How well do you know the British Prime Ministers?
A quick history quiz for the weekend: only six recent Prime Ministers have not subsequently taken a seat in the House of Lords. Who are the six?
Four you should find quite easy, a fifth not too hard if you are an older reader, but the sixth may surprise – or make you think “oh, of course!”…
(Answers below.)
Winston Churchill, Edward Heath, John Major, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and David Cameron. Interesting that we’re now in an extended run of ex-Prime Ministers not going to the Lords.
Hat-tip: Dishonourable Insults by Greg Knight.
John Major was also the last to decline a peerage, as far as we know, on retiring from Parliament in 2001. Neville Chamberlain also declined a peerage on his retirement, shortly before his death, in 1940. Lloyd George & Macmillan were awarded peerages (then the customary Earldoms – dropped in 1974 in case of Alec Douglas-Home, who already had one which he had disclaimed in 1963, and Harold Wilson in 1976) over 20 years after they had left No 10.
John Major was also the last PM to receive any kind of honour after leaving No 10. He was made a Companion of Honour in 1999, for his peace-making efforts in Northern Ireland, only the 3rd PM to become a member of the Order (after Winston Churchill in 1922 and Clement Attlee in 1945, both before becoming PM) and also Knight of the Garter in 2005, a personal gift of the Sovereign – a common award to PMs previously but since 1900 bestowed on AJ Balfour (1922), HH Asquith (1925), Stanley Baldwin (1937), Winston Churchill (1953), Anthony Eden (1954 – before becoming PM), Clement Attlee (1956), Harold Wilson (1976), James Callaghan (1987), Edward Heath (1992) & Margaret Thatcher (1995). Sir Alec Douglas-Home (then the Earl of Home) was made a Knight of the Thistle, the Scottish equivalent of the Garter, in 1960, again, like Eden, before becoming PM.