The Rt Hon Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman
Henry Campbell-Bannerman
Monarch	Edward VII
Preceded by
Succeeded by
Political party	Liberal
Spouse	Charlotte Campbell-Bannerman
Alma mater	University of Glasgow Trinity College, Cambridge
Religion	Presbyterian

Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman GCB (7 September 1836 – 22 April 1908) was a British Liberal statesman who served as Prime Minister from December 5 1905 until resigning due to ill health on April 3 1908. No previous First Lord of the Treasury had been officially called "Prime Minister"; this term only came into official usage after he took office.

Campbell-Bannerman was born at Kelvinside House in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1836 as Henry Campbell. The surname Bannerman was added to his surname in 1871 as required by his maternal uncle's will. It was a condition of his inheritance of his uncle's Kent estate, Hunton Court.

He was the second son and youngest of six children born to Sir James Campbell (1790-1876), who was Lord Provost of Glasgow 1840-1843, and his wife Janet Bannerman (d. 1873). Campbell-Bannerman was educated at Glasgow High School (1845-1847), the University of Glasgow (1851), and Trinity College, Cambridge (1854-1858), where he achieved a Third-Class Degree in Classical Tripos. After graduating, he joined J.& W. Campbell & Co., his family's firm, who were warehousemen and drapers in Glasgow.

In 1868, he was elected to the House of Commons as Liberal Member of Parliament for Stirling Burghs — a constituency he was to represent for forty years.

He was appointed as Financial Secretary to the War Office in November 1871, serving in this position until 1874, and again from 1880 to 1882. After serving as Parliamentary and Financial Secretary to the Admiralty from 1882 to 1884, he 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 of State for War, where he persuaded the Duke of Cambridge, the Queen's cousin, 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 time in holding together the strongly divided party (which was defeated in the "Khaki Election" of 1900), but when the Liberals returned to power in 1905, he became Prime Minister.

Campbell-Bannerman's premiership saw the introduction of the so-called Liberal reforms, which included the introduction of sick pay and old age pensions, as well as the achievement of an Entente with Russia in 1907, brought about principally by the 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. Nevertheless his health soon took a turn for the worse, and he resigned as Prime Minister on 3 April 1908, to be succeeded by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Herbert Henry Asquith. Campbell-Bannerman remained in residence at 10 Downing Street in the immediate aftermath of his resignation, and became the only (former) Prime Minister to die there, on 22 April 1908.

His last words were "This is not the end of me."^[1] Campbell-Bannerman was buried in the churchyard of Meigle Parish Church, Perthshire, near his home, Belmont Castle. A relatively modest stone plaque set in the exterior wall of the church serves as a memorial.

In an uncharacteristically emotional speech on the day of Campbell-Bannerman's funeral, his successor H. H. Asquith told the House of Commons: "He was not ashamed, even on the verge of old age, to see visions and to dream dreams... He met both good and evil fortune with the same unclouded brow, the same unruffled temper, the same unshakeable confidence in the justice and righteousness of his cause."

Another of Campbell-Bannerman's cabinet Ministers — who was also later to serve as Prime Minister — David Lloyd George, said of his passing, "I have never met a great public figure who so completely won the attachment and affection of the men who came into contact with him. He was not merely admired and respected; he was absolutely loved by us all. The masses of the people of the country, especially the more unfortunate of them, have lost the best friend they have ever had in the high place of the land. ... He was a truly great man. A great head and a great heart. He was absolutely the bravest man I ever met in politics."

There is a blue plaque outside Campbell-Bannerman's house at 6 Grosvenor Place, London SW1. His bronze bust, sculpted by Paul Raphael Montford is in Westminster Abbey (1908)^[2].

Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman's Government, December 1905 - April 1908

• Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman - Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury and Leader of the House of Commons
• Lord Loreburn - Lord Chancellor
• Lord Crewe - Lord President of the Council
• Lord Ripon - Lord Privy Seal and Leader of the House of Lords
• H. H. Asquith - Chancellor of the Exchequer
• Herbert Gladstone - Secretary of State for the Home Department
• Sir Edward Grey - Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs
• Lord Elgin - Secretary of State for the Colonies
• Richard Haldane - Secretary of State for War
• John Morley - Secretary of State for India
• Lord Tweedmouth - First Lord of the Admiralty
• David Lloyd George - President of the Board of Trade
• Sir Henry Fowler - Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
• Sir John Sinclair - Secretary for Scotland
• James Bryce - Chief Secretary for Ireland
• John Burns - President of the Local Government Board
• Lord Carrington - President of the Board of Agriculture
• Augustine Birrell - President of the Board of Education
• Sydney Buxton - Postmaster-General

Changes

• January 1907 - Augustine Birrell succeeds Bryce as Irish Secretary. Reginald McKenna succeeds Birrell at the Board of Education.
• March 1907 - Lewis Harcourt, the First Commissioner of Public Works, enters the Cabinet.

Political offices

Parliament of the United Kingdom (1801–present)
Preceded by John Ramsay	Member of Parliament for Stirling 1868–1908	Succeeded by Arthur Ponsonby
Political offices
Preceded by John Vivian	Financial Secretary to the War Office 1871–1874	Succeeded by Frederick Stanley
Preceded by Robert Loyd-Lindsay	Financial Secretary to the War Office 1880–1882	Succeeded by Sir Arthur Hayter
Preceded by George Otto Trevelyan	Parliamentary Secretary to the Admiralty 1882–1884	Succeeded by Thomas Brassey
Preceded by George Otto Trevelyan	Chief Secretary for Ireland 1884–1885	Succeeded by Sir William Hart Dyke
Preceded by The Viscount Cranbrook	Secretary of State for War 1886	Succeeded by William Henry Smith
Preceded by Edward Stanhope	Secretary of State for War 1892–1895	Succeeded by The Marquess of Lansdowne
Preceded by Sir William Harcourt	Leader of the Opposition 1899–1905	Succeeded by Arthur Balfour
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 of the United Kingdom 1905–1908
Preceded by George Henry Finch	Father of the House 1907–1908	Succeeded by John Kennaway

External links

• Sir Henry Campbell Bannerman biography from the Liberal Democrat History Group
• More about Henry Campbell-Bannerman on the Downing Street website.

References

•  • [ e] Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom

Great Britain: Walpole Wilmington Pelham Newcastle Devonshire Newcastle Bute G Grenville Rockingham Chatham (Pitt the Elder) Grafton North Rockingham Shelburne Portland Pitt the Younger United Kingdom: Pitt the Younger Addington Pitt the Younger W Grenville Portland Perceval Liverpool Canning Goderich Wellington Grey Melbourne Wellington Peel Melbourne Peel Russell Derby Aberdeen Palmerston Derby Palmerston Russell Derby Disraeli Gladstone Disraeli Gladstone Salisbury Gladstone Salisbury Gladstone Rosebery Salisbury Balfour Campbell-Bannerman Asquith Lloyd George Bonar Law Baldwin MacDonald Baldwin MacDonald Baldwin Chamberlain Churchill Attlee Churchill Eden Macmillan Douglas-Home Wilson Heath Wilson Callaghan Thatcher Major Blair Brown

•  • [ e] Leaders of the Liberal Party

In the House of Commons (before 1916) The Viscount Palmerston (1859-1865) William Ewart Gladstone (1865-1875) The Marquess of Hartington (1875-1880) William Ewart Gladstone (1880-1894) Sir William Harcourt (1894-1898) Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman (1898-1908) H.H. Asquith (1908-1916) In the House of Lords (before 1916) The Earl Granville (1859-1865) The Earl Russell (1865-1868) The Earl Granville (1868-1891) The Earl of Kimberley (1891-1894) The Earl of Rosebery (1894-1896) The Earl of Kimberley (1896-1902) The Marquess of Ripon (1902-1908) The Marquess of Crewe (1908-1916) Overall Leader (1916-1988) The Earl of Oxford & Asquith (1916-1926); Donald Maclean Acting Leader 1919-1920 David Lloyd George (1926-1931) Sir Herbert Samuel (1931-1935) Sir Archibald Sinclair (1935-1945) Clement Davies (1945-1956) Jo Grimond (1956-1967) Jeremy Thorpe (1967-1976) Jo Grimond (1976) David Steel (1976-1988) In 1988, the Party merged with the Social Democratic Party to form the Liberal Democrats. For their leaders click here.