Andrew Bonar Law, British Conservative Party statesman and Prime Minister was born on this date in 1858. 10 facts about him:
He was born in New Brunswick, Canada, the son of a Scottish clergyman named James Law.
His mother wanted to name him after Robert Murray M'Cheyne, a preacher she greatly admired. However, she already had a son called Robert so had to settle for naming him Andrew Bonar, after a biographer of M'Cheyne. His family and friends always called him Bonar, rather than Andrew.
His father had a smallholding to supplement his income. He worked there to help out until he was 12 when he went to live in Scotland with his late mother’s cousin and began work in the merchant bank the family owned.
He left school aged sixteen to work in the iron industry rather than attend university. By the time he was thirty, he was a wealthy man.
He liked to play Chess and would carry a chess set on his daily commute, challenging other commuters to a game. He even competed with internationally renowned chess masters.
He married Annie Pitcairn Robley, the daughter of a Glaswegian merchant, in 1891. Her death in 1909 hit Law hard; despite his relatively young age and prosperous career, he never remarried.
In 1900 he was elected Conservative MP for Glasgow Blackfriars. He lost his seat in the 1906 Liberal landslide General Election, but he returned to represent Dulwich following a by-election later that year.
During the first world war he worked closely with the Liberal Party as a coalition. He admired David Lloyd George enough to decline the job of Prime Minister in favour of him. Their coalition was re-elected by a landslide following the Armistice.
However, his admiration didn’t quite extend to allowing enough Conservatives to defect to Lloyd George’s proposed new party. Law made a speech at the Conservative Carlton Club which changed their minds and saved the Conservative party. When Lloyd George resigned the King invited Bonar Law to form a new administration in 1922.
He resigned in May 1923 due to ill health, and died of throat cancer 6 months later. He was the fourth shortest-serving prime minister of the United Kingdom (211 days in office).
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