Herbert Asquith (1852-1928) was marked out early on as the intellectual star of the Liberal party. He entered Parliament in 1886, and became home Secretary in Gladstone's 1892 government; he turned down chances to lead the Liberal party in the 1890s, and instead took the chancellorship of the exchequer when the Liberals returned to power under Campbell-Bannerman at the end of 1905. As chancellor he initiated the programme of social and fiscal reforms which his successor, David Lloyd-George, took much further. Asquith was already deputising for Campbell-Bannerman in the Commons during the premier's illnesses, and when he resigned in 1908, Asquith uneventfully succeeded him. The beginning of the First World War in 1914 spelt the end of Asquith's premiership: he brought the Conservatives into the government in 1915, but, seen as an ineffective war Leader by his colleagues, he was ousted in the following year. He retained the Leadership of the Liberal party through its post-war decline, but in 1924 he took a peerage and two years later resigned.