Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1935-2002 (Creation)
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File
Extent and medium
Folder; 2.5 cm.
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
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.
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Items assembled by Dr Siriol Colley associated with her uncle Gareth Jones. These include the typescript address of Rev. Gwilym Davies at the Memorial Hall, Barry, 25 August 1935; press cuttings, 1935, recording the death of Gareth Jones and paying tribute to him, and noting the establishment of memorial scholarships; papers relating to the publication of the memorial volume In Search of News; a brochure advertising Gareth Jones's lecture tour in the United States; a list of subscriptions, undated, to the Gareth Jones Memorial Fund; letters, 1988, from A. J. Sylvester to David Morley relating to investigations into the death of Gareth Jones; an account by Baron von Plessen, entitled 'Ill-fated Journey', of the circumstances leading up to Gareth Jones's death; a biographical note on Dr Herbert Mueller; and correspondence, 2001-02, concerning the award of the Gareth Jones Travelling Scholarship.
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Note
Preferred citation: C6/2.