Reginald McKenna: Financier among Statesmen, 1863-1916. By Martin Farr.

Abstract

Throughout the early years of the twentieth century, Reginald McKenna stood at the centre of British political life. During his period as a Member of Parliament, he held the position of Financial Secretary to the Treasury (1905–7), President of the Board of Education (1907–8), First Lord of the Admiralty (1908–11), Home Secretary (1911–15) and, finally, Chancellor of the Exchequer (1915–16). And yet despite holding such noticeable offices of national responsibility, McKenna has remained a somewhat marginalized figure in twentieth-century political history. It is true that McKenna has held a (minor) role in the area of interwar British economic history. This reflects his wartime assault on the principles of free trade (the so-called ‘McKenna duties’), the debates surrounding the restoration of the gold standard in 1925, and his period as chairman of the Midland Bank. In this latter role, which he held from 1919 until his death in 1943, his annual speeches dealing with contemporary monetary problems (published in 1928 as Post-war Banking Policy) still provided a valuable perspective on the turbulent financial history of the early interwar period. Yet beyond this, and in stark contrast to the almost inexhaustible attention devoted to other Liberal politicians such as Asquith and Lloyd George, his presence is little felt within the political historiography of the pre-war period.