BBC - History - British History in depth: Prime Ministers and Politics Timeline On This Day Prime Ministers and Politics Timeline Do you know which prime minister brought 'fallen women' to 10 Downing Street? Or which one fought a duel? Or who was known as 'the Goat'? Take a political journey through nearly 300 years of high ideals and low cunning, from Gordon Brown to the first man to hold prime ministerial powers, Robert Walpole. Margaret Thatcher Conservative, 1979 - 1990 Britain's first female prime minister came to power with the country descending into industrial and economic chaos. A relatively inexperienced politician, she nonetheless adopted a personal style of indomitable self-confidence and brooked no weakness in herself or her colleagues. Derisively dubbed the 'Iron Lady' by the Soviet press, she wore the moniker with pride. Her government's free-market policies included trade liberalisation, deregulation, sweeping privatisation, breaking the power of the unions, focus on the individual and the creation of an 'enterprise culture'. 'Thatcherism' has had a profound and lasting economic and social impact on Britain, and still sharply divides opinion to this day.

The first PM to serve three consecutive terms (including two 'landslide' victories) she was eventually toppled by her own party following the disastrous imposition of a 'poll tax'. Nonetheless, she is generally considered to be one of the best peace time prime ministers of the 20th Century. James Callaghan Labour, 1976 - 1979 Callaghan inherited the office of prime minister following the surprise resignation of Harold Wilson. With only a tiny parliamentary majority to support him, he faced an increasingly one-sided confrontation with organised labour in the form of rampant strike action. Things came to a head in the so-called 'Winter of Discontent', a phrase from Shakespeare borrowed by Callaghan himself to describe the events leading up to February 1979. Britain was 'strikebound', with public servants staging mass walk outs, leaving food and fuel supplies undelivered, rubbish uncollected and - most notoriously - bodies unburied. Things became so bad in Hull it was dubbed 'the second Stalingrad'. The tabloid press has since been accused of overstating the severity of the situation (and wrongly quoting him as saying 'Crisis?

What Crisis?') but it was enough at the time to sound the death knell for Callaghan's government later in the same year. Harold Wilson Labour, 1974 - 1976 In March 1974, Wilson became prime minister for the third time at the head of a minority government, following the first hung parliament (one where no party holds a majority) for 45 years. Often described as a wily fixer and negotiator, it took all of his skills to hold on to power in the face of economic and industrial turmoil. His party was also sharply divided, with many Labour members of parliament (MPs) bitter about Wilson's manoeuvring against his colleagues. He called another general election in October 1974, thereby ending the shortest parliament since 1681, and was returned to office with a majority of just three seats. He presided over a referendum on Britain's membership of the European Economic Community (EEC), and a collapse in the value of the pound which prompted a humiliating 'rescue operation' by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Exhausted, Wilson resigned saying 'politicians should not go on and on'.

Edward Heath Conservative, 1970 - 1974 Heath succeeded in taking Britain into the European Economic Community (EEC), the precursor to the European Union, despite two previous failed attempts by Britain to gain entry, in 1961 and 1967. But his government was dogged by torrid industrial relations and recurrent economic crises. Things came to a head in January 1974, when industry was put on a 'three-day week' to conserve fuel. Fuel was in dangerously short supply following a combination of domestic industrial action (coal miners on 'work-to-rule') and a quadrupling of prices by Middle Eastern oil exporting nations in the wake of Israel's victory in the Yom Kippur War. In March 1974, Heath called a general election on the question of 'who governs Britain?' - the unions, or the elected representatives of the people. To his surprise the result was a hung parliament (one where no party holds a majority) and he was ousted.

Harold Wilson Labour, 1964 - 1970 In 1964, 'Good old Mr Wilson' - an avuncular, pipe-smoking figure - came to power amid much excitement and optimism. He had promised a 'new Britain' forged in 'the white heat of a second industrial revolution'. In reality, his administration never escaped from a cycle of economic crises, vainly battling against further devaluations of the pound. Wilson won a second general election in 1966 (the year England lifted the football World Cup) making him the first Labour PM to serve consecutive terms. In 1967, the government failed in its application for membership of the European Economic Community (EEC) and was also finally forced to devalue sterling. The electorate became disillusioned with Wilson, who lost narrowly to the Conservatives in the 1970 election. Sir Alec Douglas-Home, Conservative, 1963 - 1964 In 1963, a change in the law allowed hereditary peers to disclaim (or 'drop') their titles, which in turn meant they were able to become members of parliament (MPs).

The only peer ever to do so and become prime minister was Douglas-Home, formerly the 14th Earl of Home, who assumed the office when Harold Macmillan retired due to ill health. He was the first prime minister in the post-war period not to win his own mandate (be elected or re-elected by popular vote). Harold Macmillan, Conservative, 1957 - 1963 Macmillan came to power at a time when Britain was confronting its loss of world-power status and facing mounting economic troubles. Nonetheless, he successfully associated the Conservatives with a new age of affluence and the burgeoning consumer revolution. But his oft-quoted assurance 'You've never had it so good' actually finishes 'What is beginning to worry some of us is, is it too good to be true?'. His government is principally remembered for the so-called 'Profumo Affair', a sex scandal that erupted in 1963 and contributed to the Conservatives' defeat at the general election the following year. Secretary of State for War John Profumo had been having an affair with a showgirl who was also seeing the Soviet naval attaché to London - a serious transgression at the height of the Cold War.

After lying to the House of Commons, Profumo admitted the truth in June 1963 and resigned in disgrace. Macmillan resigned due to ill health in October the same year. Sir Anthony Eden, Conservative, 1955 - 1957 When Sir Winston Churchill retired due to ill health, Eden took over as prime minister. Many years before, Churchill had anointed Eden as his successor, but later acknowledged he had made 'a great mistake'. His opinion was born out as the new PM blundered into the Suez Crisis. Following Egypt's decision to nationalise the Suez canal, Britain (the principal shareholder), France and Israel invaded in October 1956 to near-universal condemnation and the threat of nuclear strikes by the Soviet Union. Within a week, Britain was forced into an embarrassing climb-down. Humiliated and in ill-health, Eden left the country for a holiday at the Jamaican home of James Bond author, Ian Fleming. He returned in mid-December to the sarcastic newspaper headline: 'Prime Minister Visits Britain'. He resigned on 9 January 1957.

Sir Winston Churchill, Conservative, 1951 - 1955 Churchill's desire to return to power, despite his assured place in history, had much to do with his belligerent refusal to accept that the British public had rejected him in 1945. Now the electorate was seeking to put behind it the hardships and privations of the post-war years under Clement Atlee and return to a more traditional idea of society - so-called 'housing and red meat' issues. Churchill tried - and failed - to recreate the dynamism of his wartime administration, and he struggled to adjust to the political realities of the Cold War, preferring direct action and personal diplomacy to proxy wars and cabinet consensus. His refusal to retire, despite suffering a stroke, caused mounting frustrations among his colleagues. At the age of 80, he finally conceded to his failing health and stepped down, although he continued to serve as an MP. Clement Attlee, Labour, 1945 - 1951 World War Two had sharply exposed the imbalances in Britain's social, economic and political structures. For a population that had sacrificed so much, a return to the pre-war status quo was simply not an option.

In 1942, a report by Sir William Beveridge, chairman of a Ministry of Health committee, had advocated a system of national insurance, comprehensive welfare for all and strategies to maintain full employment. The 'Beveridge Report' formed the basis of Labour pledges in the 1945 election and resulted in a landslide victory. Attlee's government successfully harnessed the wartime sense of unity to create the National Health Service, a national insurance scheme, a huge programme of nationalisation (including the Bank of England and most heavy industries) and a massive building programme. He also made Britain a nuclear-armed power. These sweeping reforms resulted in a parliamentary consensus on key social and economic policies that would last until 1979. But by 1951, a row over plans to charge for spectacles and false teeth had split the cabinet. Party disunity and a struggling economy contributed to Attlee - cruelly dubbed by Churchill 'a modest man with much to be modest about' - losing the next election.

Winston Churchill, Conservative, 1940 - 1945 By the time Churchill was asked to lead the coalition government in 1940, he had already enjoyed colourful and controversial careers as a journalist, soldier and politician. He had twice 'crossed the floor' of the House of Commons, the first time defecting from Conservative to Liberal and serving as First Lord of the Admiralty during the early years of World War One. Demoted in the wake of the slaughter at Gallipoli, he preferred to resign and take up a commission fighting on the Western Front. Despite standing against the Conservatives in a 1924 by-election, Churchill was welcomed back into the party that same year and served as Chancellor of the Exchequer for five years under Stanley Baldwin. But personal disagreements and his vehement anti-Fascism would lead to nearly a decade in the political wilderness. Following Neville Chamberlain's resignation in 1940, Churchill finally realised his 'destiny' and accepted the office of prime minister. Promising nothing more than 'blood, toil, tears and sweat', he almost single-handedly restored Britain's desire to fight on in adversity.

Despite Churchill's enormous personal popularity, by 1945 the electorate no longer wanted a war leader and the Conservatives lost by a landslide. Neville Chamberlain, Conservative, 1937 - 1940 Rarely has the hyperbole of politicians been as resoundingly exposed as when Neville Chamberlain returned from his 1938 negotiations with Adolf Hitler, brandishing his famous 'piece of paper' and declaring the agreement it represented to be 'peace for our time'. Within a year, Germany had invaded Poland and Britain was plunged into World War Two. With his policy of 'appeasement' towards Hitler utterly bankrupted, Chamberlain resigned in 1940. He was replaced by Winston Churchill. When the issue of honours was discussed, he stated that he wanted to die 'plain Mr Chamberlain, like my father'. His father, Joseph Chamberlain, was the politician who split the Conservatives in 1903 by pushing for tariffs on imported goods. It was this very issue that convinced Churchill to defect to the Liberals, with whom he first achieved high office. Chamberlain died six months after resigning.

Stanley Baldwin, Conservative, 1935 - 1937 When Baldwin returned to power in 1935, the financial crisis sparked by the Wall Street Crash six years before appeared to be over. It was to be swiftly replaced by a constitutional crisis brought about by Edward VIII's desire to marry a twice-divorced American, Wallis Simpson. Baldwin advised Edward that Mrs Simpson would not be accepted as Queen by the public, and that the king could not condone divorce as head of the Church of England. The king proposed a 'morganatic' marriage, whereby Mrs Simpson would become his consort, but not Queen. The government rejected the idea and threatened to resign if the king forced the issue. The story then broke in the press, to general disapproval by the public. Rather than break the engagement, Edward abdicated on 11 December 1936. Credited with saving the monarchy, Baldwin is also condemned for failing to begin re-arming when it became clear that Nazi Germany was building up its armed forces.

Ramsay MacDonald, Labour, 1929 - 1935 MacDonald began his second term at the head of a minority government (one that does not have an outright majority) and with the economy in deep crisis. Britain was still in the grip of the Great Depression and unemployment soon soared to two million. With fewer people able to pay tax, revenues had fallen as demand for unemployment benefits had soared. Unable to meet the deficit, by 1931 it was being proposed that benefits and salaries should be cut. Labour ministers rejected the plan as running counter to their core beliefs. MacDonald went to the king, George V, to proffer his resignation. George suggested MacDonald to try and form a 'national government' or coalition of all the parties. (This is the last recorded direct political intervention by a British monarch.) The National Government was formed, with MacDonald as prime minister, but Stanley Baldwin, leader of the Conservative Party, the de facto 'power behind the throne'. MacDonald is still considered by many in the Labour Party as their worst political traitor.

Stanley Baldwin, Conservative, 1924 - 1929 In May 1926, the Trades Union Congress called for a general walkout in support of a coal miners' protest against threatened wage cuts. It was the first and, to date, only general strike in British history. The strike affected key industries, such as gas, electricity and the railways, but ended after just nine days due to lack of public backing and well-organised emergency measures by Baldwin's government. Far from succeeding in its aims, the General Strike actually led to a decline in trade union membership and the miners ended up accepting longer hours and less pay. It also gave impetus to the 1927 Trade Disputes Act, which curtailed workers' ability to take industrial action. Baldwin's government also extended the vote to women over 21 and passed the Pensions Act, but eventually fell as a result of the Wall Street Crash of 1929, and the Depression that followed. Ramsay MacDonald, Labour, 1924 In 1924, MacDonald briefly became the first Labour prime minister, ending two centuries of Conservative - Liberal domination of British politics.

It was the first party to gain power with the express purpose of representing the voice of the 'working class'. An MP since 1906, MacDonald was respected as a thinker, but criticised by many within his own party as insufficiently radical (despite appointing the first female cabinet minister, Margaret Bondfield, in 1929). His opposition to World War One had made him deeply unpopular and he continually suffered a torrid time at the hands of the press. The publication by two newspapers of the 'Zinoviev letter' did much to damage his chances in the run up to the 1924 election. The letter (which he had seen but decided to keep secret) purported to be from Soviet intelligence and urged British communists to commit acts of sedition. He lost by a wide margin. The letter is now widely accepted to be a fraud. Stanley Baldwin, Conservative, 1923 During his very brief first term as prime minister, Stanley Baldwin bumped into an old school friend on a train.

Asked what he was doing these days, Baldwin replied: 'I am the prime minister.' Having come to power following Andrew Bonar Law's resignation, he called an election in the hope of gaining his own mandate (election by popular vote), but lost. Andrew Bonar Law, Conservative, 1922 - 1923 Branded the 'unknown prime minister' by his bitter political rival HH Asquith, Canadian-born Bonar Law is principally remembered for a single speech he made in 1922. The Conservatives had been part of a coalition under the Liberal prime minister, David Lloyd George, since 1916. Many were considering joining Lloyd George permanently, but Bonar Law's speech changed their minds. Instead, the Conservatives withdrew from the coalition and Lloyd George was forced to resign. The king, George V, asked Bonar Law to form a new government. Reluctantly he accepted, despite still grieving two sons killed in World War One and - as it turned out - dying of throat cancer. He held office for 209 days before resigning due to ill health.

He died six months later and was buried at Westminster Abbey, upon which Asquith commented: 'It is fitting that we should have buried the Unknown Prime Minister by the side of the Unknown Warrior.' David Lloyd George, Liberal, 1916 - 1922 Lloyd George guided Britain to victory in World War One and presided over the legislation that gave women the vote in 1918, but he is remembered as much for his private life as his public achievements. Nicknamed the 'Welsh Wizard', he was also less kindly known as 'The Goat' - a reference to his countless affairs. (Scandalously, he lived with his mistress and illegitimate daughter in London while his wife and other children lived in Wales.) The first 'working class' prime minister, Lloyd George had risen to prominence by solving the shortage of munitions on the Western Front. It was his desire to get to grips with the requirements of 'total war' that led to his split with then Liberal Prime Minister HH Asquith. It also brought him closer to the Conservatives, with whom he formed a new coalition government when Asquith resigned. That coalition would disintegrate six years later in the midst of a scandal.

Serious allegations were made that peerages had been sold for as much as £40,000. (One list even included John Drughorn, who had been convicted for trading with the enemy in 1915.) Lloyd George resigned in October 1922. HH Asquith, Liberal, 1908 - 1916 Asquith's government had shown great longevity, but disintegrated in the face of the unequalled disasters of the Somme and Gallipoli. With World War One going badly, fellow Liberal David Lloyd George had seized his chance and ousted Asquith. But in the preceding eight years, the two politicians had together overseen one of the greatest constitutional upheavals of the 20th Century and ushered in some of the predecessors of the Welfare State. Old Age Pensions were introduced and Unemployment Exchanges (job centres) were set up by then Liberal minister Winston Churchill. But when Lloyd George attempted to introduce a budget with land and income taxes disadvantageous to the 'propertied' classes, it was thrown out by the House of Lords.

Lloyd George branded the Lords 'Mr Balfour's poodle' (a reference to Conservative leader AJ Balfour's supposed control over the peers). The stand-off resulted in two general elections during 1910, the second of which the Liberals won with a 'peers against the people' campaign slogan. The budget was passed and, in 1911, the Parliament Act became law. The Act stated that the Lords could only veto a Commons bill twice, and instituted five-yearly general elections. Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, Liberal, 1905 - 1908 Arthur James Balfour, Conservative, 1902 - 1905 The nephew of the Marquess of Salisbury, Balfour had none of his uncle's political skills despite a long period of mentoring. He was instead something of a philosopher, publishing several weighty books, including 'A Defence of Philosophic Doubt', 'The Foundations of Belief', and 'Theism and Humanism'. Following a cabinet split Balfour resigned, gambling that the Liberals would be unable to form a government and that he would be returned to power. He was wrong.

Marquess of Salisbury, 1895 - 1902, Conservative Salisbury came to power for the third and final time when the weak Liberal government of the Earl of Rosebery fell. The political climate was one of rising resentment among the lower and middle classes, who demanded better conditions, social reforms and proper political representation. Bitterly divided, the Liberals would nonetheless experience a revival as they sought reforms of the squalid, disease-ridden British 'concentration camps' used in the Boer War. But it was the founding of the Labour Representation Committee (LRC) on 27 February 1900 that signalled a quiet, yet highly significant sea-change in British politics. This coalition of socialist groups would win two seats in the 1900 general election and 29 seats in 1906. Later that same year, the LRC changed its name to the Labour Party. Despite failing health, Salisbury agreed to stay on to help Edward VII manage the transition following the death of his mother, Queen Victoria. He resigned in favour of his nephew, AJ Balfour, in the first months of the new King's reign.

(Notably, he was the last serving prime minister to sit in the Lords.) Earl of Rosebery, Liberal, 1894 - 1895 Rosebury reluctantly became prime minister on the insistence of Queen Victoria, despite still mourning the loss of his wife. Desperate to have a minister she actually liked, Victoria had taken the unusual step of not consulting the outgoing PM, William Gladstone, about his successor. Rosebery, who always loved horseracing more than the 'evil smelling bog' of politics, was gratefully allowed to resign a year later. Notably, he is the only prime minister to have produced not one, but three Derby winners, in 1894, 1895 and 1905. (Despite his aversion to politics, Rosebery was no stranger to scandal. The Prince of Wales had reputedly once intervened to prevent him from being horsewhipped by the Marquess of Queensbury, with whose son Rosebery was believed to be having an affair.

Queensbury's other son was Lord Alfred Douglas, Oscar Wilde's lover.) William Ewart Gladstone, Liberal, 1892 - 1894 Gladstone's fourth term as prime minister was completely overshadowed by his insistence on introducing a third bill on the subject of 'Home Rule' for Ireland. The Conservative-dominated House of Lords threw the bill out and generally obstructed Liberal attempts to pass legislation. With his cabinet split and his health failing, the 'Grand Old Man' stepped down for the last time. The public was, in any case, exhausted with Home Rule and instead wanted reforms to working conditions and electoral practices. (Meanwhile, out on the political fringe, the Independent Labour Party had been set up under Keir Hardie to represent the working class and 'secure the collective ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange'. Leading figures in the party included George Bernard Shaw and Ramsay MacDonald.) Marquess of Salisbury, Conservative, 1886 - 1892 William Ewart Gladstone, Liberal, 1886 Gladstone came to power for the third time with 'Home Rule' (devolution) for Ireland still the dominant issue.

A bitter election battle had seen the Conservative government fall after Irish Nationalist members of parliament sided with the Liberals to defeat them. Instead, the Liberals formed a government in coalition with the Irish Nationalists and Gladstone tried to push through his second attempt at a Home Rule bill. The bill split the Liberals and Gladstone resigned. He lost the general election when the 'Liberal Unionists' - those who wanted Ireland to be ruled from Westminster - broke away from Gladstone's Liberals to fight the next election as a separate party. Most Liberal Unionists were of the 'Whig' or propertied faction of the party, which meant that when they went, they took most of the money with them. Marquess of Salisbury, Conservative, 1885 - 1886 William Ewart Gladstone, Liberal, 1880 - 1885 Having failed to force Gladstone to serve under Lord Hartington, Queen Victoria reluctantly accepted 'that half-mad firebrand' as prime minister for the second time. He had only lately returned to politics from retirement after his so-called 'Midlothian Campaign', in which he spoke to large crowds - a practice considered by polite Victorian society to be 'undignified'.

His campaign did much to discredit Disraeli's government and had clearly struck a chord with a public eager for social and electoral reform. The Ballot Act in 1872 had instituted secret ballots for local and general elections. Now came the Corrupt Practices Act, which set maximum election expenses, and the Reform and Redistribution Act, which effectively extended voting qualifications to another six million men. There were other burning issues. The United States had just overtaken Britain as the world's largest industrialised economy, and 'Home Rule' (devolution) for Ireland continued to dominate. In seeking support for Home Rule, James Parnell's Irish Nationalists sided with the Conservatives to defeat a Liberal budget measure. Gladstone resigned and was replaced by the 'caretaker government' of the Marquess of Salisbury. Benjamin Disraeli, Conservative, 1874 - 1880 After a brief taste of power in 1868, it had taken Disraeli six years to become prime minister again. He wasted no time in bringing about the social reforms he had envisaged in the 1840s as a member of the radical Young England group.

His Acts included measures to provide suitable housing and sewerage, to protect the quality of food, to improve workers rights (including the Climbing Boys Act which banned the use of juveniles as chimney sweeps) and to implement basic standards of education. In 1876, Disraeli was made the Earl of Beaconsfield, but continued to run the government from the Lords. He persuaded Queen Victoria to take the title 'Empress of India' in 1877 and scored a diplomatic success in limiting Russian influence in the Balkans at the Congress of Berlin in 1878. He retired in 1880, hoping to spend his remaining years adding more novels to his already impressive bibliography, but died just one year later. William Ewart Gladstone, Liberal, 1868 - 1874 Upon taking office for the first time Gladstone declared it his 'mission' to 'pacify Ireland' - a prize that was always to elude him. Nonetheless, Gladstone was to become the dominant Liberal politician of the late 19th Century, serving as prime minister four times despite earning Queen Victoria's antipathy early in his career.

(She famously complained that 'he always addresses me as if I were a public meeting'.) He had started his career as an ultra-conservative Tory, but would end it as a dedicated political reformer who did much to establish the Liberal Party's association with issues of freedom and justice. But Gladstone also had his idiosyncrasies. He made a regular habit of going to brothels and often brought prostitutes back to 10 Downing Street. In an era when politicians' private lives were very private, his embarrassed colleagues nonetheless felt it necessary to explain his behaviour as 'rescue work' to save 'fallen women'. Benjamin Disraeli, Conservative, 1868 On being asked to become prime minister following the resignation of the Earl of Derby, Disraeli announced: 'I have reached the top of the greasy pole'. He immediately struck up an excellent rapport with Queen Victoria, who approved of his imperialist ambitions and his belief that Britain should be the most powerful nation in the world. Unhappily for the Queen, Disraeli's first term ended almost immediately with an election victory for the Liberals.

Despite serving as an MP since 1837 and twice being Chancellor of the Exchequer, Disraeli's journey to the top was not without scandal. In 1835, he was forced to apologise in court after being accused of bribing voters in Maidstone. He also accrued enormous debts in his twenties through speculation on the stock exchange. Disraeli suffered a nervous breakdown as a result, but eventually paid off his creditors by marrying a rich widow, Mary Anne Wyndam Lewis, in 1839. Earl of Derby, Conservative, 1866 - 1868 The introduction of the 1867 Reform Act made Derby's third term as prime minister a major step in the true democratisation of Britain. The Act extended the vote to all adult male householders (and lodgers paying £10 rental or more, resident for a year or more) living in a borough constituency. Simply put, it created more than 1.5 million new voters. Versions of the Reform Act had been under serious discussion since 1860, but had always foundered on Conservative fears.

Many considered it a 'revolutionary' move that would create a majority of 'working class' voters for the first time. In proposing the Reform Act, Benjamin Disraeli, Conservative Leader of the House of Commons, had warned his colleagues that they would be labelled the 'anti-reform' party if they continued to resist. The legislation was passed, and also received the backing of the Liberals under their new leader, William Gladstone. Earl Russell, Whig, 1865 - 1866 Viscount Palmerston, Liberal, 1859 - 1865 Earl of Derby, Conservative, 1858 - 1859 The property qualification - the requirement that a man must own property in order to stand as a member of parliament - was finally abolished during Derby's second term as prime minister. It meant that members of parliament (MPs) were no longer drawn exclusively from the 'propertied' classes and could realistically be 'working class'. This fulfilled one of the six conditions set out by the Chartists - supporters of the Third Chartist Petition, written in 1838.

It demanded universal male suffrage (votes for all adult men), secret ballots (rather than traditional open ballots), annual parliamentary elections, equal electoral districts (some had less than 500 voters, while others had many thousands), the abolition of a property qualification for MPs, and payment for MPs (which would allow non-independently wealthy men to sit in parliament). Viscount Palmerston, Liberal , 1855 - 1858 Earl of Aberdeen, Tory, 1852 - 1855 It was something of a cruel irony that Aberdeen came to be blamed for blundering into the dreadful Crimean War. As plain George Hamilton Gordon he had made a successful career as a diplomat and had done much to normalise Britain's relationships with its powerful neighbours. Vivid reports from the front by WH Russel of the Times have since led to the Crimean being styled the first 'media war'. His reports publicised the squalor and disease that were claiming more soldiers' lives than the fighting, and inspired Florence Nightingale to volunteer and take the first 38 nurses out to treat the wounded. In 1855, Aberdeen conceded to his critics and resigned.

Earl of Derby, Conservative, 1852 Earl Russell, Whig, 1846 - 1851 Confronted by the Irish Potato Famine, declining trade and rising unemployment, Russell still managed to push through trade liberalisation measures and limits on women's working hours. A dedicated reformer, he nonetheless presided over the rejection of the Third Chartist Petition. Set out 1838, it demanded universal male suffrage (votes for all adult men), secret ballots (rather than traditional open ballots), annual parliamentary elections, equal electoral districts (some had less than 500 voters, while others had many thousands), the abolition of a property qualification for members of parliament (MPs), and payment for MPs (which would allow non-independently wealthy men to sit in parliament). Already rejected once by parliament in 1839, the petition had gathered 5 million signatures by 1848. Presented to parliament a second time, it was again rejected. The Chartist movement slowly petered out, even as revolutions blazed across Europe, but many of its aims were eventually realised.

Sir Robert Peel, Tory, 1841 - 1846 Peel's second term as prime minister was nothing short of tumultuous. Economic depression, rising deficits, Chartist agitation, famine in Ireland and Anti-Corn League protests crowded in. A raft of legislation was created to stabilise the economy and improve working conditions. The Factory Act regulated work hours (and banned children under eight from the workplace), the Railway Act provided for cheap, regular train services, the Bank Charter Act capped the number of notes the Bank of England could issue and the Mines Act prevented women and children from working underground. But a failed harvest in 1845 provided Peel with his greatest challenge. There was an increasing clamour for repeal of the Corn Laws, which forbade the import of cheap grain from overseas. Powerful vested interests in the Tory Party opposed such a move, but in the end Peel confronted them and called for repeal. After nearly six months of debate, and with the Tories split in two, the Corn Laws were finally repealed. Defeated on a separate issue, Peel resigned the same day, but was cheered by crowds as he left the Commons.

(The 'Peelite' faction of the Tories is widely recognised as the foundation of the modern Conservative.) Viscount Melbourne, Whig, 1835 - 1841 Sir Robert Peel, Tory, 1834 - 1835 Invited by William IV to form a new government, Peel immediately called a general election to strengthen his party. Campaigning on his so-called 'Tamworth Manifesto', Peel promised a respectful approach to traditional politics, combined with measured, controlled reform. He thereby signalled a significant shift from staunch, reactionary 'Tory' to progressive 'Conservative' politics. Crucially, he pledged to accept the 1832 Reform Act, which had recently increased the number of people eligible to vote. Peel won the election, but only narrowly. He resigned the following year after several parliamentary defeats. (Peel is probably best remembered for creating the Metropolitan Police in 1829 while Home Secretary in the Duke of Wellington's first government.

The nickname 'bobbies' for policemen is derived from his first name.) Duke of Wellington, Tory, 1834 Viscount Melbourne, Whig, 1834 In a bid to repress trade unions, Melbourne's government introduced legislation against 'illegal oaths'. As a result, the Grand National Consolidated Trades' Union failed. In March of the same year, six labourers were transported to Australia for seven years for attempting to provide a fund for workers in need. They became known as the 'Tolpuddle Martyrs'. Melbourne himself was notoriously laid back. When first asked to become prime minister he declared it 'a damned bore'. Having accepted, he would often refuse to allow his cabinet colleagues to leave the room, insisting 'I'm damned if I know what we agreed on. We must all say the same thing.' Earl Grey, Whig, 1830 - 1834 In June 1832, the Reform Act finally passed into law after 15 torrid months of debate. It extended the vote to just 7% of the adult male population, based on a series of lowered property qualifications.

Introduced in March 1831, the bill scraped through the Commons by a single vote, but was thrown out at the committee stage (when the bill is debated in detail - sometimes called the 'second reading'). Parliament was dissolved and the general election was fought on the single issue of the Reform Act - an unprecedented event in British political history. The Whigs won the election and passed the bill, but the House of Lords (with a majority of Tories) threw it out, sparking riots and civil disobedience across the country. With the spectre of France's bloody revolution clearly in mind, William IV eventually agreed to create 50 Whig peers to redress the balance in the Lords if the bill was rejected again. The Lords conceded and the Act was finally passed into law. After all his efforts, Earl Grey is principally remembered for giving his name to a fragrant blend of tea. Duke of Wellington, Tory, 1828 - 1830 Wellington's first term in office was dominated by the thorny subject of Catholic emancipation. Catholics were permitted to vote, but were not allowed to sit as members of parliament (MPs) and had restrictions on the property they could own.

Initially, the 'Iron Duke' was staunchly in favour of the status quo, but soon came to realise that emancipation might be the only way to end conflict arising from the Act of Union between Britain and Ireland in 1801. He became such an advocate that he even fought a duel with the 10th Earl of Winchilsea over the issue. The Earl had accused him of plotting the downfall of the 'Protestant constitution', but then backed down and apologised. They still had to go through the ritual of the duel at Battersea Fields, with both men deliberately firing high and wide. Wellington eventually drove the legislation through, opening the way for Catholic MPs. Viscount Goderich, Tory, 1827 - 1828 George Canning, Tory, 1827 Canning finally became prime minister after a long career in politics, only to die of pneumonia 119 days later. He had famously fought a duel in 1809 with his bitterest political rival, Lord Castlereagh, and was shot in the thigh. Castlereagh committed suicide with a penknife in 1822, after becoming depressed about his falling popularity.

Earl of Liverpool, Tory, 1812 - 1827 Liverpool is the second longest serving prime minister in British history (after Robert Walpole), winning four general elections and clinging on to power despite a massive stroke that incapacitated him for his last two years in office. Liverpool became PM at a time when Britain was emerging from the Napoleonic Wars and the first rumblings of 'working class' unrest were just beginning to be felt. Staunchly undemocratic in his outlook, Liverpool suppressed efforts to give the wider populace a voice. He was unrepentant when, in 1819, troops fired on a pro-reform mass meeting at St Peter's Fields in Manchester, killing eleven - the so-called 'Peterloo Massacre'. Trade unions were legalised by the 1825 Combination Act, but were so narrowly defined that members were forced to bargain over wages and conditions amid a minefield of heavy penalties for transgressions. (Liverpool's one concession to popular sentiment was in the trial of Queen Caroline on trumped up adultery charges. The legal victimisation of George IV's estranged wife, who was tried in parliament in 1820, brought her mass sympathy.

Mindful not to provoke the mob in the wake of Peterloo, the charges were eventually dropped.) Spencer Perceval, Tory, 1809 - 1812 Perceval bears a dubious distinction as the only British prime minister to be assassinated. As chancellor of the exchequer he moved in to 10 Downing Street in 1807, before rising to the office of prime minister two years later. His 12 young children - some born while he was in office - also lived in the PM's crowded residence. Against expectations, he had skilfully kept his government afloat for three years despite a severe economic downturn and continuing war with Napoleon. He was shot dead in the lobby of the House of Commons on 11 May 1812 by a merchant called John Bellingham who was seeking government compensation for his business debts. Perceval's body lay in 10 Downing Street for five days before burial. Bellingham gave himself up immediately. Tried for murder, he was found guilty and hanged a week later.

Duke of Portland, Tory, 1807 - 1809 Lord Grenville, Whig, 1806 - 1807 William Pitt 'the Younger', Tory, 1804 - 1806 Faced by a fresh invasion threat from Napoleon, George III once again turned to Pitt. A shadow of his former self due to failing health and suspected alcoholism, Pitt nonetheless accepted. He made alliances with Napoleon's continental rivals - Russia, Austria and Sweden - then, in 1805, Admiral Lord Nelson shattered French invasion hopes at the Battle of Trafalgar. Pitt did not have long to savour victory before Napoleon defeated both Russia and Austria to stand astride the whole of Europe. Heartsick, utterly exhausted, penniless and unmarried, Pitt died on 23 January 1806 at the age of 46. Henry Addington, Tory, 1801 - 1804 Addington secured the Peace of Amiens with France in 1802, but would see Britain plunge into war with Napoleon again just two years later. He also passed the first Factory Act into law.

The Act was the earliest attempt to reform working conditions in factories. It set a maximum 12 hour working day for children and addressed issues like proper ventilation, basic education and sleeping conditions. (Notably, his government also awarded Edward Jenner £10,000 to continue his pioneering work on a vaccine for smallpox.) But he was generally poorly regarded, prompting the satirical rhyme 'Pitt is to Addington, as London is to Paddington' - a reference to his distinguished predecessor as prime minister, William Pitt. William Pitt 'the Younger', Tory, 1783-1801 Pitt 'the Younger' was the youngest prime minister in British history, taking office at the tender age of just 24. But his youth did not seem to disadvantage him as he threw himself into the manifold problems of government, holding on to the top office for 17 years - fifteen years longer than his father, Pitt 'the Elder'. His first priority was to reduce the National Debt, which had doubled with the loss of the American colonies in 1783.

George III's mental illness then threw up the spectre of a constitutional crisis, with the transfer of sovereignty to the erratic Prince of Wales only narrowly averted by the king's recovery. Further threats to the monarchy emanated from across the Channel, with the bloody French Revolution of 1789 and subsequent war with France in 1793. War increased taxes and caused food shortages, damaging Pitt's popularity to the extent that he employed bodyguards out of fear for his safety. In a bid to resolve at least one intractable conflict, he pushed through the Act of Union with Ireland in 1800, but the related Emancipation of Catholics Bill was rejected by the king a year later. Having lost George III's confidence, Pitt was left with no option but to resign. Duke of Portland, Tory, 1783 Earl Shelburne, Whig, 1782 - 1783 Marquess of Rockingham, Whig, 1782 Lord North, Tory, 1770 - 1782 North is chiefly somewhat unfairly remembered as the prime minister who lost the American colonies.

Groomed by George III to lead his parliamentary supporters, North was fiercely loyal to his king, whose policy it had been to 'punish' the American colonials. The American War of Independence, reluctantly entered into by both sides, had been prosecuted at the king's behest in retaliation for their refusal to pay more towards their own defence. As hostilities progressed, North's blundering and indecision worsened an already difficult situation, and by 1782 it was clear that the outcome was likely to be a disaster. He begged George III to be allowed to resign, but the king refused to release him until the war was over. North has since become the yardstick for prime ministerial mediocrity, with later PMs being criticised as 'the worst since Lord North'. Duke of Grafton, Whig, 1768 - 1770 An unremarkable prime minister, Grafton had a quite remarkable appetite for extra-marital affairs and openly kept several mistresses. He scandalised polite society in 1764 by leaving his wife and going to live with his mistress, Anne Parsons, also known as 'Mrs Houghton'.

(Horace Walpole referred to her derisively as 'everybody's Mrs Houghton'.) Popular opinion had disapproved of Grafton's behaviour, until his wife did something even more shocking. She eloped with the Earl of Upper Ossory and had a child by him. Grafton divorced her in 1769, then abandoned Mrs Houghton and married Elizabeth Wrottesley, with whom he had 13 children. The Mrs Houghton ended up marrying the king's brother. This unsuitable union gave impetus to the Royal Marriages Act of 1772, which decreed that the monarch had to give permission for all royal weddings. Earl of Chatham, Pitt 'The Elder', Whig, 1766 - 1768 Pitt 'the Elder' is widely credited as the man who built the British Empire, although much of this was done in the role of secretary of state under the governments of the Duke of Newcastle. He chose his fights carefully, conducting military campaigns where conditions were best suited to British merchants.

Pitt added India, West Africa, the West Indies and the American colonies to Britain's overseas possessions, and was persistently belligerent towards colonial rivals like France and Spain. His relentless imperialism kept the merchants happy but infuriated men like Newcastle who counted the financial cost of his wars. Pitt was a superb public speaker and a master of the devastating put-down, but his career was dogged with recurrent mental illness and gout. Ironically, it was during his term as prime minister that he was at his least effective, often struggling to build support. He collapsed in the House of Lords in October 1768 and died four days later. (Pitt was the MP for a 'burgage borough' - an empty piece of land with no-one living on it. His constituency, Old Sarum, was a mound in Wiltshire. On polling day, seven voters met in a tent to cast their votes.) Marquess of Rockingham, Whig, 1765 - 1766 George Grenville, Whig, 1763 - 1765 Grenville is one of the few prime ministers to have been sacked by the monarch.

He was fired after a row with George III over who should rule in his place if his mental health continued to deteriorate. Earl of Bute, Tory, 1762 - 1763 Bute was one of Britain's more unpopular prime ministers. Things came to a head when he failed to lower the taxes he had raised to fight France in the American colonies. Rioting erupted, his effigies were burnt and the windows in his house were smashed. Bute was generally disliked by colleagues and public, and was lampooned for his 'fine pair of legs', of which he was reputed to be extremely proud. His close relationship with the Prince of Wales's widow, the Dowager Princess Augusta, was also the subject of much scurrilous gossip. The nickname 'Sir Pertinax MacSycophant' was a contemptuous reference to the Roman Emperor Publius Helvius Pertinax, who was murdered three months after his meteoric assent by his own bodyguard. Unable to muster support in parliament, Bute resigned in 1763.

Duke of Newcastle, Whig, 1757 - 1762 Newcastle healed his rift with Pitt 'the Elder' by inviting him to serve in his government as secretary of state. Effectively a power-sharing coalition of two powerful men, the relationship gave birth to the British Empire. Their government eventually fell as a result of the new king, George III's hostility to Pitt, who had sought to restrict the influence of the monarch in political matters. Duke of Devonshire, Whig, 1756-1757 Duke of Newcastle, Whig, 1754 - 1756 Newcastle became PM after his brother, Henry Pelham, died in office. It is the only instance of two brothers serving as prime minister. Newcastle enraged Pitt 'the Elder' by refusing to promote him in the new government, then compounded the insult by sacking him.

Henry Pelham, Whig, 1743 - 1754 Earl of Wilmington, Whig, 1742 - 1743 Sir Robert Walpole, Whig, 1721 - 1742 Walpole is widely acknowledged as the first prime minister, although he never actually held the title. He was also the longest serving, lasting 21 years. But Walpole's first stint in government, as secretary of war, had ended inauspiciously with a six month spell in the Tower of London for receiving an illegal payment. Undeterred, he rose to power again on the back of a collapsed financial scheme in which many prominent individuals had invested. Walpole had the foresight (or luck) to get out early, and as a result was credited with great financial acumen. George I invited him to become chancellor and gave him the powers that came to be associated with the office of prime minister. His owed his longevity in office (and the incredible wealth he accumulated) to a combination of great personal charm, enduring popularity, sharp practice and startling sycophancy. The accession of George II saw him temporarily eclipsed, but he worked hard to win over the new monarch.

He was rewarded with both the new King's trust and 10 Downing Street, which remains the official residence of the prime minister to this day. Walpole was eventually brought down by an election loss at Chippenham and died just three years later. BBC NEWS | UK | UK Politics | A dozen Downing Street departures Printable version A dozen Downing Street departures As Tony Blair prepares to quit as prime minister, Justin Parkinson looks at the varied reasons for a dozen of his predecessors' departures from office. SIR ROBERT WALPOLE, 1742 Widely acknowledged as the first prime minister, although he never actually held the title, he was also the longest serving, lasting 21 years. But a poor general election result in 1741 cut his majority significantly. In 1742, when the House of Commons was asked to vote on the validity of an allegedly rigged by-election in Chippenham, Walpole was defeated. He agreed to resign. LORD NORTH, 1782 Lord North set the unpleasant precedent of being the first prime minister to lose a vote of no confidence, following repeated failures and embarrassments in the American War of Independence.

He had previously proposed that all disagreeable acts by the colonies would be forgotten if they stopped the war. But the colonies rejected the plan, as their motivation was independence. He had also begged George III to be allowed to resign, but the king refused to release him until hostilities were over. The vote of no confidence took place after the loss of the Battle of Yorktown. Lord North resigned and has, for many observers, become a benchmark for failure in office. WILLIAM PITT THE YOUNGER, 1801 Pitt, the youngest prime minister in history, entered Downing Street at age 24, and stayed in office for more than 17 years. By the end, the ongoing war with France had exacerbated religious and political tensions in Ireland. Pitt's government pushed through the Act of Union between Britain and Ireland, which came into effect on 1 January 1801. In addition, the prime minister wanted to grant more liberties to Catholics, who made up the majority of people in Ireland, through the Emancipation of Catholics Bill. However, King George III thought this would contravene his duty to protect the Church of England. Pitt, unable to persuade him to change his mind, resigned.

SPENCER PERCEVAL, 1812 Whereas four serving US presidents have been assassinated, Perceval is the only British prime minister to share their unfortunate fate. On 11 May 1812 he was on his way to attend a parliamentary inquiry into the Luddite riots in the industrial towns of northern England. Entering the House of Commons lobby, he was shot by a merchant called John Bellingham, furious that the government had not compensated him for debts run up in Russia. Bellingham gave himself up and was later hanged for murder. Perceval's last words were: "Oh, I have been murdered." SIR ROBERT PEEL, 1846 Peel resigned after winning - not losing - one of the biggest parliamentary battles in history, over the abolition of the Corn Laws. These put a tariff on corn from abroad so as to protect UK farmers. Peel and others had long argued for a more free-trade approach. The Irish potato famine, in which up to one million people eventually died, increased the clamour to repeal the Corn Laws and increase the food supply. After six months of debate, the Corn Laws were repealed, but Peel's Tories were bitterly divided.

On the same day he won the main vote, he lost another one and resigned. Unusually for an outgoing prime minister, Peel was cheered by crowds as he left the Commons. WILLIAM GLADSTONE, 1894 Gladstone's fourth term as prime minister was overshadowed by his insistence on introducing a third bill promising "Home Rule" for Ireland. As long ago as 1865 he had pronounced: "My mission is to pacify Ireland." But the Conservative-dominated House of Lords threw the bill out and generally obstructed Gladstone's Liberals' attempts to pass the legislation. With his Cabinet split and his health failing, Gladstone resigned for the last time. NEVILLE CHAMBERLAIN, 1940 If the Second World War was the making of Winston Churchill as a major historical figure, it was the ruin of Chamberlain's reputation. The long-term advocate of appeasing Germany in order to avoid another Great War was chastened and vilified by the disastrous Norway Campaign in 1940, which failed to prevent Hitler's invasion of that country. Some 40 Tory backbenchers rebelled in a vote on the issue, although Chamberlain narrowly won.

When Germany invaded the Netherlands, Belgium and France, opposition to him increased. The Labour Party refused to serve with him in an all-party government and he resigned. Chamberlain died less than six months afterwards. WINSTON CHURCHILL, 1945 Despite Churchill's enormous personal popularity from being the prime minister who won the Second World War, the mood of voters had changed by the time of the 1945 general election, some two months after fighting ended in Europe. With Labour's Clement Attlee promising a welfare state, including a National Health Service, Churchill's Tories lost power. Labour gained an enormous 146-seat majority in the Commons. ANTHONY EDEN, 1957 Following Egypt's decision to nationalise the Suez canal, Britain, France and Israel invaded in October 1956 to widespread international condemnation and the threat of nuclear strikes by the Soviet Union. Within a week, Britain was forced into an embarrassing climb-down. Humiliated and in ill-health, Eden left the country for a holiday in Jamaica. Eden, who had laboured for many years in Churchill's shadow, returned in mid-December but his long-standing gall bladder condition did not improve.

He resigned on 9 January 1957. HAROLD MACMILLAN, 1963 Macmillan had for months been dogged by a sex scandal involving War Secretary John Profumo and a showgirl who had also been seeing the Soviet naval attachï¿½ to London. He had also dismissed six Cabinet ministers in 1962 - the so-called "night of the long knives" - in an attempt to bolster his government's faltering popularity. But what did for the beleaguered Macmillan was his diagnosis with inoperable prostate cancer. He quit on 18 October but, it later transpired, the doctors had been wrong. Macmillan, who took a peerage in 1984 but never re-entered mainstream politics, lived until 1986. HAROLD WILSON, 1976 Wilson surprised everyone when he resigned in March 1976, saying that he had lost interest in the grind of day-to-day politics.

Since coming to power for a second time in 1974, he had held a referendum on the UK's membership of the European Economic Community - in an effort to avoid a split through the middle of his Labour Party - and seen a collapse in the value of the pound. Wilson later told BBC journalists Roger Courtiour and Barrie Penrose he thought MI5 had been trying to undermine him. MARGARET THATCHER, 1990 In the most dramatic political departure of recent times, Mrs Thatcher was effectively deposed by her own party. She stood down after 11 years in office after taking soundings from members of her Cabinet ahead of a second round of leadership elections. Controversial policies including the poll tax, and her opposition to any closer integration with Europe produced divisions within the Conservative Party which led to a leadership challenge from ex-Cabinet minister Michael Heseltine. Although Thatcher won the vote among Tory MPs, she did not win the backing of enough to avoid a second ballot and decided to resign after the meetings with senior ministers.

William Ewart Gladstone (1809-1898) William Ewart Gladstone (1809-1898) [ Victorian Web Home —> Political History —> Prime Ministers ] William Ewart Gladstone served as Prime Minister four times — from 3 December 1868 to 17 February 1874; from 23 April 1880 to 9 June 1885; from 1 February to 20 July 1886; and from 15 August 1892 to 2 March 1894. Gladstone, who was born on 29 December 1809 at Rodney Street, Liverpool, was the fourth son and fifth child of a family of six born to Sir John Gladstone and his wife Anne Mackenzie Robertson. Sir John Gladstone made his fortune in trade especially with America and the West Indies: it was there that he owned sugar plantations. William Gladstone was educated at a preparatory school at Seaforth Vicarage near Liverpool before attending Eton between 1821 and 1827.

From there he went to Christ Church, Oxford, between 1828 and 1831. In 1831 he spoke at the Oxford Union against the Reform Act, saying that any electoral reform would lead to revolution. His Degree was in Classics but he also studied Mathematics and in 1831 was awarded a Double First in the subjects. In the 1832 election following the passing of the Reform Act he was elected as the Tory MP for Newark-on-Trent, on the influence of the Duke of Newcastle; he took the seat of Michael Sadler, the factory reformer . He then went on a Grand Tour of Europe, visiting Belgium, France and various centres in Italy. On his return in 1833 he entered Lincoln's Inn, but by 1839 he had requested that his name should be removed from the list because he no longer intended to be called to the Bar. Gladstone's maiden speech was made on 3 June 1833 during the Committee stage of the Bill for the Abolition of Slavery in the British empire. His father was a West Indian slave-owner and Gladstone defended him against allegations of maltreating his slaves.

The following year Gladstone was appointed as a junior Lord of the Treasure by Sir Robert Peel who had just formed his first ministry. Two weeks later Disraeli and Gladstone met for the first time: Gladstone was appalled by Disraeli's "foppish" attire. Later in life the two would become great parliamentary rivals; there was no friendship between them throughout their long political lives. On 27 January Gladstone was made Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies but his appointment lasted only until April when Peel resigned. In June 1839 Gladstone became engaged to Catherine Glynne, the daughter of Sir Stephen Glynne of Hawarden Castle. The Glynnes were an old Whig family and Catherine was related through the maternal line to the Grenville family. The couple were married the following month and had a family of four boys and four girls. In January 1840 Gladstone began his work of rescuing and rehabilitating London prostitutes, and in 1848 he founded the Church Penitentiary Association for the Reclamation of Fallen Women.

Following the defeat of Lord Melbourne 's government in 1841, Sir Robert Peel formed his second ministry and Gladstone was appointed to the post of Vice-President of the Board of Trade; he accepted reluctantly on the grounds that his lack of knowledge of trade made him unfit for the appointment. It was in his official capacity that he first dined with Queen Victoria at Buckingham palace and was appalled to find that there was no chaplain present and that grace was not said prior to the meal. In May 1843 Gladstone was made President of the Board of Trade and a Cabinet member; he was responsible for the passing of the ' parliamentary train Act ' in 1844 that provided for one train each way, each day, carrying third class passengers at no more than 1d. per mile at not less than 12 miles per hour. In 1838 Gladstone had published his book The Church and its Relations to the Church, in which he said that the State possessed a conscience and had a duty to distinguish between truth and error in religion. Doctrinal differences were, therefore, matters of great importance.

The Established Church was the conscience of the English state, and that State was bound to give an active , informed, consistent, and exclusive financial and general support to the Anglican religion which was of the purest and most direct Apostolic descent. [Magnus, p. 35.] He had also attacked the annual grant of £9,000 that was given to the Maynooth Seminary in Ireland, saying that giving money for the training of Roman Catholic priests was inappropriate for a Protestant nation and would lead to mortal danger. However, in 1844 Peel was attempting to pursue a policy of conciliation in Ireland . A perpetual grievance of the Catholic Church in Ireland was the disparity in finances between the wealth of the Anglican establishment that ministered to about a twelfth of the people and the poverty of the Catholic Church, that ministered to the vast majority of the population. Peel had no intention of changing the privileges of the Anglican Church but did enter into indirect communication with the Vatican about how to conciliate Catholic opinion. In February 1845 Peel proposed to increase — and make permanent — the Maynooth grant from £9,000 to £30,000 p.a.

Although in the interim, Gladstone had changed his mind about the value of the grant, he had not repudiated his book: he wanted to vote for the increase but felt that he could not do so as a Minister in the government. He tendered his resignation rather than compromise his integrity. Peel's reaction was, 'I really have great difficulty sometimes in comprehending what Gladstone means'. In 1846 Gladstone's sister Helen had been restrained by the Lunacy Commission; she had a long history of instability and opium addiction; she also had had a series of lovers but the final straw for Gladstone was her conversion to Roman Catholicism. He could tolerate her other failings but not her apostasy. However, Gladstone was happy to join with Disraeli in 1847 in voting for Lord John Russell's motion to allow Jews to take the oath on becoming a member of the House of Commons. Gladstone's high moral stance was a source of irritation to his colleagues. As Henry Labouchere said: while he had no objection to Gladstone's habit of concealing the ace of trumps up his sleeve, he did object to his reiterated claim that it had been put there by Almighty God.

In 1848 the third Chartist petition was presented; Gladstone served as a Special Constable, as did Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, soon to be the Emperor Napoleon III of France. Gladstone did not return to office until 1852 when the Earl of Aberdeen formed his ministry; Gladstone was appointed as Chancellor of the Exchequer and based his first Budget on public expenditure economies. One of his first acts was to order the Foreign Office to stop using large thick sheets of double notepaper when single, thinner sheets would do. Gladstone also 'invented' the postcard on grounds of economy. He also decided to maintain income tax as an equitable means of collecting revenue for the government. Soon it became necessary to increase the levels of tax because Aberdeen allowed Britain to drift into the Crimean War in 1854; Gladstone increased taxation from 7d in the £1 to 10½d in the £1. Aberdeen's handling of the war led to the ministry's downfall and in 1855 Palmerston formed his first ministry without Gladstone who resigned in protest at Palmerston's acceptance of a Committee of Inquiry into the conduct of the war.

He did accept the post of Lord High Commissioner Extraordinarily to the Ionian Islands- a British protectorate-between November 1855 and June 1859 when he returned to take up the office of Chancellor of the Exchequer in Palmerston's second ministry; along with Palmerston, Gladstone was one of the founding members of the Liberal Party in 1859. However, their working relationship was not easy and Gladstone said later that he never attended a Cabinet meeting during this time, without ensuring that he carried a letter of resignation in his pocket. Gladstone's second Budget followed the Cobden Treaty with France, a reciprocity agreement that called for another increase in income tax to cover the shortfall of revenue for the government. The treaty did bring about a decrease in the standard of living, however, since foodstuffs became cheaper. His introduction of the Post Office Savings Bank enables small savings to be made by ordinary people and gave an extra source of revenue for government purposes. As a result of this, he was able to reduce income tax in 1861; he also brought about the single Money Bill form of the Budget; this meant that henceforward, Budgets had to be accepted or rejected in their entirety.

The Hon. Emily Eden commented to Lord Clarendon in 1860 that if Gladstone 'were soaked in boiling water and rinsed until he were twisted into rope, I do not suppose a drop of fun would ooze out'. Disraeli's assessment of Gladstone was that he 'had not one single redeeming defect'. During the American Civil War (1861-65) Gladstone provided relief work on the Hawarden estates for workers in the Lancashire cotton industry who had been put out of work because of the blockade of the Confederate ports by the North, preventing the export of raw cotton. Nevertheless, in 1863 he attempted to tax the incomes of charities on the grounds that all money was a trust from God and should be taxed like everything else. His proposal was defeated in the Commons. He supported the second Reform Bill that was intended to lower the franchise qualification in towns, saying, 'I venture to say that every man who is not presumably incapacitated by some consideration of personal unfitness or of political danger is morally entitled to come within the pale of the Constitution'. This was seen by the radicals as a move towards universal suffrage, which horrified the Queen and also resulted in him losing his seat at Oxford.

Following the death of Palmerston, Gladstone served in Lord John Russell 's ministry as Leader of the House of Commons and Chancellor of the Exchequer. He was responsible for the first attempt to extend the franchise, in 1866; he also continued to reduce duties on imported goods. In December 1868 Gladstone was appointed as PM for the first time following the Liberal victory in the General Election that followed the passing of the second Reform Act and Gladstone announced that his 'mission was to pacify Ireland'. The ministry ( 1868-74 ) passed a whole spate of reforms but lost the 1874 general election at which Disraeli 's Tory party won a majority. In 1876 Gladstone published The Bulgarian Horrors and the Question of the East, attacking the government's policy towards the Ottoman Empire. During this period, Gladstone constantly attacked the PM and ultimately launched his Midlothian Campaign prior to the next general election on 1880.

He was able to discredit Disraeli and the Liberals won the election; Gladstone had offended Queen Victoria in 1866 when he refused to support the purchase of gun metal for a memorial to Prince Albert that was to be erected in Kensington Gardens, and relations between the two were always difficult. Gladstone formed his second ministry even though Queen Victoria attempted to appoint Lord Hartington instead. The queen was widely reported to have commented that, 'He speaks to me as if I were a public meeting'. Just before she appointed Gladstone, Victoria wrote to Sir Henry Ponsonby that she would 'sooner abdicate than send for or have anything to do with that half-mad fire-brand who would soon ruin everything and be a dictator'. The second ministry was taken up mainly with Irish affairs. Gladstone was obliged to increase income tax from 5d to 6d in the £ and he also increased the duty on beer. A Coercion Act for Ireland was passed in an attempt to deal with increasing violence and Gladstone was able to pass the second Irish Land Act that introduced the 'three Fs"-fixity of tenure, fair rents, and free sale of land.

Just after the Bill went through parliament, Disraeli died; not surprisingly, Gladstone did not attend the funeral. Although Gladstone was a committed Anglican, in 1881 he introduced a Bill that would enable non-believers to affirm their allegiance to the Crown. Jews and Quakers were already able to do that, but not atheists. Charles Bradlaugh had been expelled from the House of Commons on four occasions because of his atheism. Eventually Bradlaugh moved his own Affirmation Bill in 1888 but in the attempt to secure fair treatment for Bradlaugh, Gladstone brought down a great deal of criticism on his own head. The following year, Lord Frederick Cavendish and Thomas Burke were murdered in Phoenix Park, Dublin. Cavendish — Gladstone's nephew-by-marriage-was the Chief Secretary for Ireland; Burke was his Undersecretary Gladstone introduced an even more severe Coercion Act as a result of the murders. Gladstone's foreign policy was less successful than his domestic policies. The British army was involved in actions in the Sudan and Afghanistan.

General Gordon disobeyed orders to evacuate Khartoum in 1884 and Gladstone was blamed for his death when the town fell to the Mahdi and his troops. In the same year, Gladstone's ministry passed the third Reform Act and also the Redistribution Act that provided for alterations being made to constituency boundaries. However, the Conservatives and Irish Nationalists worked together to remove Gladstone's ministry; he resigned on 9 June 1885 and was replaced by the Marquess of Salisbury . On 17 December 1885, Gladstone's son Herbert revealed to the press that his father was dedicated to achieving Home Rule for Ireland: the incident has become known as the 'Hawarden Kite'. Herbert Gladstone's announcement did nothing to endear his father to the Liberals or the Irish and gave the Conservatives another stick with which to beat the elderly statesman. The Irish saw an opportunity to wring concessions from the British government and joined the Liberals to defeat the Conservatives : this political seesaw continued for many years.

In January 1886 Gladstone formed his third ministry at the age of 76; by that time the Liberal Party was divided over his Irish policies and he failed to have the legislation passed. Gladstone called an election but found himself attacked from all directions; the Conservatives won and he resigned. In 1890 the Liberal-Irish alliance ended with the Parnell scandal and in 1891 Gladstone announced the 'Newcastle Programme' that included a battery of reforms as well as Home Rule for Ireland. The Liberals won a majority at the 1892 election and Gladstone formed his fourth and last ministry. Soon afterwards he introduced another Home Rule Bill that failed in the House of Lords; almost concurrently he refused to accept the increased Naval estimates and resigned on 2 March 1894. His last speech was delivered in Liverpool; it was a protest against the Armenian massacres in Turkey. On 19 May 1898 Gladstone died at Hawarden and he was later buried in Westminster Abbey. He was 88 years old. Recommended reading Feuchtwanger, E.J. Gladstone. London, 1989. Magnus, P.

Gladstone: A Biography. London, John Murray, 1954 Matthew, H.C.G. Gladstone 1809-1898. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1996.

Question: Which British Prime Minister said, on first taking office, 'My mission is to pacify Ireland'?
Answer: WILLIAM GLADSTONE