Megan Lloyd George

2025-08-30T10:35:01Z

31.112.84.247:

{{Short description|Welsh politician (1902–1966)}}
{{British barrelled name|Lloyd George|George}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2014}}
{{Use British English|date=November 2014}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific-prefix =
| name = Lady Megan Lloyd George
| honorific-suffix = {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100%|CH}}
| image =Meganlloydgeorge (cropped).jpg
| caption = Lloyd George in 1923
| office = Deputy Leader of the [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal Party]]
| term_start = 1949
| term_end = 1951
| leader = [[Clement Davies]]
| predecessor = [[Percy Harris (politician)|Percy Harris]] (1945)
| successor = [[Donald Wade]] (1962)
| office1 = [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]] for [[Carmarthen (UK Parliament constituency)|Carmarthen]]
| term_start1 = 1 March 1957
| term_end1 = 14 May 1966
| predecessor1 = [[Rhys Hopkin Morris]]
| successor1 = [[Gwynfor Evans]]
| office2 = [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]] for [[Ynys Môn (UK Parliament constituency)|Anglesey]]
| term_start2 = 30 May 1929
| term_end2 = 5 October 1951
| predecessor2 = [[Sir Robert Thomas, 1st Baronet|Robert Thomas]]
| successor2 = [[Cledwyn Hughes]]

| birth_name = Megan Arvon George
| birth_date = {{birth date|1902|04|22|df=yes}}
| birth_place = [[Criccieth]], [[Caernarfonshire]] (present-day [[Gwynedd]]), Wales
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1966|05|14|1902|04|22|df=yes}}
| death_place = [[Pwllheli]], Wales
| party = {{plain list|
* [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal]] {{small|(1929–55)}}
* [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour]] {{small|(from 1955)}}
}}
| parents = {{plain list|
* [[David Lloyd George]]
* [[Margaret Lloyd George|Margaret Owen]]}}
| partner = [[Philip Noel-Baker]] (1936–1956)
}}

'''Lady Megan Arvon Lloyd George''', {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100%|CH}} (22 April 1902 – 14 May 1966) was a Welsh politician and the first female [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]] (MP) for a [[Wales|Welsh]] [[Electoral district|constituency]]. She also served as Deputy Leader of the [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal Party]], before later becoming a [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour]] [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|MP]], serving in Parliament for 30 years. In 2016, she was named as one of "the 50 greatest Welsh men and women of all time".<ref name=50greatWelshpeople>{{cite web|title=The 50 Greatest Welsh Men and Women of All Time|date=6 June 2016 |url=http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/50-greatest-welsh-men-women-11431779|publisher=Wales Online}}</ref>

==Background==
[[File:TNA COPY1-560-129 David and Megan Lloyd George.jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.7|Megan with her father]]
She was the youngest child of [[David Lloyd George]] and his wife, [[Margaret Lloyd George|Margaret]], being born in 1902 in [[Criccieth]], [[Caernarfonshire]]. Her name at birth was registered with forenames Megan Arvon and surname George, but she adopted her father's barrelled surname "Lloyd George". As her father was raised to the [[Peerage of the United Kingdom|peerage]] as [[Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor]] in 1945, she gained the [[Style (manner of address)|style]] of ''Lady'' Megan (Lloyd George).<ref>Mosley, Charles ([[editor|ed.]]), [[Burke's Peerage]] & Baronetage, 107th edn, London, Burke's Peerage & Gentry Ltd, page 2375 (LLOYD-GEORGE OF DWYFOR, E), 2003, {{isbn|0-9711966-2-1}}.</ref>

== Childhood ==
[[File:Lloyd-George's Daughter.jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.7|Megan in 1910 aged 7]]
Lloyd George was imaginative and "sprite-like" when young, and was described in the local press as a "daring sceptic", disliking her father's stories of [[Daniel in the lions' den]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://newspapers.library.wales/view/3609399/3609407/108/Megan%20Lloyd%20George|title=Megan Lloyd George – A "Daring Sceptic" at five years of age!|date=1910-10-07|work=Carnarvon and Denbigh Herald and North and South Wales Independent|access-date=2016-08-24|via=Welsh Newspapers Online}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite news|url=http://newspapers.library.wales/view/3608739/3608747/100/Megan%20Lloyd%20George|title=Lloyd George and Megan – Welsh Household in Downing-Street|date=1909-05-07|work=Carnarvon and Denbigh Herald and North and South Wales Independent|access-date=2016-08-24|via=Welsh Newspapers Online}}</ref> Around the age of five, she would travel with her father to their house in Brighton, and delight his guests by bringing them an early morning cup of tea while they were still in bed.<ref name=":0" />

She began public engagements at an early age, and on 16 November 1910, at the age of eight, performed the opening ceremony of the extension of the [[Claremont Central Mission]] in [[Pentonville]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://newspapers.library.wales/view/4222135/4222137/21/Megan%20Lloyd%20George|title=Miss Megan Lloyd George|date=1910-08-25|work=Evening Express|access-date=2016-08-24|via=Welsh Newspapers Online}}</ref>

==Liberal Party==
Like her brother, [[Gwilym Lloyd George, 1st Viscount Tenby|Gwilym]], she followed her father into politics. She became the first female MP in [[Wales]] when she won [[Ynys Môn (UK Parliament constituency)|Anglesey]] for the Liberals in [[1929 United Kingdom general election|1929]].

Along with her father, she refused to support [[Ramsay MacDonald]]'s [[UK National Government|National Government]] in [[1931 United Kingdom general election|1931]] and successfully held Anglesey as an [[Independent Liberals (UK, 1931)|opposition Liberal]] at the [[1931 United Kingdom general election|1931 General Election]]. She held the seat again as a Liberal from [[1935 United Kingdom general election|1935]] to [[1951 United Kingdom general election|1951]]. During World War II, she was a member of [[Radical Action]], which called for a more radical political stance and for the party to withdraw from the [[war-time electoral truce]].

Throughout the 1940s and 1950s she campaigned for a [[Welsh Parliament]] and the creation of a [[Secretary of State for Wales]]. Prominent among the radicals in the Liberal Party, she opposed what she saw as the party's drift away from her father's brand of [[liberalism]]. During the late 1940s, Lady Megan (as she was universally known) remained on friendly terms with [[Clement Attlee]] and there were rumours that she would join the Labour Party.{{sfn|Jones|1993|p=329-30}} In 1949, Lady Megan was elected Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party in a bid to create unity, but after losing her seat she stood down in 1952. Disillusioned with the Liberals, she indicated in November that year that she would not stand again in Anglesey.{{sfn|Jones|1993|p=338}}

==Labour Party==
[[File:Grave criccieth.jpg|thumb|Family grave in [[Criccieth]]]]
[[File:Companion of Honour.jpg|thumb|115px|Insignia of [[Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour]]]]
In 1955, Lady Megan defected to the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]]. In 1957, she stood against the Liberals as the Labour Party candidate at [[1957 Carmarthen by-election|a by-election]] in [[Carmarthen (UK Parliament constituency)|Carmarthen]] and won the [[seat]], which she held until her death from [[breast cancer]] at [[Pwllheli]] in 1966, aged 64.

She was [[Philip Noel-Baker]]'s romantic partner from 1936 until Irene Noel-Baker's death in 1956.<ref name="ODNB">{{Cite ODNB|id=31505|title=Baker, Philip John Noel-, Baron Noel-Baker|last=Howell|first=David|year=2004}}</ref>

==Awards and legacy==
She was posthumously appointed as a [[Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour]] in the [[Dissolution Honours List]] published five days after her death.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=43981 |supp=y|page=5786|date=19 May 1966}}</ref>

In 2016 she was included in a list of "the 50 greatest Welsh men and women of all time".<ref name=50greatWelshpeople />

In 2019 a [[Purple Plaques|Purple Plaque]] to commemorate her was installed on the building that had been her family home in [[Cricieth]].<ref name="PP-stories">{{cite web |title=Purple plaque stories |url=https://purpleplaques.wales/purple-plaque-stories/ |website=Purple plaques |access-date=2 July 2021}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Sources==
*{{cite journal|last1=Jones|first1=J. Graham|title=The Liberal Party and Wales, 1945–79|journal=[[The Welsh History Review|Welsh History Review]]|date=June 1993|volume=16|issue=3|pages=326–55|url=https://datasyllwr.llgc.org.uk/journals/pdf/AWJAJ017068.pdf}}
* Jones, J. Graham, entry in ''Dictionary of Liberal Biography'' Brack et al. (eds.) Politico's Publishing, 1998
* Jones, J. Graham, [https://web.archive.org/web/20061001042424/http://www.liberalhistory.org.uk/uploads/25-Winter%201999-2000.pdf 'A breach in the family: the defection from the Liberal Party of Megan and Gwilym Lloyd George']
* Jones, Mervyn. ''A Radical Life: The Biography of Megan Lloyd George, 1902–66.'' London: Hutchinson, 1991. {{ISBN|0-09-174829-1}}
* Price, Emyr ''Megan Lloyd George''; Gwynedd Archives Service, 1983

==External links==
*{{Hansard-contribs| miss-megan-lloyd-george|Megan Lloyd George}}
*{{UK National Archives ID}}
* [https://www.library.wales/davidlloydgeorge/ David Lloyd George Exhibition, National Library of Wales]

{{s-start}}
{{s-par|uk}}
{{succession box
| title = [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]] for [[Ynys Môn (UK Parliament constituency)|Anglesey]]
| years = [[1929 United Kingdom general election|1929]] – [[1951 United Kingdom general election|1951]]
| before = [[Sir Robert Thomas, 1st Baronet|Sir Robert Thomas]]
| after = [[Cledwyn Hughes]]
}}
{{succession box
| title = [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]] for [[Carmarthen (UK Parliament constituency)|Carmarthen]]
| years = [[1957 Carmarthen by-election|1957]] – [[1966 Carmarthen by-election|1966]]
| before = [[Rhys Hopkin Morris|Sir Rhys Hopkin Morris]]
| after = [[Gwynfor Evans]]
}}
{{s-ppo}}
|-
{{s-vac |last=[[Percy Harris (politician)|Percy Harris]]}}
{{s-ttl
| title = Deputy Leader of the [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal Party]]
| years = 1949–1951
}}
{{s-vac |next =[[Donald Wade]]}}
{{s-end}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lloyd George, Megan}}
[[Category:1902 births]]
[[Category:1966 deaths]]
[[Category:Children of prime ministers of the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Deaths from breast cancer in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:People from Criccieth]]
[[Category:Liberal Party (UK) MPs for Welsh constituencies]]
[[Category:Welsh Labour MPs]]
[[Category:Female members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Welsh constituencies]]
[[Category:Members of the Order of the Companions of Honour]]
[[Category:Daughters of British earls]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1929–1931]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1931–1935]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1935–1945]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1945–1950]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1950–1951]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1955–1959]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1959–1964]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1964–1966]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1966–1970]]
[[Category:Deaths from cancer in Wales]]
[[Category:Lloyd George family|Megan]]
[[Category:20th-century British women politicians]]
[[Category:Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Carmarthenshire constituencies]]

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Megan Lloyd George