 121Google Scholar.