David Lloyd George's Golden Wedding Anniversary

Married in January 1888, David Lloyd George and his wife Margaret celebrate 50 years of marriage with their family at a very comfortable hotel – with golf – in Antibes.

David Lloyd George and his wife Margaret may have spoken Welsh, the language of heaven, but Lloyd George as a husband certainly had feet of clay. But here they are, with their family, celebrating, for better or worse, their 50 year old marriage at a very comfortable hotel – the Câp d’Antibes – in the south of France, where there is golf for the men and fine dining afterwards. Also included are shots of “larch gathering” and a new apiary at “LG’s” farm 'Bron-y-de', Churt, Surrey.

This is one of a number of reels shot by Lloyd George’s devoted private secretary, A J Sylvester, who filmed “LG” – Liberal Prime Minister of Great Britain 1916-22 – at home and abroad and, in 1936, visiting Hitler in Germany, LG having been impressed by the Fuhrer’s land reclamation and employment schemes which tallied with his own belief that more intensive agriculture could aid unemployment in Britain. Here, on his farm, are seen LG himself, his son Gwilym, Gwilym's wife Edna and their son David, Major Nathan (a local friend) and Ann Parry, a bee-keeper and member of LG’s secretarial staff. Gwilym is seen doing impersonations [probably of MPs, Gwilym himself being an MP, possibly one is of Sir John Simon].