Leaders
Viscount Melbourne (William Lamb), 1779-1848
Right from his London birth on 15 March 1779, at Melbourne House in Piccadilly, William Lamb, second Viscount Melbourne, was at the centre of Whig social circles. The second son of Peniston Lamb, first Viscount Melbourne, he followed a normal early life for sons of Whig magnates Eton, Cambridge University, and education for a legal…
Earl Grey (Charles Grey), 1764-1845
Charles Grey, second Earl Grey, Viscount Howick and Baron Grey, was the Prime Minister who oversaw the Great Reform Act of 1832, which overhauled the country’s parliamentary electoral system and was the culmination of two years of intense political crisis. Born on 13 March 1764, at Fallodon in Northumberland, his youth was spent in a…
Herbert Henry Asquith (Earl of Oxford and Asquith), 1852-1928
H. H. Asquith, Prime Minister from April 1908 to December 1916, bore the chief part in some of the greatest Liberal achievements of the twentieth century. Herbert Henry Asquith was born at Morley, West Yorkshire, on 12 September 1852. His father died when he was eight, and in 1863, sent to London to live with…
Report: Leaders good and bad
Report of History Group meeting of February 2000, on Liberal, SDP and Liberal Democrat leaders, with Robert Maclennan MP and Professor Peter Clarke. To access this content, you must purchase Annual subscription (digital) – unwaged rate or Annual subscription (digital) – standard rate.
Leaders and leadership
Interview with Jeremy Thorpe, leader of the Liberal Party 1967-76. To access this content, you must purchase Annual subscription (digital) – unwaged rate or Annual subscription (digital) – standard rate.
Lessons for leaders
Considers the options open to Charles Kennedy and draws some lessons from the historical record. To access this content, you must purchase Annual subscription (digital) – unwaged rate or Annual subscription (digital) – standard rate.
‘A sad business’
Examination of Clement Davies’ resignation from the leadership in 1956. To access this content, you must purchase Annual subscription (digital) – unwaged rate or Annual subscription (digital) – standard rate.
The 1988 leadership campaign
Following this year’s leadership election for the Liberal Democrats, Harriet Smith looks back to the party’s first such election. To access this content, you must purchase Annual subscription (digital) – unwaged rate or Annual subscription (digital) – standard rate.
The last Liberal landlord
Review of Gerard J. De Groot, Liberal Crusader: The Life of Sir Archibald Sinclair (Hurst & Co.,1993).