Matthew Johnson is an Associate Professor in modern British History at the University of Durham. His research explores the impact of war on politics and society, and he has particular interests in problems of militarism, civil-military relations, and political representation. His is the author of Militarism and the British Left (2013), and is currently working on a study of Members of Parliament who served in the armed forces during the two world wars.
On 5 December 1916 Herbert Henry Asquith, the Liberal Prime Minister who had governed Britain for more than eight years, resigned, and fellow Liberal David Lloyd George subsequently became Prime Minister, with Conservative support. This was a remarkable development, as Dr Matthew Johnson explains.