Prime Ministers in History
To the present day 51 men and one woman have passed through the doors of Number 10 Downing Street as British Prime Minister.
During this time an extraordinary range of characters have been handed the keys to one of the most famous front doors in the world.
In this section we take a detailed look at all the prime ministers who have been successful or infamous, short-lived failures or history makers.
We concentrate on their upbringing, careers, family life and eventual demise. Also included are the memorable quotations or quirky facts for which they will be remembered.
You can now not only read about former Prime Ministers, you can hear and see them in our history audio and history film pages.
The PMs are listed in chronological order of the date they first took office. There have also been a few periods, mostly just hours or days, where there was no-one officially in charge of the country. We explain these times under The Missing Days.
The biography of the current Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, can be found here.
Make sure you also visit the history of 10 Downing Street pages.
Make sure you see our other fascinating history sections
Eighteenth Century Prime Ministers, period of office and political party
- Sir Robert Walpole 1721-42 Whig
- Spencer Compton, Earl of Wilmington 1742-3 Whig
- Henry Pelham 1743-54 Whig
- Thomas Pelham-Holles, Duke of Newcastle 1754-6 and 1757-62 Whig
- William Cavendish, Duke of Devonshire 1756-7 Whig
- John Stuart, Earl of Bute 1762-3 Tory
- George Grenville 1763-5 Whig
- Charles Wentworth, Marquess of Rockingham 1765-6 1782 Whig
- The Earl of Chatham, William Pitt 'The Elder' 1766-8 Whig
- Augustus Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Grafton 1768-70 Whig
- Lord North 1770-82 Tory
- William Petty, Earl of Shelburne 1782-3 Whig
- William Bentinck, Duke of Portland 1783 and 1807-9 Whig
Nineteeth Century Prime Ministers, period of office and political party
- William Pitt 'The Younger' 1783-1801 and 1804-6 Tory
- Henry Addington 1801-4 Tory
- William Wyndam Grenville, Lord Grenville 1806-7 Whig
- Spencer Perceval 1809-12 Tory
- Robert Banks Jenkinson, Earl of Liverpool 1812-27 Tory
- George Canning 1827 Tory
- Frederick Robinson, Viscount Goderich 1827-8 Tory
- Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington 1828-30 Tory
- Earl Grey 1830-34 Whig
- William Lamb, Viscount Melbourne 1834 and 1835-41 Whig
- Sir Robert Peel 1834-5 and 1841-6 Tory
- Earl Russell 1846-51 1865-6 Liberal
- The Earl of Derby 1852, 1858-9 and 1866-8, Conservative
- Earl of Aberdeen 1852-5 Tory
- Viscount Palmerston 1855-8 and 1859-65 Liberal
- Benjamin Disraeli 1868 and 1874-80 Conservative
- William Ewart Gladstone 1868-74, 1880-85, 1886 and 1892-94 Liberal
- Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, Marquess of Salisbury 1885-6, 1886-92 and 1895-1902 Conservative
- The Earl of Rosebery 1894-5 Liberal
Twentieth Century Prime Ministers, period of office and political party
- Arthur James Balfour 1902-5 Conservative
- Henry Campbell-Bannerman 1905-8 Liberal
- Herbert Henry Asquith 1908-16 Liberal
- David Lloyd George 1916-22 Liberal
- Andrew Bonar Law 1922-3 Conservative
- Stanley Baldwin 1923, 1924-9, 1935-7 Conservative
- James Ramsay MacDonald 1924 and 1929-35 Labour
- Arthur Neville Chamberlain 1937-40 Conservative
- Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill 1940-5 and 1951-5 Conservative
- Clement Richard Attlee 1945-51 Labour
- Anthony Eden 1955-7 Conservative
- Harold Macmillan 1957-63 Conservative
- Sir Alec Douglas-Home 1963-4 Conservative
- Harold Wilson 1964-70 and 1974-6 Labour
- Edward Heath 1970-4 Conservative
- James Callaghan 1976-9 Labour
- Margaret Thatcher 1979-90 Conservative
- John Major 1990-97 Conservative
- Tony Blair 1997-2007 Labour
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