Has there ever been a UK election where the leader of the winning party did not win his seat?

by Beccorban

If so, what happened? Did they simply choose a new leader?

JFVarlet

No, though Herbert Asquith did lose his seat in the 1918 election as nominal leader of the Liberals (previously the largest party and until 1916 the majority government), but that was a very unusual situation. In 1916 they'd formed a War Coalition, which saw Asquith replaced as Prime Minister by David Lloyd George, and all the major parties split into pro-Coalition and anti-Coalition factions. When the 1918 election came around, Asquith was nominally still leader of the whole Liberal Party, though de facto he was only leader of the anti-Coalition Liberals, with Lloyd George leading the pro-Coalition faction. The former did very badly, and Asquith lost his seat.