DR Alexander Waugh (Letters, December 20), is right to remind us of that often-forgotten and under-appreciated Glasgow statesman, and High School alumnus, Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, generally known as CB.

 

As Prime Minister in the great reforming government of 1905-08, and described in a recent biography as "Britain's first and only radical Prime Minister", his role was crucial in establishing our welfare state. The first measures often associated with David Lloyd George were in fact introduced by CB's Chancellor, Herbert Asquith.

Lord (David) Steel has said that CB "led the way" for Asquith and Lloyd George to follow, both of whom, even by the extravagant language of that era, paid glowing tributes on his untimely death in 1908.

Also, in one of the great "what-ifs" of history, if CB had not died in office at the peak of his influence, who knows in this centenary year - with his long experience at the Admiralty and War Office from 1871; his overseeing of Sir Edward Grey's Entente with Russia; his fluency in French, Italian and German; his annual two -month vacation in France and Marienbad; and his platform of "peace, retrenchment and reform" - whether he might have dealt with the developing European tensions more successfully than Grey did under Asquith.

Certainly, having granted South Africa self-government after the Boer War tragedy, he was better placed than any to complete Gladstone's mission "to pacify Ireland" and implement the Liberal policy of Home Rule for Scotland.

John Birkett,

12 Horseleys Park,

St Andrews.