And Father didn’t know Lloyd George?
The Marconi Scandal explodes …..
In 1911 British Prime Minister Herbert Asquith and his cabinet approved a plan for a string of state-owned wireless/radio stations to be erected throughout the British Empire. Asquith asked his Postmaster General, Herbert Samuel, to select a company to undertake the project. He eventually decided to award the contract to the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company. The chairman of Marconi was Godfrey Isaacs, a close friend of Samuel and the brother of Sir Rufus Isaacs, the Attorney General in the Asquith government.
From August 1912 the political journal The Eye-Witness ran a series of articles alleging that Sir Rufus Isaacs had used insider knowledge to profit financially from the contract. It also claimed that Godfrey Isaacs, Herbert Samuel and David Lloyd George had profited by buying shares based on such knowledge of the government contract. In January 1913 a parliamentary inquiry was held into the claims made by The Eye-Witness. Although the inquiry revealed that David Lloyd George, Herbert Samuel and Sir Rufus Isaacs had profited directly from the policies of the government, it was decided the men had not been guilty of corruption!
But What If …..
The issue had been promoted more vigorously by the press etc and that Lloyd George’s opponents within the Liberal Party had been more forceful, leading to Lloyd George resigning in disgrace not only his position as Chancellor of the Exchequer but also giving up his seat in the House of Commons?
Taking an arbitrary date of 1 October 1912 for his resignation, others would have had to fill his subsequent OTL positions, viz.:
Chancellor of the Exchequer (1 October 1912 – 25 May 1915)
Minister of Munitions (25 May 1915 – 9 July 1916)
Secretary of State for War (6 June 1916 – 5 December 1916)
Prime Minister (7 December 1916 – 22 October 1922).
Although, of course, these dates etc would probably have been irrelevant due to the unfolding events of the ATL.
Given the important role Lloyd George played in World War 1, the subsequent peace conference and his later splitting of the Liberal Party, what would be the effects on that war, that peace and the history of the Liberal Party? Would Britain ever have had a Prime Minister whose first language was not English?