The Story of PM Herbert Asquith and his relationship to Venetia Stanley his mistress.30/9/24
1914 In London there were up to 12 mail deliveries a day. Besides aristocrats you had Nancy Cunard the shipping heiress only 18. Constantine Beckandork "the Cossack" was the son of the Russian ambassador who had organized this river ship outing which the accident took place. This was a story of a drunken wager very embarrassing if it became public.
In 1914, British prime minister H.H. Asquith, a 61-year-old married man, carries on an affair with 26-year-old Venetia Stanley. DS Paul Deemer investigates the accidental drowning of Asquith’s son. He afterwards is in a police dept. that arrests saboteurs, spies when the war begins. Since Venetia was on the guest as a witness, he questions her. Were the guests drunk - all the bottles were thrown over the side. femme fatale - using female charms of beauty and sexual allure
Herbert Asquith1852 to 1928 his first wife Helen Mellend died in 1898(Who left him 5 children). Then he married Margot Tennant. You can never have 2 so dissimilar wives.
Home Rule of Ireland was a big issue and he had to offer it to keep votes.
Venetia's cousin is Clemmie Churchill, and Winston arranges for Venetia to go flying. Her parents were trying to get Venetia away so she wouldn't see Asquith but the war intervened.
The German Ambassador was Prince Lichnowsky. Before the war they all mixed in the same circles.
With War Sir John French was appointed Inspector General of the army.
Edwin Montague Financial Secretary of the Treasury, had twice proposed marriage to Venetia but because he was a Jew this was problematic for her inheritance. The French were selling their British bonds to get money for the war and Rothschild was worried if tis would rock the market.
People would have objected to women in a "petticoat government "
Richard Haldane had studied in Germany, spoke German and understand the war issues but was not wanted in the government.
Deemer had to look after his younger brother after his parents died, he was an unstable person till Deemer forced him to go into the army at a time that Britain had been at peace and didn't think he one day might have to fight. There is nothing like war to make men see the true value of things.
Britain would not make a bargain with Germany to keep neutral at Frances expense. This would tarnish Britain's status in her Empire.
In Whitechapel you could hear Polish, Russian, German ,Yiddish , French spoken.
George V was gruff unsubtle non intellectual. The bank of England suspended the exchange of gold for paper currency and interest rates on the pound double from 4 to 8 %.
When Venetia travelled alone she always travelled 3rd class.
The Germans had issued an ultimatum to the Belgium government demanding a free passage through their territory. Asquith had managed to keep the government together over this crises. 1914 Britain declared war on 4th August at 11pm.
Asquith managed to stop Kitchener from returning to his post in Egypt and got the Field Marshall to be in charge of the war. Kitchener said that to defeat the Germans will take till 1917 as they need to raise an army of 2 million men and to recruit and train them would take 3 years. Casualties will be enormous.
MO 5 had arrested 22 suspected spies. The First Sea Lord Louis Mountbatten was born in Austria. There was also spy mania with people reporting suspects.
A grisly war is on, to which politicians and generals send young men to die by the tens of thousands, The nature of Herbert Asquith and Venetia Stanley’s affair has long been a well known subject of speculation and debate. The war will be the end of the aristocrats and their way of life. There will be taxation as somebody has to pay for the war.
Carbon copies or 'flimsies' were found all over the place and arrived at Scotland yard and they discovered the PM has just dumped them. Aristocrats believed themselves above the rules of ordinary people. The PMs car Napier Type 23, number plate A3141 could be looked up and traced as details of number plates were kept from 1903.
The Stanley's lived at Penrhos House, Holyhead , Anglesey, Wales. Deemer got a job as a gardener here for 3 pence and hour, to be able to find out about the PMs letter going to Venetia. Now Deemer was given an office in the London Mount Pleasant mail sorting office and was able to get all her letters first.
The Times published that the British were running out of shells (how did that get through the censors)
Casualties were called The Role of Honour you found the names of officers of the killed in lists in the press. Not the ordinary soldiers as there were too many to print.
If a man was careful not to get his girlfriend pregnant it was "leaving the church before the sermon" was the euphemism.
The Belgium government abandoned Antwerp and moved to Ostend, causing the loss of this important port, the naval commission escaped during the night and went to Ostend. The British General Staff bred obsolete tactics of 25 years ago.
"To be or not to be"- duty versus love, convention versus passion death as a welcome release from a life not worth living. This was all in the poetry by Robert Browning the Asquith and she discussed. Venetia felt it was a patriotic duty to keep the "Prime" happy.
Venetia realized that her life was on the wrong track and to extricate herself from Asquith paid 13 guineas to do a 3 month course to become a nurse at the Whitechapel Hospital in the poverty of the East End. This hospital had 500 poor and 500 wounded soldiers. She had never had a job in her life and the more she saw the horrors the more she determined she became. Later this became a soldiers hospital only. She saw , trench foot , gangrene amputated arms and legs, shattered Jaws and skull fractures and gaping shrapnel wounds. Hard work and hospital food had caused her to lose weight. The hospital staff were aware of her relationship with the Prime Minister. Margot had told her that her husband Asquith always needed young women around him but her relationship had gone too far.
At the Ypres they lost 13000 men in 2 weeks. Oc Asquith had a new friend Rupert Brook (a best membered " trench poet") and his sister Violet was keen on him.
Zeppelin's dropped bombs over Dover and the Thames estuary.
The whole of London society knew that the navy was heading towards the Dardanelles - an element of surprise?
1769 to 1822 Castlereagh has slashed his throat in with a scissors in 1822 when he was foreign secretary. The offensive on the western front Neuve Chapelle had to be halted as they ran out of shells.- men I can replace but artillery's shells not.
Edwin Montagu never bored her while she had reached a point where Asquith did. He however was not attracted to going to bed with Montagu. She was not moved by any church service and could convert to Judaism like crossing a road. She enjoyed being with Montagu on a weekend of birdwatching. Montagu said he loved her for her mans mind and women's body. Marrying was a way to escape Asquith.
1908 Asquith had gone to Biarritz in France to kiss Edward VII hand to be made Prime Minister. The King was on holiday in France.
Lloyd George was planning a temperance campaign. At the ammunitions' factory in Newcastle Asquith said that there was plenty of munitions despite having a telegram that there was only enough for a weeks supply at the front. Workers here were working 68 hours a week average and women were also being employed at the Armstrong factory.
1915 The German torpedoing of the Lusitania caused the loss of 1200 and over a hundred of them were Americans. The Germans had also started using poison gas on the Western front.
Deemer on a visit to his boss saw him talking to Lord Northcliffe (1825 to 1922) The owner of the Daily Mail and Daily Mirror and realized that Deemer had been kept in this illegal operation for purely political reasons.
Herbert Asquith had the last Liberal Government in the UK. Venetia sailed to France to take up her nursing duties and the coalition cabinet now had 6 Liberals the PMs Grey, Lloyd George , Crewe, Mc Kenna and Simon. 6 Unionists Bonar Law , Balfour, Lord Curzon , Carson, Austen Chamberlain. a Labour member Arthur Henderson and Kitchener was non party.
Churchill left to join his regiment in France. The Dardanelles was abandoned as a failure in Jan 1916. The dead here amounted to over 110,000- 34,000 British 10,000 French, 10,000 Australians and 56,000 Turks. Churchill lost his reputation for years as a result of this.
1916 Lord Kitchener died on a warship on a mission to Russia that hit a mine off Scotland. Raymond Asquith killed on the Somme.
1917 Oc Asquith wounded and his leg was amputated. Bob Asquith remained in the army till the end of the war. Violet married Maurice Bonham Carter. She had loved Rupert Brook.
1916 After 9 years in power Asquith was ousted by Lloyd George.
1915 Venetia married Edwin Montagu who became Secretary of State for India (He was a passionate anti Zionist) who opposed the Balfour Declaration and died in 1924 aged 45. She was not physically attracted to him and his being Jewish was a problem but she liked his company. (He had, had a gay relationship to Maynard Keynes the well known economist at Cambridge.) This also got her away from Asquith. He had told Venetia she had a women's body and a mans head. Venetia gave birth to Judith in 1923 DNA tests later proved that the Earl of Dudley was the father. She also had affairs with Lord Beaverbrook. She died in 1948 aged 60
560 letters from Asquith to Venetia are held at the Bodleian Library. Roy Jenkins( PM from 1974 to 1976) used them when he published a biography of Asquith in 1964. Violet, Asquith's daughter was shocked to learn of their existence.
No comments:
Post a Comment