Lloyd George killed our dog

Lloyd George killed our dog. Honest. My mum still has a tea-cup that he sent to my grandmother after his car ran over her dog when she was a kid in Dolgellau. The reason I bring up the last well-known Liberal to rule the world is that I have just read the following in Giles Milton’s excellent Lost Paradise, which is about the despoilation of Smyrna in 1922. 

‘As the food was being served, he (Lloyd-George) turned to the footman and called for champagne. Once everyone’s glass had been charged, he proposed a toast. ‘I drink to the success of the allies,’ he said, ‘the representative of one of whom we have here tonight, and may the Turk be turned out of Europe and sent to …  where he came from. 

‘As the champagne flowed, Lloyd George grew less and less guarded in his comments.’

Hold on a moment, isn’t this the same Lloyd George who said ‘Drink is doing us more damage than all the German submarines put together.’ Wasn’t it under his watch that pub times became more restrictive? A case of do as we say not do as we do? 

Can anyone shed any light on whether the man that killed my grandmother’s dog was a toper or not?

• BTW if you want a beery thing, I’m sitting in the garden with a glass of Moor’s JJJ, a beer I will walk over hot coals to drink. It’s magnificent, as was the Proper Job to be had at Woods at lunchtime.