Herbert Henry Asquith was born in 1852. His father was a weaver, who died when Asquith was 8 years old and he would live in several places in the years that followed. He was educated at the City of London School and then Balliol College, Oxford. Afterwards, he studied the law, being called to the bar in 1876.

In London, he also became involved with Liberal politics. In the December 1885 election, Asquith was elected to the Liberal seat of East Fife, winning it by just 374 votes. In Parliament, he quickly established himself as an effective and authoritative speaker. At the same time, his reputation as a lawyer grew, and after an assured performance at a major trial, his career quickly took off and he was admitted as a Queen’s Counsel.

Then, in 1892, when Gladstone won the election, he asked Asquith to serve as Home Secretary. He continued in this post under Gladstone’s successor, Lord Rosebery, as well. Neither government was particularly successful, but Asquith’s reputation as an effective politician was boosted. After that, Asquith focused heavily on his more lucrative law career; his life in London, an expensive house in Cavendish Square, and his new social obligations, had increased his spending.

When the Liberals returned to power in 1905, Asquith became Chancellor, a role in which he was generally quite effective, and in which he laid the basis for the creation of old age pensions. In April 1908, when Campbell Bannerman resigned, Asquith was the obvious choice, and he travelled down to Biarritz, where Edward VII was on holiday, to be appointed. Asquith quickly formed a new Cabinet, removing several peers. Key appointments included Lloyd George as Chancellor and Winston Churchill as President of the Board of Trade.

For a while, things proceeded smoothly. Asquith’s 10 Downing Street was a remarkably relaxed environment, in which the Prime Minister had time to read, and regularly had lunch parties. He earned the nickname ‘Squiffy’ amongst friends, for his fondness for drink, though Conservative leader Bonar Law once said that “Asquith drunk can make a better speech than any of us sober”.

The Asquith government passed some of the foundational legislation for the welfare state, including old age pensions and the first system of National Insurance. Though these were largely authored by Lloyd George, they would not have happened without Asquith’s backing.

The great peacetime crisis of Asquith’s premiership was the constitutional crisis over the 1909 budget, in which Lloyd George raised taxes on the property-owning classes. The House of Lords, which was heavily Conservative, rejected the budget, despite tradition and precedent saying that only the Commons dealt with financial matters. Two general elections followed in 1910 to break the deadlock. Neither proved decisive, and the Liberals were now reliant on the Irish Nationalist MPs to stay in office. Finally, the new King, George V, agreed that he would create new peers to change the balance, and the Lords gave way. The 1911 Parliament Act was then passed, which reduced the power of the House of Lords.

A new crisis soon began over Irish Home Rule. The government brought forward legislation to create a Dublin parliament, and, in response, the Ulster Unionists formed paramilitary organisations and threatened to resist any such measure with force. By 1914, it seemed that the crisis might lead to civil war.

Another war came instead. In August 1914, Asquith’s government declared war on Germany after that country had invaded Belgium and France. The war was initially met with determination, and a large volunteer army was formed to fight. Asquith became very popular, as the country rallied. But the mood darkened when the military stalemate on the Western Front became apparent and casualties intensified. There was a scandal over military supplies, and a daring British attempt to win a great victory at Gallipoli failed.

In May 1915, Asquith formed a coalition government. Lloyd George was appointed minister of munitions. It was an inspired appointment and Lloyd George galvanised the efforts of British industry. His tenacity contrasted with the increasingly lackadaisical Asquith. As casualties increased, the government introduced conscription, a measure that Asquith had spent months delaying, from the beginning of 1916.

In December 1916, the patience of ministers with Asquith’s leadership was strained. A group of them, including Lloyd George, presented a memorandum to Asquith, demanding a reorganisation of the central apparatus of the war. Asquith insisted he chair the central ‘War Council’. Ultimately, this led to resignations and the collapse of the government. Asquith resigned and Lloyd George was appointed to replace him.

In Parliament, Asquith continued to lead the Liberal Party as Leader of the Opposition. He would continue to play a role in politics during the 1920s. In 1923, it momentarily seemed that he had achieved the impossible when the Liberal Party reunited and won 158 seats in the election. This made him the kingmaker, and he chose Ramsay MacDonald to be Prime Minister, believing that the experience of a Labour government would inspire a further Liberal revival. The strategy was clever but the reality was disappointing. When MacDonald did call an election in late 1924, it was the Liberals, short of funds, who were found wanting. Only 40 were returned to Parliament, not including Asquith who had lost his seat.

In 1925, Asquith accepted a peerage and the title Earl of Oxford. He retired from politics in 1926 and died in 1928.

Asquith married twice, first to Helen Kelsall Melland in 1877 with whom he had eight children (of which three died in infancy). Helen died in 1894 and Asquith remarried to Margaret ‘Margot’ Tennant in 1894, with whom he had a further two children. His son, Raymond, was killed in the Battle of the Somme in September 1916.