PRIME MINISTERS 07


06


William Ewart Gladstone (1809-1898) Although born in England, Gladstone’s parents were Scottish; his father was from Leith and his mother was from Dingwall. In a political career that spanned over sixty years, Gladstone was Prime Minister for no less than four terms (1868-74, 1880-85, 1886 and 1892-4), more than any other person. He was also Britain’s oldest PM, forming his last government when he was 82. He was a hugely popular politician, and was known affectionately as the GOM – ‘Grand Old Man’, or according to his rival Disraeli, ‘God’s Only Mistake’.


08


ALEXANDER FREDERICK DOUGLAS-HOME, 14TH EARL OF HOME (1903-1995) As well as having the second briefest term in offi ce of the twentieth century (from October 1863 to October 1864), Douglas-Home is also notable for being the last Prime Minister to hold offi ce while being a member of the House of Lords, prior to renouncing his earldom and taking his place in the Commons. Between 1970


and 1974 he served in Ted Heath’s cabinet, before returning to the Lords as a life peer.


Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (1953-) Born in Edinburgh in 1953, ‘Tony’ Blair boarded at Fettes College before reading law at St John’s College, Oxford – after an unsuccessful year attempting to make it as a rock music promoter. Blair joined the Labour Party in 1975 and became MP for Sedgefi eld in 1983. From then his rise was rapid and he became leader after John Smith’s sudden death in 1994. In 1997, aged 43, Blair became the second youngest Prime Minister and carried on to become the Labour Party’s longest serving Prime Minister (1997-2007).


WWW.SCOTTISHFIELD.CO.UK 59


ANDREW BONAR LAW (1858-1923) Born in New Brunswick, Canada, Law is the only British PM to have been born outside the British Isles. In 1870 Law moved to Helensburgh, leaving school at sixteen to work at the family fi rm, a merchant bank in Glasgow. He then became a successful iron merchant before entering politics in 1897. He quickly claimed a space on the Conservative front bench, becoming party leader in 1911. He briefl y became Prime Minister in October 1922 but resigned seven months later after being diagnosed with terminal throat cancer.


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09


JAMES RAMSAY MACDONALD (1866-1937) MacDonald was one of the principal founders of the Labour Party, and the fi rst ever Labour Party Prime Minister, fi rst in 1924 and again from 1929 to 1931. Widely recognised as a powerful orator, he was also a lifelong pacifi st. MacDonald was expelled from the Labour Party after forming a National Government with the Conservatives in 1931.


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