IV.

War Leader

A firm believer in the necessity of supporting France against Germany, Asquith nevertheless carefully waited to declare war until public indignation was aroused by Germany's violation of Belgian neutrality. As the war dragged on, however, successive military reverses and acute shortages of munitions made his government the object of increasing criticism by Conservatives and Liberals alike. In May 1915, Asquith yielded to demands for a coalition government, but prosecution of the war continued to drift, with the failure of the Gallipoli campaign, and, a year later, the catastrophic losses at the Battle of the Somme. Finally, in December 1916, the opposition movement forced him to resign in favour of Lloyd George, who had become war secretary in 1915, irrevocably splitting the Liberal Party.

Asquith remained in Parliament as leader of a rump of Liberals, losing his seat in 1918 but returning to the Commons in 1922, and he never held office again. He was raised to the peerage in 1925 as the Earl of Oxford, and died in Sutton Courtenay, Berkshire, on February 15, 1928.