Now! Then! Ex-prime minister Asquith on the Yorkshireness of his then chief whip, Percy Illingworth (Bradford), who died this day of typhoid

Excerpt

He was in many ways a typical Yorkshireman: shrewd, resolute, resourceful, inclined by nature to be pugnacious, and capable of giving a good account of himself in any company either with his tongue or his fists. He was one of the straightest men I have ever known, and one of the most lovable. His counsel and support were invaluable in the trying times when what was called the “Curragh incident” made me feel it my duty to take over the War Office into my own hands. He was a stout party man, and had he lived I should have had great difficulty in persuading him to acquiesce in May, 1915, in the formation of the Coalition Government.

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

Abbreviations

Comment

In his tribute in the Commons a month after Illingworth’s death, Asquith was less geographically specific:

He was a man of stern, clean-cut convictions, indisposed by nature to compromise, with pronounced likes and dislikes, a manlike combustible temper, and with the full endowment of a Northern Englishman’s lust for battle and joy in the victory (Asquith 1915/02/03)

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Original

He was in many ways a typical Yorkshireman: shrewd, resolute, resourceful, inclined by nature to be pugnacious, and capable of giving a good account of himself in any company either with his tongue or his fists. He was one of the straightest men I have ever known, and one of the most lovable. His counsel and support were invaluable in the trying times when what was called the “Curragh incident” made me feel it my duty to take over the War Office into my own hands. He was a stout party man, and had he lived I should have had great difficulty in persuading him to acquiesce in May, 1915, in the formation of the Coalition Government.

118 words.