page_title: Helensburgh
section_title: Bonar Law
hierarchical_section_title: Helensburgh / Notable people / Bonar Law
caption_attribution_description: English: Portrait photograph of British Prime Minister Andrew Bonar Law by Elliott &amp; Fry.
context_page_description: Helensburgh is a town within the Helensburgh and Lomond Area of Argyll and Bute Council, Scotland. It also has its own Community Council. Until local government reorganisation in 1996 Helensburgh was in Dumbarton District and hence also in Strathclyde Region; prior to 1975 it was a small burgh with its own town council within Dunbartonshire.
  In the Middle Ages it was within the Earldom of Lennox, an area sometimes referred to as the Lennox. It lies on the north shore of the Firth of Clyde and the mouth of the Gareloch is close to the western boundary of the town.
context_section_description: Former British Prime Minister Andrew Bonar Law resided in Helensburgh from the age of 12, following the death of his mother and his father remarrying in his native Canada. He lived with relatives, the Kidstons, in the town and later entered the iron trade in Glasgow.
  He was elected as a Member of Parliament in Glasgow and served as Chancellor of the Exchequer during the First World War. He was invited to become Prime Minister by King George V, deferring in favour of David Lloyd George and serving in his coalition government. In 1922, he became Prime Minister, serving for six months before resigning following a diagnosis of throat cancer and dying in London six months later. Bonar Law was later described by H. H. Asquith, another former Prime Minister, as "the unknown Prime Minister".
  His wife had predeceased him in 1909 and is buried in Helensburgh Cemetery. Despite his wishes to be buried alongside her, his family were persuaded to have his ashes buried in Westminster Abbey. He and his wife are commemorated in a window in Helensburgh Parish Church, as are also two of their sons who died in the First World War.
  So, although he became known as "the unknown Prime Minister", he reached an office which less than a hundred people every century manage to reach, and so he richly deserves to be known as one of Helensburgh's most famous residents.
caption: Former British Prime Minister, Bonar Law
exif: {}