Asquith
Version 7 - 03-04-2015
This book, planned in the autumn of 1959,.has taken a whole Parliament (and a long one) to complete. In the course of these five years I have accumulated many debts-of gratitude. 'The Biggest is to Lady Violet Bonham Carter, who has been consistently -helpful. Still more than for her help, however, I am grateful for her*tolerance. The book grew into something she did not entirely like, into a view of her father which, while to my mind far from unfavourable, is in some respects equally far from her own. Confronted with this development she did not hesitate to argue with me, and occasionally to register a strong protest. But she did not attempt to force her interpretation on me.
The book leans heavily on three supports: the collection of Asquith Papers, the ownership of which has recently been transferred from Balliol College to the Bodleian Library; other, mainly published, sources which have become available since the appearance of the official biography byj. A. Spender and Cyril Asquith in 1932; and the letters, hitherto unused, which Asquith wrote to Miss Venetia Stanley (later Mrs. Edwin Montagu) between 1910 and 1915. The unattributed quotations in chapters 17, 21 and 22 are from this last source.
For facilitating my use of the first source I am grateful to Mr. J. N. Bryson, formerly librarian of Balliol College, and to Mr. D. S. Porter, of the Department of Western Manuscripts at the Bodleian. In connection with the second source I owe a particular debt to Sir Harold Nicol-son, of whose incomparable
King George V
[Constable] I have made extensive use, by quotation and in other ways; to the late Lord Beaverbrook, some of whose views I seek to controvert, but who was unfailingly helpful to me, and to the Beaverbrook Canadian Foundation, for permission to make substantial quotations from both
Politicians and the War
and
Men and Power
; to the late Lord Hankey for his highly informative
The Supreme Command
(Allen & Unwin), from which I have quoted; and to Mr. Wayland Young, who kindly made available to me passages from the diary of Ills mother, Lady Scott. I am also indebted to many others whose works I have consulted, referred to, and discussed.
For her part in making the third source available I am grateful to Mrs. Milton Gendel (formerly Miss Judy Montagu), who also provided a photograph of her mother.
Others who gave particular help included Mrs. C. F. G. Masterman, Sir Alan Lascelles, Mrs. Anthony Henley, Mr. Randolph Churchill and Lady Elliot of Harwood. Mr. Anthony King (Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford) and Mr. Philip Williams (Fellow of Nuffield College) read the manuscript and made suggestions (most of which were accepted) of great value. My secretary, Mrs. Church, typed the whole book and did much wearing work upon the references. Mr. Mark Bonham Carter combined, with remarkable resilience and finesse, the roles of publisher, grandson, literary executor and general consultant. To all these and to others—for the list is not exhaustive— I am very grateful.
Acknowledgment is also due, and is gladly made, to:
Her Majesty the Queen for permission to quote from certain letters written by or on behalf of King Edward VII and King George V; and to Viscount Knollys where these letters were written by his grandfather;
The Chartwell Trustees for permission to quote from certain letters of Sir Winston Churchill;
The Earl of Rosebery for permission to quote an unpublished letter from his father to Asquith;
Messrs. A. D. Peters & Co. for permission to quote from Hilaire Belloc's
Sonnets and Verses
(Duckworth);
Messrs. Eyre & Spottiswoode for permission to quote from Margot Asquith's
Autobiography
and
More Memoirs
;
Messrs. Elliot & Fry, Ltd., for the photograph of Lord Rosebery facing page 65 and Messrs. Bassano, Ltd., for permission to reproduce it;
and the Radio Times Hulton Picture Library for permission to reproduce the remaining photographs facing page 65 and those facing pages 128, 160, 161, 352, 353, 448, 449 and 481.
ROY JENKINS
Combe
,
August 1964