Letter from David Lloyd George (1863 - 1945) to Edward Carson (1854 - 1935) reiterating his stance that Ulster will not merge with the rest of Ireland at the end of he provisional period. David Lloyd George served as Minister of Munitions during the Shell Crisis of 1915. His role as Minister won him wide-spread support across Britain. He took over the role of Secretary of State for War on 6 June 1916, after the death of Horatio Herbert Kitchener, (1850–1916) who died on board the cruiser HMS Hampshire when it was sunk by a German mine on 5 June 1916, while on course to Russia. Following the collapse of Asquith's government, Lloyd George became Prime Minister of the coalition government in December 1916.Edward Carson (1854-1935) was a prominent Unionist Politican. Originally a practicing solicitor from Dublin, Carson's opposition to the proposed third Home Rule bill made him the figure head of Unionism throughout the island. He was the centrepiece of the speaking tour that culminated in Ulster Day (28 September 1912), when just under half a million signed Ulster's solemn league and covenant pledging to use ‘all means which may be found necessary to defeat the present conspiracy to set up a home rule parliament in Dublin’. Carson inaugurated the Larne gunrunning in 1914 which armed the UVF, many of whom Carson would encourage to join the British Army throughout the First World War.