54 Facts About Reginald McKenna

Reginald McKenna was a British banker and Liberal politician.

Reginald McKenna was studious and meticulous, noted for his attention to detail, but for being bureaucratic and partisan.

Reginald McKenna was educated at King's College School and at Trinity Hall, Cambridge.

Reginald McKenna rowed bow in the winning Cambridge boat in the 1887 Boat Race.

Reginald McKenna was elected at the 1895 general election as Member of Parliament for North Monmouthshire.

In December 1905 Reginald McKenna was appointed, in preference to Winston Churchill, as Financial Secretary to the Treasury.

Reginald McKenna then served in the Liberal Cabinets of Campbell-Bannerman and Asquith as President of the Board of Education, First Lord of the Admiralty, and Home Secretary.

Reginald McKenna was considered methodical and efficient, but his opponents thought him priggish, prissy and lacking in charisma.

Reginald McKenna's estimates were submitted to unprecedented scrutiny by the 'economists' David Lloyd George and Churchill.

In 1907 James Bryce was appointed Ambassador to the US, Augustine Birrell replaced him as Chief Secretary for Ireland, and Reginald McKenna succeeded Birrell as President of the Board of Education.

Reginald McKenna was responsible for such reforms as the introduction of free places in secondary schools and the bestowing upon local authorities the powers to deal with the health and physical needs of children, and was promoted to the cabinet as First Lord of the Admiralty only a year later.

At the Admiralty Reginald McKenna started the Labour Exchange Bill from May 1909, a policy later associated with Churchill, in an effort to relieve unemployment.

Nonetheless Reginald McKenna was on the Cabinet finance committee that discussed Lloyd George's budget proposal of 7 March 1910, and on 12 April refused to contemplate the chancellor's proposed defence cuts.

Reginald McKenna held his seat in the General Elections of 1910, and kept his post at the Admiralty in Asquith's government.

Reginald McKenna had attended the Sub-Committee of the Committee of Imperial Defence on 17 December 1908 and 23 March 1909, during which periods he had fully comprehended the gravity of the naval threat.

Reginald McKenna attended the famous meeting on 23 August 1911, chaired by the Prime Minister, at which Brigadier-General Wilson, over naval opposition, persuaded ministers to deploy an expeditionary force to France in the event of war.

Reginald McKenna had little support in Cabinet, and Asquith, Richard Haldane, and Churchill wanted the latter to replace him at the Admiralty.

In total Reginald McKenna had 'laid the keels' of 18 new battleships that contributed mightily to the British fleet that would fight at the Battle of Jutland in 1916.

Reginald McKenna commenced the Dreadnought Arms Race: the fundamental strategic basis was for a vast fleet, large enough to intimidate Germany to decline to fight.

Reginald McKenna accepted his move to the Home Office in October 1911 partly because he had recovered from an appendicitis operation.

Reginald McKenna was one of numerous Cabinet appointments at the time which, according to historian Duncan Tanner, "pushed the party still further to the left".

Reginald McKenna enthusiastically supported the minimum wage bill in principle, but partly to prevent 'civil war' in the coalfields.

Reginald McKenna made a radical proposal to let prisoners out on short licence, which he sponsored to deal with militant suffragists, a bill unanimously approved by cabinet.

Reginald McKenna himself was categorical as to their innocence of the share dealings.

Reginald McKenna made it clear that the Government could not secure any contracts for favours whether from Marconi or Lord Cowdray.

Reginald McKenna had been receiving messages of grave concern from Irish leader John Redmond.

Charles Masterman, Runciman and Reginald McKenna all wanted to stall the Kaiser for invaluable time.

Reginald McKenna refused to allow the publication of the sinking of HMS Audacious; in the event it was 'leaked' to The Evening News anyway.

Reginald McKenna disliked the autocratic and dismissive Lord Kitchener, appointed Secretary of State for War at the start of the war.

On 5 March 1915 Reginald McKenna reported that the Ritz Carlton Hotel, New York was being used as a spy network to inform on British intelligence; the government, determined to prevent the USA entering the war on Germany's side, informed Washington.

Reginald McKenna supported Asquith and gradually fell out with Lloyd George.

Reginald McKenna was a Teetotaller, something he had impressed upon the King was necessary for good government.

Reginald McKenna's Majesty "took the pledge" for the duration of the war, an example which Lord Chancellor Haldane felt he had to follow for the remainder of his time in office.

Reginald McKenna's asceticism won few new friends, so that when the end came for his career it was both dramatic and complete.

The Reginald McKenna duties applied to cinematographic film; clocks and watches; motorcars and motorcycles; and musical instruments.

Reginald McKenna fell out with Lord Cunliffe, Governor of the Bank of England.

Reginald McKenna nevertheless saw the state as having an important role in society, a sentiment that he shared with Asquith.

Sir John Simon, Liberal Home Secretary and an ally of Reginald McKenna, resigned over the conscription of bachelors in January 1916.

Reginald McKenna knew that for Asquith to remain in office he had to move towards conscription, whether he liked it or not; if he did not, the Tories would topple the government.

At a decisive meeting on 4 December 1916 Reginald McKenna tried to persuade Asquith to sack Lloyd George to save the government.

Reginald McKenna retired into opposition upon the fall of Asquith at the end of 1916.

Reginald McKenna lost his seat in the 1918 general election and became a non-executive member of the board of the Midland Bank at the invitation of the chairman, Liberal MP Sir Edward Holden.

Reginald McKenna's refusal was partly because he wanted to promote an alliance between Bonar Law and Asquith, who was still official leader of the Liberal Party.

Reginald McKenna used his status as chairman of one of the big five British banks to argue that monetary policy could be used to achieve domestic macroeconomic objectives.

Reginald McKenna was certainly a technocrat but did not want to be Prime Minister although he might conceivably have been offered the post.

Reginald McKenna continued to write economic reports for Whitehall and Westminster, but by August 1923, his political career had come to an end.

Reginald McKenna was the last of the Asquithians to die, in 1943.

Reginald McKenna was married in 1908 to Pamela Jekyll, younger daughter of Sir Herbert Jekyll and his wife Dame Agnes Jekyll, nee Graham.

Reginald McKenna was a talented financier, and a champion bridge player in his free time.

Reginald McKenna died in London on 6 September 1943, and was buried at St Andrew's Church in Mells, Somerset.

Reginald McKenna's wife died two months later, and is buried beside him.

Reginald McKenna was a regular client of Sir Edwin Lutyens who designed the Midland Bank headquarters in Poultry, London, and several branches.

Pamela Reginald McKenna was a high society hostess whose dinner parties charmed Asquith at their Lutyens-built townhouse in Smith Square.

Reginald McKenna's nephew Stephen McKenna was a popular novelist who published a biography of his uncle in 1948.