Delivering the Goods: Reappaising the Ministry of Munitions: 1915-1916

Abstract

David Lloyd George's reputation and political position seemed unassailable in 1918. Lord Beaverbrook, perhaps somewhat extravagantly, wrote of that period: The war was over. Lloyd George was now the most powerful man in Europe. His fame would endure forever. He was admired and praised in all countries.Not the least praised of all his works during the First World War was the formation between May 1915 and June 1916, of the Ministry of Munitions. In the eyes of many Britons, he had patriotically given up the prestigious and powerful Chancellorship of the Exchequer to take up the burden of munitions production when the shortage of shells and guns seemed to frustrate the British military effort. Some time thereafter the necessary armaments appeared, and the Minister and his associates shared in the popular acclaim. The apparent early success of the Ministry of Munitions helped to propel him from the Munitions Office in Whitehall Gardens to Number 10 Downing Street itself. Peter Lowe has written in his recent evaluation of this episode of Lloyd George's career: The Ministry of Munitions was crucial to the rise of Lloyd George to supreme power. In a government grappling with stalemate on the western front, failure at Gallipoli and muddle at Salonica, the organization of munitions production on vastly improved lines was a dramatic success.The erosion of his political position after the war and the long period of his eclipse gave opportunity for critics to revise the popular view of the career which had received so much applause.