27 March: James Callaghan

James Callaghan, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1976 to 1979, was born on this date in 1912. Some things you might not know about him:

1. James was actually his middle name. He was known by his first name, Leonard, until he entered politics, whereupon he started using his middle name. He was affectionately referred to as ‘Big Jim’ or ‘Sunny Jim’.
2. His father was an Irish Catholic called James Garogher, who had run away from home in the 1890s to join the Royal Navy. Being too young to join up, he gave a false date of birth and changed his name to Callaghan, so his true identity couldn't be traced. He served on the royal yacht under Edward VII. He abandoned Catholicism because he wanted to marry a woman named Charlotte Cundy, who was a Baptist, and the Catholic church at the time didn't allow marriages to people from other denominations.
3. The family were poor, and although the young James passed the exams qualifying him for a university place, he couldn't afford to go, so he left school at 17 and joined the Civil Service as a clerk for the Inland Revenue at Maidstone in Kent. In later life, however, he would be awarded Doctor of Law degrees by four universities: University of Wales in 1976; Sardar Patel University, India, in 1978; Birmingham University, in 1981 and Meisei University, Japan, in 1984.
4. While working for the Civil Service, he became a trade union official. When he tried to enlist at the start of world war II he was told he couldn't because Trade Union official was deemed to be a reserved occupation. He did manage to join the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve as an Ordinary Seaman in 1942, but a routine medical showed he was suffering from tuberculosis and was sent to hospital to recover, and after that assigned to duties with the Admiralty in Whitehall. There, he wrote a service manual for the Royal Navy The Enemy: Japan. By the end of the war, however, he had served at sea, on the escort carrier HMS Activity. He was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant in April 1944, making him the last (to date) British prime minister to be an armed forces veteran and the only one ever to have served in the Royal Navy.
5. He was elected Member of Parliament for Cardiff South in 1945, and by 1947 had been appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Transport. His term there saw the introduction of Zebra Crossings, and increased use of cat's eyes on the roads.
6. James Callaghan is the only 20th-century British Prime Minister to have held all 4 major offices of state: Chancellor of the Exchequer, Home Secretary, Foreign Secretary and Prime Minister.
7. When Hugh Gaitskell died in January 1963, Callaghan ran to succeed him, but came third in the leadership contest, which was won by Harold Wilson. When Wilson resigned unexpectedly in 1976, Callaghan won the leadership election and became Prime Minister.
8. Callaghan’s government lost its majority of seats in Parliament on his first day in office. This forced him to rely upon the support of the Liberal Party during 1977 to 1978, and then the Scottish National Party for the remainder of the government. This led to the referendum on the devolution of powers to Scotland in 1979. His years as Prime Minister also saw the introduction of the Police Act of 1976, which formalised Police complaints procedures; the Housing (Homeless Persons) Act of 1977, which established the responsibility of local authorities to provide housing to homeless people; and the Education Act of 1976, which limited the number of independent and grant-maintained schools in any one area.
9. Despite losing the general election in 1979, he stayed on as an MP and became Father of the House, the longest continually-serving member of the Commons, in 1983. He stood down at the 1987 general election after 42 years as an MP, and was elevated to the House of Lords as Baron Callaghan of Cardiff. He was the longest-lived British prime minister in history (living to the age of 92 years and 364 days).
10. Outside of politics his interests were rugby, tennis and agriculture. He married Audrey Moulton in 1938. The had four children and some grandchildren. When asked at a press conference on the day after the 1979 General Election what he would most miss about being Prime Minister, Callaghan responded by quoting something his 4-year-old grandson had said during the campaign: 'I do hope Grandad doesn't become Prime Minister again because he doesn't come and see us often enough now", and added, "that's what I shall gain."

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