Inspired by David Cameron’s recent visit to Porthdinllaen, Tim Erasmus has written an interesting blog post on Prime Ministers who chose North Wales for their holidays. I commend it to readers, if only for the insight it provides into the amorous adventures of Herbert Asquith, a Prime Minister I had previously thought of as weak, indecisive and vacillating, and certainly no Lothario.
The post also includes a photo of a vacationing Churchill, who was himself a visitor to the area.
My late uncle, W O Jones, once told me of an encounter he had with Churchill and David Lloyd George at the Royal St David’s golf course in Harlech.
W O and a friend had applied to become members of the club, where it was the practice for probationers to make themselves available for caddying duty for several months before full membership could be conferred.
On the day in question, the two young men were waiting at the club when Lloyd George and Churchill turned up and accepted their offer to act as caddies. W O carried Lloyd George’s clubs and his friend caddied for Churchill.
At the end of the round, each statesman pressed a coin in his caddy’s hand. W O was delighted to find that he had been tipped a half sovereign by L-G and then a little deflated to find that his friend had received a full sovereign from Churchill.
Both young men had done rather well, though. This was before the First World War, when many a man of similar age could have lived for a week on Churchill’s bounty.
