Prime Minister David Lloyd George's brush with death from flu in 1918

Prime Minister David Lloyd George almost died from flu in September 1918 just when he was celebrating winning World War One.

At the time the war is at a critical phase requiring important decisions to be taken so it is most unfortunate timing for David Lloyd George. By the autumn the Allies are finally starting to dominate. The German Spring offensive has petered out and the growing intervention of the Americans mean the Allies have a growing numerical superiority over Germany in troop numbers. By September the Allies are winning a succession of battles in France and the German Army is struggling to get new recruits to replace their heavy losses. 

However the ‘Spanish Flu’ (contrary to most people’s beliefs the flu was most probably due to American or British troops travelling around France in origin) as it became known in 1918 is causing great damage to British society and the Allied armed forces. According to the American War Department influenza has an impact on at least 26% of the Army, more than a million men. The German army fare little better. Their generals are using it as an excuse for why they ran out of attacking momentum in their 1918 Spring Offensive. The British Minister of State, Bonar Law says at the time that ‘there is intelligence that the Germany Army is being swept by Bolshevism as well as Spanish Influenza, a lack of munitions and general sloppiness’.

Just when this first wave starts to die down in the Autumn a second wave that is more virulent than the first and seems to attack the youngest and healthiest more, begins to emerge. It soon appears on the Allied lines and causes a great deal of worry judging by the confidential correspondence between the Medical Research Council, the War Office and the Army Medical Service due to the perceived possible impact it might have on all the fit and healthy soldiers at a critical moment in the war. The Local Government Board Chief Medical Officer put it that the war took priority over all other considerations and the military authorities could not afford to allow doctors and nurses to leave the war front to help those struggling at home.

Of more concern to the British public is how deadly and quickly it is spreading across their own country. Official advice is not very helpful. The main advice is to gargle with salt water and to isolate yourself until the fever has passed. By the time the epidemic is over it is estimated that over 228,000 civilians have died from it.

One of the epicentres in England for this outbreak is Manchester. Over the course of the summer of 1918 over 100,000 Mancunians catch the influenza and 322 die from it. Remarkably it is to this city that Prime Minister David Lloyd George decides to visit on 11^th September 1918.

Why you might ask does he go to this city given the obvious risks? Well he was in fact born in Manchester and even though he was raised in Wales he has a strong affinity for it no doubt in part because as a Liberal Party member he feels close to the city due to it's  strong Liberal leaning. In contrast to now the flu disease was not a notifiable disease so it was not well reported either officially or in the newspapers. Anything thought to have a negative impact on morale was censored. However perhaps the biggest factor is that he is invited to receive the Freedom of the City as a recognition for his wartime leadership. For a man with his enormous ego it is just too much to ignore.

When he arrives he is given a massive welcome. His short journey to get to Albert Square where he is staying overnight becomes a one hour journey due to the huge crowds desperate to catch a glimpse of him. Crowds of soldiers and munitions workers Unfortunately it is also a typical day in Manchester full of rain so many people end up soaked in rain including the Prime Minister.  

The next day on the 12th September David Lloyd George gives a rousing 90 minute speech at the Manchester Hippodrome. He touches on many issues but a couple of statements have a certain irony given what happens next. Namely his remarks that ‘you cannot maintain an A1 Empire with a C3 population’ (A1 is a military reference to being in very good health whilst C1 is a military term for poor health) and also that ‘nothing but heart failure’ can prevent a British victory.

Not content with one performance for the day Lloyd George then decides to have a civic lunch at Midland Hotel with a gathering of the local Welsh community. Shortly afterwards he falls ill in the afternoon. As a consequence he is too ill to attend the Reform Club in the evening to give a further speech.

One of the little known facts is how easily this whole situation could have been prevented. Back in July 1918, Sir Arthur Newsholme, Chief Medical Officer of the Local Government Board was considering various nationwide measures to deal with the pandemic. Notable ideas he was looking at making use of included stopping large crowds from gathering and also preventing over crowding on public transport. However he changed his mind in August and he did not revive them until October 1918 by which time David Lloyd George had contracted and recovered from the flu. 

As a consequence the national response was markedly different from today. For instance pubs were allowed to remain open and although men's football stopped the women's league was allowed to carry on. Several factories also allowed smoking to carry on in the belief that it helped prevent the flu. Eating porridge was recommended by the News of the World newspaper as a possible preventative measure. Even MP's were not always dependable for useful information. During one parliamentary debate the Conservative MP, Claude Lowther asked "Is it a fact that a sure preventative against influenza is cocoa taken three times a day?"

Any hope that this flu is just the ordinary one are dashed and Lloyd George has to spend nine days in the committee room at the front of Manchester Town Hall. According to the recollections of the Secretary of State for War Sir Maurice Hankey, Lloyd George’s illness is very serious indeed and his valet mentions that at one point it is ‘touch and go’.

The situation is desperate and as David Lloyd George looks out of his window to see the John Bright statue it drips with Manchester’s all too frequent rain. Who can blame him if he feels gloomy at this point. If news breaks out that the Prime Minister is gravely ill many fear it will dampen morale and weaken the war effort. Lloyd George himself states in December 1917 to C.P. Scott, the editor of the Manchester Guardian, that if people really knew the truth about the war it would be stopped tomorrow. However the Prime Minister is fortunate at the time in that the media barons are willing to underplay the severity of his condition for fear of presenting the Germans with a propaganda coup.

Instead with the help of the attending physician, Sir William Milligan, and friendly newspaper barons such as C.P. Scott, the true gravity of his illness is kept out of the public prints. The Manchester Guardian jokes that Lloyd George had caught a ‘severe chill’ when he had accidentally been soaked in a downpour in Albert Square and that he had since become ‘a prisoner of [Manchester’s] not too kindly climate’. 

In the meantime, The Times censors several of Milligan’s medical bulletins. Finally the Prime Minister's health recovers and perhaps one specific piece of news goes some way to improve his countenance. It is that British troops at the Salonika bridgehead have finally defeated the Turks and Bulgarians. 

It is not until the 18th that The Times reports that the Prime Minister is on his way to recovery. Fortunately he is given good advice unlike some of the more dubious ideas put out at the time such as to eat lots of porridge, wash your teeth. Unfortunately just when things begin to look up for the Prime Minister his wife ends up with the flu too (another similarity with Boris Johnson and his fiancé Carrie Symonds). Those close to him are worried that if he finds out it might strain him too much and wreck his recovery so they decide to hold back on this information.  

Three days later on the 21^st of September he finally returns to London still wearing a respirator and then moves on to rest at the home of his friend, Danny Park. Meantime his wife slowly recovers.

Eventually the couple, Frances Lloyd George and David are well enough to meet again. He walks into her room on his return holding the Freedom of the City – a silver coffer with enamel plaques, containing the elaborate scroll of the Freedom. Obviously he is very happy to see her but as she looks at his appearance she is aghast at what the illness has done to him. Later she writes ‘He must I fear have been very near death’s door. But he was exhilarated by the turn which events in the war had taken, and this helped his convalescence’.

David Lloyd George’s recovery is slow. Even as late as the 4th of October 1918 he writes ‘I am off by the 8am train from Charing X. My temperature is still very low and my pulse too feeble’ to his wife. No doubt this will also be true for our current Prime Minister, Boris Johnson as he recovers this month.

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