No central archive of the Liberal National party appears to have survived. The collection previously noted as being in the possession of Lord Drumalbyn (Niall Macpherson, 1908–87, National Liberal and later National Liberal and Conservative MP for Dumfriesshire 1945–63) cannot now be traced. Among important constituency papers attention is drawn to those of the Bradford Liberal National Association (Bradford District Archives), the Walsall Liberal Association (Walsall Local History Centre), the Huddersfield Liberal Association (Kirklees District Archives), the Denbighshire Conservative Association (Denbighshire Record Office) and the Wrexham Conservative Association (National Library of Wales). There is also important material in the Conservative Party Archive (Bodleian Library, Oxford).
Significant information may be found in the private papers of Sir John Simon (Bodleian Library, Oxford), Walter Runciman (University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne Library), Leslie Hore-Belisha (Churchill Archives Centre, Cambridge), Clement Davies (National Library of Wales), Sir Henry Morris-Jones (Flintshire Record Office), William Mabane (Kirklees District Archives), Sir Herbert Janes (Bedfordshire Record Office), Alderman Edward Hughes (Denbighshire Record Office) and Lord Woolton (Bodleian Library, Oxford). Among published diaries there are N. Smart (ed.), The Diaries and Letters of Robert Bernays, 1932–1939 (Lampeter, 1996) and R.J. Minney (ed.), The Private Papers of Hore-Belisha (London, 1960). Much valuable information may be derived from the successive periodicals published by the party, namely The Liberal National Magazine and The Liberal before the Second World War and New Horizon after it. The memoirs of prominent Liberal Nationals include Viscount Simon, Retrospect (London, 1952), Geoffrey Shakespeare, Let Candles Be Brought In (London, 1949), Sir Henry Morris-Jones, Doctor in the Whips’ Room (London, 1955) and David Renton, The Spice of Life (London, 2006). Among biographies, see D. Dutton, Simon: A Political Biography of Sir John Simon (London, 1992) and A. Wyburn-Powell, Clement Davies: Liberal Leader (London, 2003). There are useful entries on a number of Liberal Nationals, including Walter Runciman, Ernest Brown, Leslie Hore-Belisha, Geoffrey Shakespeare, George Lambert, Lord Teviot and Jack Maclay in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford, 2004).
There is as yet remarkably little secondary literature specifically on the Liberal National party. But see G. Goodlad, ‘The Liberal Nationals, 1931–1940: the problems of a party in partnership government’, Historical Journal 38, 1 (1995), N. Cott, ‘Tory cuckoos in the Liberal nest?’, Journal of Liberal Democrat History 25 (1999–2000), I. Hunter, ‘The Final Quest for Liberal Reunion 1943–46’, Journal of Liberal Democrat History 32 (2001), J. Reynolds, ‘Impacts of Reunification?’, Journal of Liberal Democrat History 32 (2001) and, by the present author, ‘John Simon and the Post-War National Liberal Party: an Historical Postscript’, Historical Journal 32, 2 (1989), ‘1932: A Neglected Date in the History of the Decline of the British Liberal Party’, Twentieth Century British History 14, 1 (2003), ‘William Mabane and Huddersfield Politics, 1931–1947’, Northern History XL111, 1 (2006) and ‘Liberalism in Crisis: Liberals, Liberal Nationals and the Politics of North-East Wales 1931–5’, Welsh History Review 23, 1 (2006). The origins and early history of the National Government have been expertly traced by P. Williamson, National Crisis and National Government: British Politics, the Economy and Empire 1926–1932 (Cambridge, 1992) and S. Ball, Baldwin and the Conservative Party (New Haven, 1988). N. Smart, The National Government, 1931–1940 (Basingstoke, 1999) offers a serviceable study of the government as a whole. There is valuable material in T. Stannage’s account of the 1935 General Election, Baldwin Thwarts the Opposition (London, 1980), while the whole issue of multi-party government and co-operation is thoughtfully discussed in G.R. Searle, Country Before Party: Coalition and the Idea of ‘National Government’ in Modern Britain 1885–1987 (Harlow, 1995). The National Liberal party’s relations with the Conservative party are considered by J. Ramsden, The Age of Balfour and Baldwin 1902–1940 (London 1978) and The Age of Churchill and Eden 1940–1957 (London, 1995) and in M.D. Kandiah’s unpublished thesis ‘Lord Woolton’s Chairmanship of the Conservative Party, 1945–1951’ (University of Exeter, 1992).