In 1908, Churchill was promoted to the Cabinet, still shy of his thirty-third birthday. Liberal Prime Minister Henry Asquith had made him President of the Board of Trade. It was here that his alliance with Lloyd George – they were already known as the ‘radical twins’ – was to have the strongest influence on government policy. Yet it very nearly didn’t happen. The convention whereby those appointed to Cabinet rank would seek re-election in their constituencies, led to the electorate of Manchester Northwest ejecting Winston Churchill from the House of Commons. With astonishing good fortune, he was invited to fight a by-election in the Scottish seat of Dundee. Within a month Churchill was back.
Alongside Lloyd George, Churchill pushed the Liberal Party towards labour market reforms designed to better the lot of the working man. These included minimum wages in some sectors of the economy, together with the first labour exchanges, tasked with tackling unemployment. Such measures were costly. As Chancellor of the Exchequer, David Lloyd George was well placed to make the case for the requisite expenditure, but these were difficult times. Tensions arose between Lloyd George and Churchill. There was also a growing debate about naval rearmament, in the face of Germany’s expanding fleet. Lloyd George’s resulting 1909 ‘people’s budget’ provoked a constitutional crisis when the Conservative-dominated House of Lords refused to back it. Ultimately, matters were settled through the introduction of the 1911 Parliament Act – but once again, Churchill’s name was dirt within Conservative ranks.
Despite his fiery reputation, Churchill’s next ministerial appointment was to mark, at least in part, a shift to the right. After the general election of January 1910, he was made Home Secretary. It was one of the great offices of state.
Churchill’s brief tenure as Home Secretary coincided with considerable civil unrest, which fell within his remit. His response was to mark him down as an authoritarian and to demonize him among elements of the British left. There was violence during the 1910 Tonypandy riots in Wales and 1911 dock strike. In both instances, Churchill had authorized the use of troops. Yet in his defence, it seems he did so in order to exercise firm control from London, rather than risk the more amateurish efforts of the local authorities. At the same time he was agitating for a more lenient prison regime – another one of his responsibilities, earning him the sobriquet ‘the prisoner’s friend’. The picture of his domestic policy is therefore a mixed one.
Home Secretary Winston Churchill, highlighted, visits a police siege in Sidney Street, London, in 1911.
The Admiralty: Churchill becomes a ‘naval person’
In October 1911 he was moved again, this time to the Admiralty, as First Lord. In contrast to the First Sea Lord, the First Lord was the political head of the navy. In making this switch, Prime Minister Asquith recognized Churchill’s considerable military expertise. He had been a national hero during the Boer War and had taken a keen interest in military affairs ever since. During the Agadir crisis earlier that year, Asquith had been impressed with Churchill’s advice. War with Germany now seemed a distinct prospect. The Royal Navy, still the largest in the world, was complacent; Asquith had the remedy to hand.
At the Admiralty, Churchill largely bypassed the existing management. He brought back an ex-First Sea Lord, John ‘Jacky’ Fisher, as an informal adviser. Fisher’s ideas were as radical as his own. Together they worked hard to shake up conservative attitudes and modernize the fleet. It was their efforts which led to Britain’s early investment in naval air power, submarines, and the switch from coal to oil. They even tried to persuade the government to construct a tunnel under the Channel. Although this proposal was quickly turned down, they did strike a naval deal with France, which effectively locked the two countries together in strategic alliance. All of this was without a formal treaty. The modernization of the Royal Navy meant Britain would have reason to thank Churchill and Fisher when war with Germany came, only three years later.
The other political issue which preoccupied him during this period was Irish Home Rule. The proposal for a unified Irish parliament worried die-hard Unionist Protestants in the north of the country. Churchill urged compromise, but was well aware of the potential for bloodshed if matters got out of hand. Ultimately, the proposals for Home Rule were overtaken by broader events in Europe, as the Great Powers plunged into the First World War. Earlier in 1914, however, Churchill was implicated in controversy when he issued orders for British naval units to sail for Belfast. Again, Conservative politicians were furious. He was accused of seeking to provoke some kind of Unionist coup, so that sentiment in the north could be crushed by force of arms.
This seems unlikely. Churchill’s position was actually more nuanced. He disliked the fact that the Liberal government now needed to rely on the votes of Irish Nationalists at Westminster. In fact, he hoped Ireland could remain within the United Kingdom and he feared extremist views would jeopardize any settlement. Throughout his career, Churchill was a staunch defender of public order. He was also a bold and active minister. His Irish initiative with the fleet in 1914 may have been rash, but it probably amounts to little more than the product of such characteristics. Within ten years, however, problems in Ireland would again see him pilloried – this time with more justification, and from the other side.
As Europe slid into war in the summer of 1914, Churchill was regarded as Britain’s competent minister for the navy. He was a national figure, popular writer and contented family man, with two children and a third on the way. He relished the forthcoming struggle with Germany and took pride in the fact that the Royal Navy was now fully prepared.
The First World War: 1914–1918
Antwerp
By early October 1914, the Allies were desperately attempting to halt Germany’s advance into Belgium and France. At their extreme left flank lay the port of Antwerp, where a small force, consisting largely of British sailors, clung on. From there, Winston Churchill telegrammed the Prime Minister with a request that he be relieved of his political duties. He wanted to take up a military command. When Asquith read the telegram out to his Cabinet, there were hoots of laughter.
It was typical of Churchill’s boyish enthusiasm for war. All of that was to change over the next four years. He would soon feel personally responsible for 40,000 Allied deaths, attempt to assuage his guilt through courage in the trenches, and end the conflict as one of the most effective ministers in the government. As ever with Churchill, his career during this period was never dull or without controversy.
He had travelled to Antwerp to assess matters on the ground. The Naval Division which did most of the fighting was his own personal project – not much more than a pretext for having some influence over the land war. Bizarrely, Britain’s Royal Navy also had a detachment of armoured cars operating in the sector. Notwithstanding Churchill’s private army and personal intervention, the port shortly fell to the advancing Germans. It did not reflect well on Churchill, although in fairness his pleas for reinforcements had fallen on deaf ears. He simply could not resist meddling in detailed decision-making.
Naval power: with John ‘Jacky’ Fisher, Churchill had helped prepare the Royal Navy for the First World War. HMS Queen Elizabeth, 1915.
Back in Britain, Clementine gave birth to Sarah, their third child, while Winston was still in Belgium. Her confinement had not prevented her from issuing stern warnings to her husband about interference. She told him that a hands-on approach would mean he shouldered the blame for every naval setback. The navy had implemented a long-range blockade of Germany from the first day of the war, a strategy for which Churchill had pressed. This would eventually become a crippling economic stranglehold – but it was the battles that made the headlines. As far as the public was concerned, the naval picture was bleak. Churchill had bragged about beating up the German fleet