Grave of David Lloyd George

The Grave of David Lloyd George, stands on a bank of the Afon Dwyfor in the village of Llanystumdwy, Gwynedd, Wales. It commemorates Lloyd George who grew up in the village, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom between 1916 and 1922, and died at Llanystumdwy in 1945. The grave and its setting were designed by Clough Williams-Ellis, the architect of Portmerion and a lifelong friend of Lloyd George. The grave comprises a boulder set in an oval enclosure, the walls of which bear two slate plaques recording Lloyd George's name and the years of his birth and death. It is a Grade II* listed structure.

Grave of David Lloyd George

Grave

Llanystumdwy, Gwynedd

52°55′22″N 4°16′08″W / 52.9229°N 4.269°W / 52.9229; -4.269

North Wales

1946

Clough Williams-Ellis

Vernacular

Grave of David Lloyd George

31 March 1999

21601

History[edit]

David Lloyd George was born in Chorlton-on-Medlock, Manchester on 17 January 1863.^[2] Within months of his birth, his father, William George, moved the family to Pembrokeshire. His father's death the next year saw the family move again, to his mother's home village of Llanystumdwy, in what was then the county of Caernarfonshire (now Gwynedd), where they lived with Lloyd George's uncle, Robert Lloyd.^[3] Lloyd George qualified as a solicitor in 1884 and in 1890 was elected to Parliament as the Liberal M.P. for Carnarvon Boroughs.^[4] Originally on the Radical wing of the Liberal Party, in 1916 Lloyd George became Prime Minister in a coalition with the Conservatives.^[5] Although successful in his leadership of the country in World War I,^[6] Lloyd George was ejected from office in 1922, and never returned to power. He died of cancer aged 82 on 26 March 1945 and was buried at Llanystumdwy.^[2]

Lloyd George had long wanted to be buried beside the Dwyfor, telling his wife Margaret "I don't want to be buried anywhere else".^[7] In 1922, shortly after the murder of Michael Collins, which had greatly depressed him, he took Thomas Jones, the Deputy Secretary to the Cabinet, to Llanystumdwy and, on the banks of the Dwyfor told him "Bury me here. Don't put me in a cemetery. You'll have trouble with the relatives, and there would be controversy if the Abbey were suggested". He asked that John Morris-Jones write the epitaph and suggested the wording "Magwyd yn y pentref. Prif Weinidog Prydain yn y Rhyfel Mawr" (Bred in the village. Prime Minister of Britain in the Great War).^[8]

Clough Williams-Ellis, a long-term friend of Lloyd George,^[9] had been employed by Lloyd George's second wife, Frances Stevenson, to renovate their last home, Tŷ Newydd.^[a]^[11] After Lloyd George's death, Stevenson, then Dowager Countess Lloyd-George of Dwyfor, commissioned Williams-Ellis to design his gravesite.^[6] Work was undertaken quickly, despite post-war restrictions on construction, and was completed in March 1946.^[12]

List of burial places of prime ministers of the United Kingdom

(2005). Landmarks of Britain. London, UK: Hodder & Stoughton. ISBN 978-0-340-73510-7.

Aslet, Clive

; Garner, Mary (1985). Lloyd George Was My Father. Llandysul: Gomer Press. ISBN 978-0-863-83112-6. OCLC 1106804552.

Carey Evans, Olwen

George, William (1958). . London, UK: Eyre & Spottiswoode. OCLC 4923426.

My Brother and I

Gilbert, Bentley Brinkerhoff (1987). . London: Batsford. ISBN 978-0-713-45558-8. OCLC 929287024.

David Lloyd George: A Political Life: The Architect of Change 1863–1912

(2003). Lloyd George: War Leader 1916-1918. London: Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-140-28427-0. OCLC 464459719.

Grigg, John

(2009). The Pain and the Privilege: The Women Who Loved Lloyd George. London, UK: Harper Perennial. ISBN 978-0-007-21950-6. OCLC 751415721.

Hague, Ffion

Haslam, Richard; Orbach, Julian; Voelcker, Adam (2009). . The Buildings of Wales. New Haven, US and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-14169-6. OCLC 1023292902.

Gwynedd

(2008). Wales: Churches, Houses, Castles. London: Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-713-99893-1.

Jenkins, Simon

(1969). Keith Middlemas (ed.). Whitehall Diary: Volume I. London: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0192111930. OCLC 823680810.

Jones, Thomas

(2007). Lloyd George & Churchill: Rivals for Greatness. London: Macmillan Publishers. ISBN 978-1-405-04896-5. OCLC 1169990594.

Grave of David Lloyd George