Welsh Journals

CLEMENT DAVIES AND THE FALL OF NEVILLE CHAMBERLAIN, 1939^0* 'THE world does not yet know', said Lord Boothby in 1962, 'the part played by Clem. Davies in the crucial events of May 1940. He was too modest to tell the story himself, but one day it will be told.'1 The story is of considerable importance. It tells of the fall of the Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, and the emergence of Winston Churchill to lead his country to victory in the Second World War. May 1940 was a critical juncture in history, and Clement Davies played a decisive part in it. Yet, to this day, his precise role in the crisis has remained unperceived by historians, and his contribution to making Churchill Prime Minister has never been properly appreciated. The story of the events of 1939-40, and Davies's part in them, is long overdue. Although destined to become leader of the Liberal Party in 1945, when war broke out in September 1939 Clement Davies was a little-known Welsh backbench M.P. He had entered parliament ten years previously as the Liberal member for his native county, Montgomeryshire, and had quickly become highly regarded at Westminster. 'We appreciate his companionship and he is too good a colleague to lose', wrote Sir John Simon, the Foreign Secretary, when Davies considered retiring from politics after six years.2 But he had never been a natural political animal, and it was only under a good deal of pressure and with some reluctance that he had, at the age of forty-five, forsaken a promising legal career to stand for parliament. The scion of an old Liberal and nonconformist family, he was brought up in a county with a strong Liberal tradition at a time when Liberalism was the prevalent political force in Wales. He was a devoted follower of David Lloyd George, and was cast in the Welsh radical Liberal mould, even though he retained great independence of mind. 'I am a supporter of Mr. Lloyd George', he said when he was adopted as parliamentary candidate in 1927. 'I have always been a supporter of him, but I am not an out and out supporter of anyone. I will test them by their measures.'3 I am grateful to Dr. E. L. Ellis of the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, for his valuable comments on this article. 1 Address by Lord Boothby at the Memorial Service to Clement Davies, March 1962. Sir John Simon to Mrs. Clement Davies, 30 May 1935 (N.L.W., Clement Davies Papers). Montgomeryshire Express, 29 December 1934, p. 4.