History UsefulNotes / TheMenOfDowningStreet

Prime Ministers of the UsefulNotes/UnitedKingdom. A varied lot, be it in the areas of appearance, influence, time, origin, personality, politics or even personal lives, though a lot went to Eton or Harrow and then UsefulNotes/{{Oxbridge}}. They have had a great deal of impact on worlds both real and fictional and rank second only to UsefulNotes/ThePresidentsOfTheUnitedStates in being the most influential and well-known Western world leaders.

Between about 1895 and 1920 the Conservatives and their Liberal Unionist allies were labeled 'Unionists' by the press (and indeed themselves). For convenience's sake Unionist [=PMs=] such as Balfour are listed as Conservatives. (Also, the Conservatives merged with Irish Unionists in the 1910s.)

* Sir UsefulNotes/RobertWalpole (Whig, 1721–42) -- First PM; also longest-serving PM. Also represented the constituency of King's Lynn in the House of Commons for all but the last five days of his premiership; the King made him Earl of Orford on 6 February and he resigned as prime minister on the 11th. Died in 1745.
* Spencer Compton, 1st Earl of Wilmington (Whig, 1742–43) -- died in office.
* Henry Pelham (Whig, 1743–54) -- Governed while also serving as MP for Sussex. Doubled as Chancellor of the Exchequer, that is, finance minister. Died in office and was succeeded by his elder brother...
* Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle (Whig, 1754–56)
* William Cavendish, 4th Duke of Devonshire (Whig, 1756–57) -- Largely a figurehead for Pitt the Elder; died in 1764.
* Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle (Whig, 1757–62) -- second time in office; died in 1768.

* John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute (Tory, 1762–63) -- First Scottish PM; died in 1792.
* George Grenville (Whig, 1763–65) -- Governed while MP for Buckingham; doubled as Chancellor; died in 1770.
* Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham (Whig, 1765–66)
* UsefulNotes/WilliamPittTheElder (Whig, 1766–68) -- Also known as the Earl of Chatham, having agreed to double as Lord Privy Seal on 4 August 1766, days after taking up the premiership on 30 July as MP for Bath. Died in 1778.
* Augustus [=FitzRoy=], 3rd Duke of Grafton (Whig, 1768–70) -- died in 1811.
* [[UsefulNotes/LordNorth Frederick North, Lord North]] (Tory, 1770–82) -- Governed while serving as MP for Banbury. Doubled as Chancellor during his premiership and was subsequently Home Secretary for the better part of 1783. Left the House of Commons in 1790 when he succeeded his father as earl of Guilford. Died in 1792.

* William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne (Whig, 1782–83) -- Made peace with the new US; ironically also the first general officer to serve as PM; died in 1805

* Henry Addington (Tory, 1801–04) -- governed while MP for Devizes; previously Speaker from 1789 until 1801; retired from the Commons in 1805 and was created Viscount Sidmouth; as Lord Liverpool's Home Secretary from 1812 to 1822, he oversaw a crackdown on free speech; died in 1844
* William Pitt the Younger (Tory, 1804–06) -- second spell in office, continued governing while MP for Cambridge University until he died in office[[/index]]
* William Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville (Whig, 1806–07) -- son of George Grenville and first cousin of Pitt the Younger; abolished the slave trade but failed to make peace with UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte; died in 1834
* William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland (Tory, 1807–09) -- second time officially in office, but as he was old and ill, Spencer Perceval was the real person in power. He stepped down on 4 October and died on the ''30th'', giving him a post-premiership of just twenty-six days.[[index]]
* UsefulNotes/SpencerPerceval (Tory, 1809–12) -- Governed while MP for Northampton; the only PM to be assassinated
* [[UsefulNotes/LordLiverpool Robert Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool]] (Tory, 1812–27) -- Congress of Vienna and Treaties of Paris, end of UsefulNotes/TheNapoleonicWars and beginning of the century-long Pax Britannica; at nearly fifteen years, his is the longest premiership of the 19th century, no PM since has served a longer term; died in 1828, less than two years after leaving office

* [[UsefulNotes/ViscountGoderich Frederick Robinson, 2nd Viscount Goderich]] (Tory, 1827–28) -- died in 1859, prior to UsefulNotes/LizTruss the shortest-serving Prime Minister to have ''not'' died in office (that distinction goes to his predecessor George Canning).
* [[UsefulNotes/TheDukeOfWellington Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington]] (Tory, 1828–30) -- second and last general officer (Field Marshal) to serve as PM

* [[UsefulNotes/TheEarlGrey Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey]] (Whig, 1830–34) -- passed the Great Reform Act and abolished slavery throughout the British Empire; [[BritsLoveTea also lent his name to a popular blend of tea]]; died in 1845

* William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne (Whig, 1835–41) -- second spell in office, died in 1848

* Sir Robert Peel (Conservative, 1841–46) -- died in 1850
* [[UsefulNotes/EarlRussell John Russell]] (Whig, 1846–52) -- first spell in office, during which he governed while MP for City of London

* [[UsefulNotes/TheEarlOfAberdeen George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen]] (Peelite, 1852–55) -- died in 1860
* [[UsefulNotes/TheViscountPalmerston Henry Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston]] (Whig, 1855–58) -- previously a Tory until 1830; governed while MP for Tiverton[[note]]His peerage was from the peerage of Ireland, which did ''not'' entitle him to sit in the House of Lords but did let him sit in the Commons.[[/note]]
* Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby (Conservative, 1858–59)
* Henry Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston (Liberal, 1859–65) -- second spell in office, died in office two days before his 81st birthday
* John Russell, 1st Earl Russell (Liberal, 1865–66) -- second spell in office and the one after he was created Earl Russell, which happened in 1861; died in 1878
* Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby (Conservative, 1866–68) -- died in 1869
* UsefulNotes/BenjaminDisraeli (Conservative, February–December 1868) -- only ethnically Jewish PM; converted to the Church of England in his youth at his father's behest (after his father got into a tiff at his synagogue); governed while MP for Buckinghamshire during this time
* UsefulNotes/WilliamGladstone (Liberal, 1868–74) -- governed while MP for Greenwich during this time
* Benjamin Disraeli (Conservative, 1874–80) -- second spell in office, continued serving as MP for Buckinghamshire until 1876, when he was created Earl of Beaconsfield; died in 1881, a year less two days after he left the premiership

* [[UsefulNotes/MarquessOfSalisbury Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury]] (Conservative, 1885–86)

* Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (Conservative, 1886–92)
* William Gladstone (Liberal, 1892–94) -- only PM to serve four non-consecutive terms; oldest PM, retiring at the age of 84; died in 1898
* [[UsefulNotes/TheEarlOfRosebery Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery]] (Liberal, 1894–95) -- died in 1929

* UsefulNotes/ArthurBalfour (Conservative/Unionist, 1902–05) -- governed while MP for Manchester East; first serving PM not to belong to the Anglican Communion (he was Presbyterian); died in 1930
* UsefulNotes/HenryCampbellBannerman (Liberal, 1905–08) -- governed while MP for Stirling Burghs; first PM officially to use the title; last Liberal PM to win the popular vote ''and'' a majority of seats in a general election;[[note]]In the 1906 election, the Liberals beat the Tories by 287,000 popular votes and won 397 out of 670 seats.[[/note]] only PM to be Father of the House (longest continuously serving MP) at the same time as he was PM; resigned as prime minister on 5 April 1908 and died on the 22nd
* UsefulNotes/HerbertHenryAsquith (Liberal, 1908–16) -- governed while MP for Fife East; the (first) PM of UsefulNotes/WorldWarI; died in 1928

* UsefulNotes/DavidLloydGeorge (Liberal/National Liberal, 1916–22) -- Second PM of UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, represented the United Kingdom at the Paris Peace Conference, and last Liberal prime minster; the party split over the issue of Irish independence. The first PM to represent a Welsh constituency, namely Caernarvon Boroughs, and the only PM to have English as a second language (after Welsh). Died in 1945.

* Andrew UsefulNotes/BonarLaw (Conservative, 1922–23) -- The first PM born outside the British Isles, though still within the Empire (UsefulNotes/{{Canada}}, to be exact). Governed while MP for Glasgow Central. Led the Conservative Party to victory at the 1922 general election after breaking away from the Liberal–Conservative wartime coalition, but resigned while terminally ill with cancer in May 1923 and died that October.

* Stanley Baldwin (Conservative, 1924–29)
* Ramsay [=MacDonald=] (Labour, 1929–31; then National Labour, 1931–35) -- governed as MP for Seaham during this time; passed the Statute of Westminster, granting the Dominions effective political and legislative independence from the British Empire; died in 1937
* Stanley Baldwin (Conservative, 1935–37) -- last PM to serve three non-consecutive terms; PM during the Edward VIII abdication crisis; died in 1947

* UsefulNotes/NevilleChamberlain (Conservative, 1937–40) -- governed as MP for Birmingham Edgbaston; forever associated with HeadInTheSandManagement thanks to his signing of the Munich Agreement, stayed on after [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII the invasion of Poland]] but resigned after the fall of Norway; died in November 1940 after having resigned in May
* UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill (Conservative, 1940–45) -- ''the'' PM of UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. WonTheWarLostThePeace(-time general election of 1945). Governed while MP for Epping until it was abolished when the 1945 election was called and subsequently governed while MP for Woodford.
* UsefulNotes/ClementAttlee (Labour, 1945–51) -- Governed while MP for Limehouse until it was abolished when the 1950 election was called and represented Walthamstow West for the remainder of his time in the Commons. Introduced the UsefulNotes/NationalHealthService, the first universal health care system in history, and bulwark of the modern welfare state; first irreligious[[note]]Usually reckoned as agnostic, but he said "I don't know" when asked directly if he was, and is only known to have described himself as "incapable of religious feeling."[[/note]] ''and'' non-Christian PM. Died in 1967.
* Winston Churchill (Conservative, 1951–55) -- Also served (briefly) under Elizabeth II as PM. Less than a month after Elizabeth's coronation in June 1953, Churchill suffered a stroke which would lead Elizabeth to initiate [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Hope_Not the planning for his funeral]]. He eventually did die in 1965.

* UsefulNotes/AnthonyEden (Conservative, 1955–57) -- governed while MP for Warwick & Leamington; resigned not just from the premiership but the Commons over the Suez Crisis, which effectively marked the end of the British Empire as a geopolitical concept (and British aspirations to superpower status alongside the USA and USSR);[[note]]Rich irony since he was considered a distinguished Foreign Secretary under Churchill.[[/note]] died in 1977
* UsefulNotes/HaroldMacmillan (Conservative, 1957–63) -- governed while MP for Bromley; last PM to be granted an hereditary peerage (Earl of Stockton), albeit not until 1984; died in 1986
* UsefulNotes/AlecDouglasHome (Conservative, 1963–64) -- pronounced "Douglas-''Hume''"; the last Prime Minister to sit in the House of Lords (he renounced the Earldom of Home and finished his term in the Commons, being elected at Kinross & Western Perthshire); also ([[BlueBlood and not surprisingly]]) the last PM to be descended from or closely related to a previous PM; died in 1995
* UsefulNotes/HaroldWilson (Labour, 1964–70) -- Governed while MP for Huyton. Presided over the Swinging Sixties and the British Invasion. Led a strongly socially liberal government, having abolished capital punishment[[note]]Technically it remained a valid sentence for treason until 1998, but there had been no executions for treason since [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII 1946]][[/note]], decriminalized homosexuality, and liberalized abortion laws in his first term. [[UsefulNotes/OldBritishMoney Also decimalized the Pound]], awarded each of Music/TheBeatles an MBE,[[note]]Music/JohnLennon returned his in political protest in 1969, but the other three kept theirs. Music/PaulMcCartney got a knighthood in 1997; Music/RingoStarr would follow in 2018. Music/GeorgeHarrison was offered an OBE but declined it in 2000, having wanted to be knighted like Sir Paul. He died shortly thereafter, but probably ''would'' have been knighted had he lived long enough.[[/note]] and was PM the one and only time [[UsefulNotes/AssociationFootball England won the World Cup]] (in 1966).
* UsefulNotes/EdwardHeath (Conservative, 1970–74) -- Governed while MP for Bexley until it was abolished at the February 1974 general election and then governed for Sidcup for the four days' worth of negotiations over the subsequent hung Parliament. Took Britain into the [[UsefulNotes/TheEuropeanUnion Common Market]]; most recent PM to enter ''and'' exit office by means of a general election. Died in 2005.
* Harold Wilson (Labour, 1974–76) -- last PM to be returned to office after a defeat; last PM to win four general elections (1964, 1966, Feb. 1974, Oct. 1974); last PM to leave office voluntarily.[[note]]Blair and Cameron both resigned "voluntarily", but Blair was forced out from the fallout over Iraq and pressure from the pro-Brown faction of the party and Cameron resigned because his position was untenable after losing the 2016 referendum on continued EU membership.[[/note]] Died a few months before Douglas-Home in 1995.
* UsefulNotes/JamesCallaghan (Labour, 1976–79) -- governed while MP for Cardiff South East; first (and to date, the only) known atheist PM;[[note]]Though he continued to be influenced by his Baptist nonconformist upbringing and seldom if ever discussed his religious beliefs in public, and never during his premiership.[[/note]] most recent military veteran to serve as PM; longest-lived PM, dying the day before his 93rd birthday in 2005.
* UsefulNotes/MargaretThatcher (Conservative, 1979–90) -- governed while MP for Finchley; the first ''woman'' of Downing Street, but many humorists felt she was more manly than her entire Cabinet; longest-serving PM of the 20th century; most recent PM to die, in 2013, and, ironically, most recent to receive a state funeral.
* UsefulNotes/JohnMajor (Conservative, 1990–97) -- governed while MP for Huntingdon; living; most recent PM to not have gone to university (he took banking correspondence courses).

* UsefulNotes/GordonBrown (Labour, 2007–10) -- governed while MP for Kirkcaldy & Cowdenbeath; living; only PM with a [=PhD=] (in History, from the University of Edinburgh), and the most recent PM to have been removed by the electorate.
* UsefulNotes/DavidCameron (Conservative, 2010–16) -- Governed while MP for Witney; living; led the first coalition government (with the Liberal Democrats, led by UsefulNotes/NickClegg) since the Second World War; returned to single-party government in 2015, albeit with a tiny majority. Won the referenda on the Alternative Vote and Scottish independence (he supported NO on both); lost the referendum on continued UK membership of the EU (he supported REMAIN). Unexpectedly returned to government in 2023 as Foreign Secretary, being elevated to the Lords; making him the most recent PM to subsequently serve in another Prime Minister's Cabinet, and the most recent to join Parliament's upper chamber.
* UsefulNotes/TheresaMay (Conservative, 2016–19) -- Governed while MP for Maidenhead; living; the second woman of Downing Street, taking over from David Cameron following the EU referendum; following losses in a snap election in 2017, led a minority government supported by the Northern Ireland-based Democratic Unionist Party; negotiated a withdrawal agreement with the EU but failed to get it past Parliament on three occasions;[[note]]On the first of these three occasions it was defeated by the worst margin of any government bill in British history.[[/note]] resigned after being forced to delay UK withdrawal from the EU past the originally scheduled date of 31 March 2019 and thus requiring participation in the EU parliamentary elections that summer, in which the Tories placed fifth; still an MP.
* UsefulNotes/BorisJohnson (Conservative, 2019 – September 6, 2022) -- Governed while MP for Uxbridge & South Ruislip; living; the second PM born outside of the British Isles, and the first outside of the British Empire/Commonwealth (in UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity, to be precise); renounced his dual American citizenship in 2016. Taking over following Theresa May's resignation, maintaining the same minority government supported by the DUP, until mass defections by [=MPs=] left the Tory–DUP confidence-and-supply agreement without a functioning majority, meaning he called a general election later that year, which resulted in the Conservatives regaining a solid majority with help from the Brexit Party forming an unofficial alliance with them, the party's first in over three decades. Took Britain out of the European Union, oversaw most of the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic and became one of the firmest West European supporters of arming UsefulNotes/{{Ukraine}} amidst the 2022 invasion of the latter by UsefulNotes/VladimirPutin's [[UsefulNotes/TheNewRussia Russia]]. Probably the first practising Catholic PM, though he refused to confirm it, as he was baptized Catholic and married in a Catholic ceremony (the first sitting PM to wed in office in two centuries) during his tenure.[[note]]The Roman Catholic Church allowed this despite Johnson being twice divorced as neither of ''those'' marriages had been celebrated in the Catholic Church.[[/note]] Resigned after multiple scandals including Partygate,[[note]]the revelations that Johnson and his staff had held multiple parties at 10 Downing Street during COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020-21, resulting in Johnson and his wife getting fined by the police,[[/note]] the Owen Paterson scandal,[[note]]an attempt by Johnson to change anti-corruption rules for [=MPs=] to prevent Paterson, a senior Conservative politician who'd been found in breach of lobbying rules, from being suspended from Parliament,[[/note]] and the Chris Pincher scandal,[[note]]the revelation that Johnson had appointed Pincher to a government post despite knowing that he had been the subject of (and investigated by the police over) multiple allegations of sexual misconduct,[[/note]] the last of which led to mass resignations from his cabinet which ultimately forced him to announce his own. Resigned from his seat in June 2023, after an investigation into the aforementioned Partygate scandal concluded he had lied to Parliament.

* UsefulNotes/LizTruss (Conservative, September 6, 2022 – October 25, 2022) -- Governed while MP for South West Norfolk; living; the third woman to become Prime Minister, succeeded Boris Johnson following his resignation. Very briefly served under UsefulNotes/ElizabethII, taking office two days before the Queen's death. For the following two weeks, politics was effectively on hold for official national mourning. Then, though, on 23 September her Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng issued a disastrous "mini-budget" announcement which went down like a lead balloon with financial markets, sending the value of the pound plummeting and forcing the Bank of England to make an emergency intervention. The ensuing political chaos wholly eroded her authority, and she resigned as party leader on 20 October 2022, leaving office on 25 October after just 49 days as Prime Minister, smashing George Canning's 195-year-old record for [[ShortLivedLeadership the shortest-serving PM in history]]. She replaces Gordon Brown as the most recent PM not to win a mandate of their own, and also usurps Neville Chamberlain as the most recent PM to never face the electorate as party leader at any point during their term. Still an MP.
* UsefulNotes/RishiSunak (Conservative, October 25, 2022 – present) -- Governing while MP for Richmond (Yorkshire)[[note]]this is the official name of his constituency, to avoid it being confused for the now-defunct constituency of Richmond in Surrey[[/note]]; living (obviously); the first British Asian and first non-white Prime Minister, succeeded Liz Truss following her resignation, having previously lost to her in the leadership election seven weeks prior. One of, if not the, wealthiest people to have been Prime Minister, [[https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/10/24/rishi-sunak-net-worth/ with a personal fortune of £730million ($827million)]][[note]]this largely stems from Sunak's wife, Akshata Murty, being the heiress to technology company Infosys[[/note]], the first Prime Minister to practice a faith other than Christianity (Hinduism)[[labelnote:*]]As noted above, Benjamin Disraeli was born Jewish, but converted at a young age.[[/labelnote]] and at 42 years and 166 days on taking office, the youngest Prime Minister since UsefulNotes/LordLiverpool.

* William Pitt the Younger (Tory, 1804–06) -- second spell in office, continued governing while MP for Cambridge University until he died in office

* William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland (Tory, 1807–09) -- second time officially in office, but as he was old and ill, Spencer Perceval was the real person in power. He stepped down on 4 October and died on the ''30th'', giving him a post-premiership of just twenty-six days.