Staff with Gwynedd Council Museums, which operates the Lloyd George site, have also undergone “anti-racist” training funded by the Welsh Government as part of the same programme to alter how history is presented.
Work will look to update and modernise displays inside the museum, which is formed of two sites: a main gallery building, and the cottage where Lloyd George was born in 1863. He died in his home village in 1945.
There is no finalised plan for new displays on Lloyd George, who has been criticised in recent decades for his colonial policies, but advisers working on the project advocate for more black and minority ethnic stories to be told.
It is understood that consultancy was provided by the project Re:Collections, run by the Association of Independent Museums, which has been awarded grant funding by the Welsh Government.
Re:Collections advises museums to ensure that “BAME perspectives and experiences are treated as a natural part of the histories that museums document and explore”.
It also advises museums to ensure “collections, activities and exhibitions present a greater diversity of BAME perspectives, histories and experiences”.
The museums service for the Plaid Cymru-run council has indicated that “if we come across any LGBT histories connected to the story we tell”, that they would also be included in future displays.
Pillars of future welfare state
Lloyd George was a progressive politician, and as Chancellor introduced pillars of the future welfare state, including state pensions in 1909.
He became prime minister in 1916 during a low-point in the First World War following the bloody Battle of the Somme.
Following Britain’s victory in 1918, he set out a series of reforms, granting women the vote for the first time, established the first ministry dedicated to public health, and rolled out unemployment payments for most workers.
As prime minister when the British Empire was at its largest, Lloyd George was also involved in colonial ventures, and his government put down the Iraqi Revolt of 1920 in a campaign which made use of aerial bombing.
This led several Left-wing figures, including playwright Harold Pinter, to protest against a statue of Lloyd George being erected in Parliament Square in 2007. Pinter branded the monument a “disgrace”.
At the unveiling, the then Prince Charles said Lloyd George was “one of the greatest social reformers and war leaders of the 20th century”.
