Andrew Bonar Law
| Missing image Bonar_law.jpg Andrew Bonar Law | |
| Period in Office: | October, 1922 - May, 1923 |
| PM Predecessor: | David Lloyd George |
| PM Successor: | Stanley Baldwin |
| Date of Birth: | September 16, 1858 |
| Place of Birth: | Rexton, New Brunswick, Canada |
| Political Party: | Conservative |
Andrew Bonar Law (September 16, 1858 - October 30, 1923) was a Conservative British statesman and Prime Minister.
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Early Life
Although born in Rexton, a small village in eastern New Brunswick, Canada, son of a Presbyterian minister, Law was raised by wealthy Scottish cousins. Law eventually became a partner in a Glasgow iron-working firm.
Parliament
He was elected to parliament for Glasgow Central as a Conservative in 1900. He associated himself with the Protectionist wing of the party led by Joseph Chamberlain, and after Chamberlain withdrew from politics in 1906, Law came to lead that wing of the party along with Chamberlain's son, Austen.
Conservative Leader
In 1911, Arthur Balfour resigned as leader of the Tories, and after a deadlock between Chamberlain and Walter Long, Law was elected Leader as a compromise candidate. Law's closest associate was his fellow Canadian, newspaper mogul William Maxwell Aitken (later Lord Beaverbrook). In the years prior to the outbreak of the First World War, Law focused most of his attention on the tariff issue and on the issue of Irish Home Rule, which he furiously opposed.
The Great War
He entered the Coalition government as Colonial Secretary in 1915, and actually had a chance to be prime minister in 1916 but deferred to Lloyd George. He served in Lloyd George's War Cabinet first as Chancellor of the Exchequer and Leader of the House of Commons.
Post War and Prime Minister
Andrew-Bonar-Law-arms.PNG
At war's end he gave up the exchequer for the less demanding sinecure office of Lord Privy Seal, but remained Leader of the Commons. In 1921, ill health forced his resignation as Tory leader and Leader of the Commons in favor of Austen Chamberlain, but he returned in October 1922 to become Prime Minister when Tory backbenchers led by Stanley Baldwin forced the Conservatives to leave Lloyd George's coalition as a result of the complete failure of the Lloyd George government's policies in Turkey. He was diagnosed with terminal throat cancer and was replaced in May of 1923 by Baldwin, with whom he did not get along. He died of cancer later that same year in London.
Bonar Law's Government, October 1922 - May 1923
- Andrew Bonar Law - Prime Minister and Leader of the House of Commons
- Lord Cave - Lord Chancellor
- Lord Salisbury - Lord President of the Council and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
- Lord Cecil of Chelwood - Lord Privy Seal
- Stanley Baldwin - Chancellor of the Exchequer
- William Clive Bridgeman - Secretary of State for the Home Department
- Lord Curzon of Kedleston - Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and Leader of the House of Lords
- The Duke of Devonshire - Secretary of State for the Colonies
- Lord Derby - Secretary of State for War
- Lord Peel - Secretary of State for India
- Lord Novar - Secretary for Scotland
- Leo Amery - First Lord of the Admiralty
- Sir Philip Lloyd-Greame - President of the Board of Trade
- Sir Robert Sanders - Minister of Agriculture
- Edward Frederick Lindley Wood - President of the Board of Education
- Sir Montague Barlow - Minister of Labour
- Sir Arthur Griffith-Boscawen - Minister of Health
Changes
April 1923 - Griffith-Boscawen resigns as Minister of Health and is succeeded by Neville Chamberlain.
| Preceded by: Arthur Balfour | Leader of the British Conservative Party 1911–1921 | Succeeded by: Austen Chamberlain |
| Preceded by: Lewis Harcourt | Colonial Secretary 1915–1916 | Succeeded by: Walter Long |
| Preceded by: Reginald McKenna | Chancellor of the Exchequer 1916–1919 | Succeeded by: Austen Chamberlain |
| Preceded by: Herbert Henry Asquith | Leader of the House of Commons 1916–1921 | Succeeded by: Austen Chamberlain |
| Preceded by: The Earl of Crawford and Balcarres | Lord Privy Seal 1919–1921 | |
| Preceded by: David Lloyd George | Prime Minister 1922–1923 | Succeeded by: Stanley Baldwin |
| Preceded by: Austen Chamberlain | Leader of the House of Commons 1922–1923 | |
| Leader of the British Conservative Party 1922–1923 |
Assessment
Dour, narrow, unimaginative, Bonar Law was a thrust into the limelight amid the bigotry of the Ulster crisis. He is best seen as a factional leader allied to the northern Ireland Protestant majority. Though honest and of a blameless personal life, his ascendence followed by that of Stanley Baldwin and Neville Chamberlain provides a pedestrian contrast to the leaders who came before, Gladstone, Benjamin Disraeli, John Morley, Winston Churchill, David Lloyd George and Herbert Henry Asquith.
Bonar Law's ill health and short term in office makes it difficult to assess his time as prime minister.