Andrew Bonar Law

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The Right Hon. Andrew Bonar Law
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

The Right Honourable Andrew Bonar Law (September 16, 1858 - October 30, 1923) was a Conservative British statesman and Prime Minister.

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Early Life

Andrew Bonar Law was born in Rexton, a small village in eastern New Brunswick, Canada. He was the son of the Reverend James Law and Elizabeth Kidston. Although born in Canada, Law was of Ulster Scots and Scottish descent. His father, a Presbyterian minister, had emigrated to Canada from Coleraine.

In 1860, Law’s mother died in childbirth. He worked as a boy on his fathers smallholding and for some years after his mother’s death he was in the care of his maternal aunt, Janet Kidston, who lived in her brother-in-law’s household until his remarriage, when she decided to return to her native Scotland. She suggested that it might be to her nephew's advantage if she were to take him back to Scotland with her, where he would receive a good education, as the Kidstons were a much wealthier and better connected family than the Laws.

At the age of 12, Law left to live with his late mother's three male cousins, who were rich merchant bankers in Glasgow. As they were all either unmarried or childless, they saw him as a substitute son and heir. He was educated at Gilbertfield School in Hamilton and then at Glasgow High School.

Surprisingly, in view of Law's marked academic success, the Kidstons did not wish him to continue to university, and so at the age of 16 he was employed in the offices of their bank. He did later attend night classes at the University of Glasgow, which gave him an interest in politics and debating. He read omnivorously, but had a particular fondness for Dickens, Carlyle, Disraeli and Gibbon. He also became a chess player of the first rank.

Bonar Law’s business career went from strength to strength, and well before he was thirty, he had acquired the reputation of a shrewd man of business, who drove others hard but himself far harder. In 1885, he purchased a partnership in William Jacks & Co., a Glasgow firm concerned in the financing of the iron trade. In 1890, at the age of thirty-two, Bonar Law, already a settled and successful man, became engaged to Annie Robley, whom he married in Helensburgh, Dunbartonshire on 24th March 1891.

The marriage was to prove very happy and they had seven children, although the first was stillborn. Law’s interest in politics had grown stronger as the 1890s went by, and after he inherited a very large sum on the death of one of the Kidstons, he was able to consider running for Parliament.

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Parliament

He was elected to parliament for Glasgow Blackfriars and Hutchesontown 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. He had a reputation for honesty and fearlessness, and was well regarded as an effective speaker. These qualities helped him to be appointed as Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade in 1902.

He lost his seat in the Liberal landslide 1906 General Election, but he returned to represent Dulwich following a by-election later in the same year. Though hit hard by the death of his wife, he continued his political career,

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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.

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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. His promotion reflected the great mutual trust between both leaders and made for a well co-ordinated political partnership. Their coalition was re-elected by a landslide following the Armistice. Law's two eldest sons were both killed whilst fighting in the war. In the 1918 General Election, Law returned to Glasgow and was elected as member for Glasgow Central.

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Post War and Prime Minister

Arms of Andrew Bonar Law
Enlarge
Arms of Andrew Bonar Law

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. His departure weakened the hardliners in the cabinet who were opposed to negotiating with the IRA, and the Anglo-Irish War ended in the summer. 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 at the age of 65.

Bonar Law's estate was probated at 35,736 pounds sterling.

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Bonar Law's Government, October 1922 - May 1923

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Changes

April 1923 - Griffith-Boscawen resigns as Minister of Health and is succeeded by Neville Chamberlain.


Preceded by:
Arthur Balfour		 Conservative Leader in the Commons
1911–1921		 Succeeded by:
Austen Chamberlain
Leader of the British Conservative Party
1911–1921
with The Marquess of Lansdowne to 1916		 Succeeded by:
Austen Chamberlain
and The Earl Curzon of Kedleston
Preceded by:
Lewis Harcourt		 Secretary of State for the Colonies
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
Preceded by:
Austen Chamberlain
and The Marquess Curzon of Kedleston		 Leader of the British Conservative Party
1922–1923
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Assessment

Dour, narrow, unimaginative, Bonar Law was 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.

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