H. H. Asquith

Biography

Herbert Henry Asquith was born in 1852 and educated at the City of London School, from which he won a classical scholarship to Balliol College, Oxford, in 1869. He took a double first, was elected to a prize fellowship of Balliol and became a barrister, entering the Commons as a Liberal in 1886.

He served as Home Secretary under Gladstone from 1892 to 1895 and as Chancellor of the Exchequer under Henry Campbell-Bannerman from 1905, succeeding him as prime minister in April 1908. His government's reforms laid foundations of the British welfare state. When the House of Lords rejected the People's Budget of 1909, he fought two general elections in 1910 and then passed the Parliament Act 1911, which sharply limited the Lords' power to block legislation. His efforts to enact Irish Home Rule led to repeated crises, including the Curragh incident of 1914.

He led Britain into the First World War in August 1914. Criticism over the shortage of shells and the failure at Gallipoli led him to form a coalition with the Conservatives and Labour in 1915, but doubts about his leadership grew, and David Lloyd George replaced him as prime minister in December 1916.

He and Lloyd George then fought for control of the declining Liberal Party. Asquith led the party until 1926, having been created Earl of Oxford and Asquith, and died in 1928.