Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1935, Aug.-Dec. (Creation)
Level of description
File
Extent and medium
Folder; 0.2 cm.
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Albert James Sylvester (1889-1989) served as Principal Private Secretary to David Lloyd George from 1923 until his death in March 1945. A native of Staffordshire, Sylvester served as private secretary to the Secretary to the Committee of Imperial Defence, 1914-1921, to the Secretary of the War Cabinet and the Cabinet, 1916-1921, to the Secretary of the Imperial War Cabinet, 1917, to the British Secretary of the Peace Conference, 1919, and to three successive Prime Ministers, 1921-3: D. Lloyd George, Andrew Bonar Law and Stanley Baldwin. He ran Lloyd George's private office in London. After Lloyd George's death, A. J. Sylvester earned his living as a member of Lord Beaverbrook's staff from 1945 until 1948, and spent a further year as unpaid assistant to Liberal Party leader, E. Clement Davies. In 1947, he published The Real Lloyd George, based on his diaries. In 1949, he retired from political life, and moved to a farm at Corsham, Wiltshire, England. His ambition to publish a full-scale autobiography, upon which he was actively engaged in extreme old age, never came to fruition. His papers provide an insight into the life of Lloyd George after his fall from power in 1922.
Archival history
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Scope and content
Most of the letters are from A. J. Sylvester, Principal Private Secretary to Lloyd George, to Major Edgar Jones, father of Gareth Jones. There also photocopies of the journal The Critic for 24 August 1935 which contains a tribute to Gareth Jones.
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Notes area
Note
Preferred citation: B8/10.
Alternative identifier(s)
Virtua system control number
Access points
Subject access points
Place access points
Name access points
- Jones, Edgar William, 1868-1953. (Subject)