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Authors: Robert Goddard
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learned that one of them was Christabel Pankhurst, a name that later came to mean a lot more to me than it did at the time. There was great publicity surrounding the incident and the two were briefly imprisoned for refusing to pay a fine for disorderly conduct, arising from a commotion they caused in the street after being expelled from the meeting.
I was bemused and set thinking by this event, to the extent of canvassing the opinion of others. I could not, for my part, see how a Liberal government could oppose female suffrage, but we were not committed to it, quite the reverse. Lloyd George agreed with me on the principle of the case but pointed out that other, more important, reforms would have to come first. My mother pronounced herself a suffragist, but deplored militant tactics, whilst my sister-in-law had no opinion to express. I tended to take the Lloyd George view: first things first. Yet I can now see how a newspaper report of that disrupted meeting in Manchester would have read to a precocious sixteen-year-old girl, quite as intelligent as the average voting male, as the advent of a crusade. Little did she or one of the affronted speakers in Manchester know that they were one day to care a great deal more about each other than about the issue of female suffrage.
In December 1905, Balfour finally threw in his hand and resigned. C-B received the premiership that was a just reward for many years’ toil, presiding over an exceptionally talented administration , with Asquith at the Exchequer and Lloyd George at the 48
R O B E R T G O D D A R D
Board of Trade. My highest hopes were fulfilled when I was myself given a junior appointment. In eagerly accepting, I hardly paused to consider the nature of that appointment and thus found myself a junior lord of the Admiralty with a negligible knowledge of the sea.
I had, however, no time to brood on the point. C-B had no intention of seeking to govern with a minority (a rather obvious trap laid by Balfour) and called an election for January 1906. Matters were rather better prepared in my constituency this time and, done no harm by my new appointment, I was returned with an increased majority. Nationally, the party fared even better than we had hoped, securing an historic victory.
There was, however, no opportunity for me to bask in an after-glow of success. Back in London, there was work to be done. The First Lord of the Admiralty, Lord Tweedmouth, was a staunch old Scot who had served his time under C-B and now received his reward. His seat in the Lords made me answerable for naval policy in the Commons: an onerous responsibility but one which gave me an opportunity to shine. Winston Churchill benefited from a similar arrangement at the Colonial Office, where his Secretary of State was likewise a peer. We came to know each other well at this stage, both feeling that we could make our names in the service of super-annuated seniors.
In February 1907, I became an uncle when Robert’s son , Ambrose, was born. A happy child, his company made Barrowteign a more congenial place for me to spend the summer recess and it was clear that the birth of a son and heir meant not a little to my brother, now well set in the life of a country gentleman , who bore with good humour my chiding of him for becoming set in his ways.
Early in 1908, the Prime Minister’s health began to break down. In April, he was obliged to resign and, before the month was out, he was dead. I was sorry to lose his steady hand upon the tiller, but was not blind to the possibility for promotion opened up by the consequent rearrangements. Rather earlier than I had expected, I was summoned to see our new leader. Asquith was a man of whom I had once been suspicious, finding him, when I was new to Westminster, aloof and often absent. But now he was all beaming beneficence in offering me a post in the Cabinet. Herbert Gladstone,
P A S T C A R I N G
49
he said, had been induced to accept the
I was bemused and set thinking by this event, to the extent of canvassing the opinion of others. I could not, for my part, see how a Liberal government could oppose female suffrage, but we were not committed to it, quite the reverse. Lloyd George agreed with me on the principle of the case but pointed out that other, more important, reforms would have to come first. My mother pronounced herself a suffragist, but deplored militant tactics, whilst my sister-in-law had no opinion to express. I tended to take the Lloyd George view: first things first. Yet I can now see how a newspaper report of that disrupted meeting in Manchester would have read to a precocious sixteen-year-old girl, quite as intelligent as the average voting male, as the advent of a crusade. Little did she or one of the affronted speakers in Manchester know that they were one day to care a great deal more about each other than about the issue of female suffrage.
In December 1905, Balfour finally threw in his hand and resigned. C-B received the premiership that was a just reward for many years’ toil, presiding over an exceptionally talented administration , with Asquith at the Exchequer and Lloyd George at the 48
R O B E R T G O D D A R D
Board of Trade. My highest hopes were fulfilled when I was myself given a junior appointment. In eagerly accepting, I hardly paused to consider the nature of that appointment and thus found myself a junior lord of the Admiralty with a negligible knowledge of the sea.
I had, however, no time to brood on the point. C-B had no intention of seeking to govern with a minority (a rather obvious trap laid by Balfour) and called an election for January 1906. Matters were rather better prepared in my constituency this time and, done no harm by my new appointment, I was returned with an increased majority. Nationally, the party fared even better than we had hoped, securing an historic victory.
There was, however, no opportunity for me to bask in an after-glow of success. Back in London, there was work to be done. The First Lord of the Admiralty, Lord Tweedmouth, was a staunch old Scot who had served his time under C-B and now received his reward. His seat in the Lords made me answerable for naval policy in the Commons: an onerous responsibility but one which gave me an opportunity to shine. Winston Churchill benefited from a similar arrangement at the Colonial Office, where his Secretary of State was likewise a peer. We came to know each other well at this stage, both feeling that we could make our names in the service of super-annuated seniors.
In February 1907, I became an uncle when Robert’s son , Ambrose, was born. A happy child, his company made Barrowteign a more congenial place for me to spend the summer recess and it was clear that the birth of a son and heir meant not a little to my brother, now well set in the life of a country gentleman , who bore with good humour my chiding of him for becoming set in his ways.
Early in 1908, the Prime Minister’s health began to break down. In April, he was obliged to resign and, before the month was out, he was dead. I was sorry to lose his steady hand upon the tiller, but was not blind to the possibility for promotion opened up by the consequent rearrangements. Rather earlier than I had expected, I was summoned to see our new leader. Asquith was a man of whom I had once been suspicious, finding him, when I was new to Westminster, aloof and often absent. But now he was all beaming beneficence in offering me a post in the Cabinet. Herbert Gladstone,
P A S T C A R I N G
49
he said, had been induced to accept the
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