Frances Stevenson, Countess Lloyd-George of Dwyfor, CBEThe Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by King George V. The Order includes five classes in civil and military divisions...
(7 October 1888 – 5 December 1972) was the mistress, personal secretary, confidante and second wife of
British Prime MinisterThe Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the political leader of the United Kingdom and the Head of Her Majesty's Government...
David Lloyd GeorgeDavid Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor OM, PC was a British statesman and the only Welsh Prime Minister of the United Kingdom; he is also the only one to have spoken English as a second language, Welsh having been his first.During a long tenure of office, mainly as Chancellor of the...
.
Frances Stevenson was born in
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
. She was educated at
ClaphamClapham is an area of South London, England, in the London Borough of Lambeth.-History:Clapham dates back to Anglo-Saxon times: the name is thought to derive from the Old English clopp + hām or hamm, meaning Homestead/enclosure near a hill....
High School and Royal Holloway College, where she graduated with a Classics degree in 1910. In 1911 Lloyd George, then
Chancellor of the ExchequerThe Chancellor of the Exchequer is the title held by the British Cabinet minister who is responsible for all economic and financial matters. Often simply called The Chancellor, the office-holder controls HM Treasury and plays a role akin to the posts of Minister of Finance or Secretary of the...
, hired Stevenson as a governess for his youngest daughter
MeganLady Megan Arfon Lloyd George CH was a British politician, the first female Member of Parliament for a Welsh constituency, and Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party. She later became a Labour MP....
.
Frances Stevenson, Countess Lloyd-George of Dwyfor, CBEThe Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by King George V. The Order includes five classes in civil and military divisions...
(7 October 1888 – 5 December 1972) was the mistress, personal secretary, confidante and second wife of
British Prime MinisterThe Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the political leader of the United Kingdom and the Head of Her Majesty's Government...
David Lloyd GeorgeDavid Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor OM, PC was a British statesman and the only Welsh Prime Minister of the United Kingdom; he is also the only one to have spoken English as a second language, Welsh having been his first.During a long tenure of office, mainly as Chancellor of the...
.
Frances Stevenson was born in
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
. She was educated at
ClaphamClapham is an area of South London, England, in the London Borough of Lambeth.-History:Clapham dates back to Anglo-Saxon times: the name is thought to derive from the Old English clopp + hām or hamm, meaning Homestead/enclosure near a hill....
High School and Royal Holloway College, where she graduated with a Classics degree in 1910. In 1911 Lloyd George, then
Chancellor of the ExchequerThe Chancellor of the Exchequer is the title held by the British Cabinet minister who is responsible for all economic and financial matters. Often simply called The Chancellor, the office-holder controls HM Treasury and plays a role akin to the posts of Minister of Finance or Secretary of the...
, hired Stevenson as a governess for his youngest daughter
MeganLady Megan Arfon Lloyd George CH was a British politician, the first female Member of Parliament for a Welsh constituency, and Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party. She later became a Labour MP....
. Lloyd George and Stevenson were soon attracted to each other. Although Stevenson, who wanted a conventional marriage and many children, hesitated about becoming the mistress of a married man, she agreed to become Lloyd George's personal secretary on his terms — which included a sexual relationship — in 1913.
Stevenson's vitality, prosperity and loyalty to Lloyd George, as well as her discretion in her work and personal life, gained her lover's admiration (although not fidelity). She was created a
Commander of the Order of the British EmpireThe Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by King George V. The Order includes five classes in civil and military divisions...
in 1918 and accompanied Lloyd George to the
Paris Peace ConferenceThe Paris Peace Conference was the meeting of the Allied victors in World War I to set the peace terms for Germany and other defeated nations, and to deal with the empires of the defeated powers following the Armistice of 1918. It took place in Paris in 1919 and involved diplomats from more than...
of 1919. Stevenson chose the location and supervised the construction of Lloyd George's country house in
ChurtChurt is a village and civil parish in the borough of Waverley in Surrey, England. It is located on the A287 road between Hindhead and Farnham, and is split by the Surrey–Hampshire borders. Its origins date back to the Saxon period. The original boundary stones are visible at the junction of Green...
,
SurreySurrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire, and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford...
.
She also arranged and collated Lloyd George's extensive archive of personal and political papers so that he could write his
War Memoirs. After having been persuaded by Lloyd George to have two
abortionAn abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo. An abortion can occur spontaneously due to complications during pregnancy or can be induced, in humans and other species...
s, Stevenson gave birth to a daughter, Jennifer, in 1929. Although Stevenson had been having an affair with
Thomas Frederic TweedLieutenant-Colonel Thomas Frederic Tweed MC was a British soldier and novelist.He was commissioned into the Lancashire Fusiliers. He won the Military Cross in World War I and at the age of 26 was named the youngest lieutenant colonel in the British Army at the time. He became a political adviser...
, a novelist who was one of Lloyd George's political advisers, Lloyd George was probably the father of Stevenson's child.
Two years after the death of Lloyd George's wife Margaret, Stevenson married Lloyd George on 23 October 1943 despite the disapproval of Lloyd George's children from his first marriage. Less than 18 months later, Lloyd George died on 26 March 1945.
Frances Stevenson, now the
Dowager Countess Lloyd-George of Dwyfor, lived at Churt for the rest of her life, devoting her time to her family, charitable activities, perpetuating the memory of Lloyd George and writing. Her memoirs
The Years That Are Past was published in 1967, and her diary of her life with Lloyd George was published in 1971.
Suggested reading
- Campbell, John, If Love Were All: The Story of Frances Stevenson and David Lloyd George, London: Jonathan Cape, 2006. ISBN 0-224-07464-4
- Lloyd George, David and Frances, My Darling Pussy: The Letters of Lloyd George and Frances Stevenson, 1913-41, A.J.P. Taylor (editor), London
[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
: Weidenfeld and Nicolson Publishers, 1975, ISBN 0-297-77017-9
- Lloyd George, Frances, Lloyd George: A Diary, A. J. P. Taylor (editor), London
[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
:Hutchinson, 1971, ISBN 0-09-107270-0
- The Years That Are Past, London
[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
:Hutchinson, 1967.
- Longford, Ruth (granddaughter of Frances Stevenson), Frances, Countess Lloyd George: More Than a Mistress, Leominster
Leominster is a market town in Herefordshire, England, located approximately north of Hereford and south of Ludlow, at . It is the second largest town in the county with a population of approximately 11,000 people , and is located at the confluence of the River Lugg and its tributary the River...
: Gracewing, 1996, ISBN 0-85244-324-2