46cm (18in) x 30cm (12in) x 16cm (6.2in)
Provenance: Rt Hon Major Gwilym Lloyd-George, 1st Viscount Tenby,TD, PC (1894-1967)
Black leather over wood; the hinged lid embossed crowned cypher George V, the chamfered leading edge inscribed ‘G.LL.G’, the lid fitted with recessed gilt brass handle to ensure the box is locked before carrying. Internal lock with working key. The internal leading edge further stamped ‘John Peck & Son / 7 Nelson Sq, Blackfriars’ - ‘Manufacturers / To HM Staty. Office’.
The present box was used by Gwilym Lloyd-George from 1942 to 1945 when Minister of Fuel & Power and a member of Winston Churchill’s Second World War Coalition Cabinet.
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Gwilym Lloyd-George, 1st Viscount Tenby, TD, PC (1894-1967) was the younger son of Prime Minister David Lloyd George and his first wife Margaret, daughter of Richard Owen. Educated at Eastbourne College and Jesus College, Cambridge, Gwilym Lloyd George was commissioned into the 6th Battalion The Royal Welch Fusiliers in 1914, and became aide-de-camp to the first GOC of the 38th (Welsh) Division on the Western Front. He entered politics as a liberal of various stripes but drifted over time to the Conservatives, and was known for most of his political career as Major Lloyd George. In 1939, he joined Neville Chamberlain's government, and, in 1941, was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Food and then Minister of Fuel and Power in 1942. Lloyd George stayed in the post until the 1945 general election in which he stood as a 'Liberal and Conservative’. Churchill offered him a position in the Conservative Party's Shadow cabinet and allowed him to remain as a ‘Liberal' - a position that irritated both Liberals and Conservatives. Returning to office in 1951, Churchill appointed him Minister of Food, 1951-1954, and Home Secretary from 1954 until his retirement in 1957. During his time as Home Secretary, he refused to commute the death sentence imposed on Ruth Ellis - the last woman to be executed in Britain. He later defended his position with the declaration, ‘We cannot have people shooting off firearms in the street! As long as I was Home Secretary I was determined to ensure that people could use the streets without fear of a bullet.’