Henry Campbell-Bannerman

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The Right Hon. Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman</font></caption>
Image:Campbell-bannerman.jpg
Period in Office: 5 February, 1906 - 3 April, 1908
PM Predecessor: Arthur James Balfour
PM Successor: Herbert Asquith
Date of Birth: 7 September1836
Place of Birth: Glasgow, Scotland
Political Party: Liberal

The Right Honourable Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman (7 September 1836 – 22 April 1908) was a British Liberal statesman who served as Prime Minister from February 5 1906 until resigning due to ill health on April 3 1908. He was the first First Lord of the Treasury to be officially recognised using the term "Prime Minister", and this term only came into official usage 5 days after he came into office.

Campbell-Bannerman was born at Kelvinside House in Glasgow in 1836 as "Henry Campbell" to Sir James Campbell, Lord Provost of Glasgow and Janet Bannerman. He was educated at Glasgow High School, Glasgow University and Trinity College, Cambridge. In 1868 he was elected to the House of Commons as a Liberal, and entered Gladstone's second cabinet as Chief Secretary for Ireland in 1884. In Gladstone's Third (1886) and Fourth (1892-1894) Cabinets and Rosebery's Government (1894-1895) he served as Secretary for War, where his most notable accomplishment was persuading the Duke of Cambridge, the Queen's cousin, and an obstacle to necessary army reforms, to resign as Commander-in-Chief. This earned Campbell-Bannerman a knighthood. In 1898 Sir Henry succeeded Sir William Vernon Harcourt as leader of the Liberals in the House of Commons. Campbell-Bannerman had a difficult job holding together the strongly divided party, and when the Liberals returned to power in 1906, he became Prime Minister.

Campbell-Bannerman's premiership was a frustrating one, as the Conservative Lords blocked most of the Liberals' reform measures, but it did see the achievement of an Entente with Russia in 1907 by his Foreign Secretary, Sir Edward Grey. In that same year, Campbell-Bannerman achieved the honour of becoming the Father of the House, the only serving British Prime Minister to do so to date. But his health soon took a turn for the worse, and he died on 22 April 1908 at 10 Downing Street. He was succeeded as Prime Minister by his Chancellor of the Exchequer, Herbert Henry Asquith.

Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman's Government, February 1906 - April 1908

Image:Henry-Campbell-Bannerman-arms.PNG

Changes

Preceded by:
George Otto Trevelyan 		Chief Secretary for Ireland
1884–1885 		Succeeded by:
Sir William Hart Dyke
Preceded by:
The Viscount Cranbrook 		War Secretary
1886 		Succeeded by:
William Henry Smith
Preceded by:
Edward Stanhope 		War Secretary
1892–1895 		Succeeded by:
The Marquess of Lansdowne
Preceded by:
Sir William Harcourt 		Leader of the British Liberal Party
1899–1908 		Succeeded by:
Herbert Henry Asquith
Preceded by:
Arthur James Balfour 		Leader of the House of Commons
1906–1908
Prime Minister
1906–1908
Preceded by:
George Henry Finch 		Father of the House
1907–1908 		Succeeded by:
John Kennaway
Retrieved from "http://en.freepedia.org/Henry_Campbell-Bannerman.html"


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