Bonar Law

Andrew Bonar Law (/ˈbɒnər ˈlɔː/ BONN-ər;^[1] 16 September 1858 – 30 October 1923) was a British statesman and Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from October 1922 to May 1923.

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The Right Honourable Bonar Law
Portrait by Walter Stoneman, 1923
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
In office 23 October 1922 – 20 May 1923
Monarch	George V
Preceded by	David Lloyd George
Succeeded by	Stanley Baldwin
Leader of the Conservative Party
In office 23 October 1922 – 28 May 1923
Chairman	Sir George Younger, Bt
Preceded by	Austen Chamberlain
Succeeded by	Stanley Baldwin
In office 10 December 1916 – 21 March 1921
Chairman	Arthur Steel-Maitland Sir George Younger, Bt
Preceded by	Arthur Balfour
Succeeded by	Austen Chamberlain
Leader of the House of Commons
In office 23 October 1922 – 20 May 1923
Prime Minister	Himself
Preceded by	Austen Chamberlain
Succeeded by	Stanley Baldwin
In office 10 December 1916 – 23 March 1921
Prime Minister	David Lloyd George
Preceded by	H. H. Asquith
Succeeded by	Austen Chamberlain
Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal
In office 10 January 1919 – 1 April 1921
Prime Minister	David Lloyd George
Preceded by	The Earl of Crawford
Succeeded by	Austen Chamberlain
Chancellor of the Exchequer
In office 10 December 1916 – 10 January 1919
Prime Minister	David Lloyd George
Preceded by	Reginald McKenna
Succeeded by	Austen Chamberlain
Secretary of State for the Colonies
In office 25 May 1915 – 10 December 1916
Prime Minister	H. H. Asquith
Preceded by	Lewis Harcourt
Succeeded by	Walter Long
Leader of the Opposition
In office 13 November 1911 – 25 May 1915
Monarch	George V
Prime Minister	H. H. Asquith
Preceded by	Arthur Balfour
Succeeded by	Sir Edward Carson[a]
Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade
In office 11 July 1902 – 5 December 1905
Prime Minister	Arthur Balfour
Preceded by	The Earl of Dudley
Succeeded by	Hudson Kearley
Parliamentary offices Member of Parliament for Glasgow Central In office 15 December 1918 – 30 October 1923 Preceded by John Mackintosh MacLeod Succeeded by William Alexander Member of Parliament for Bootle In office 28 March 1911 – 25 November 1918 Preceded by Thomas Myles Sandys Succeeded by Thomas Royden Member of Parliament for Dulwich In office 16 May 1906 – 20 December 1910 Preceded by Frederick Rutherfoord Harris Succeeded by Frederick Hall Member of Parliament for Glasgow Blackfriars In office 25 October 1900 – 13 January 1906 Preceded by Andrew Dryburgh Provand Succeeded by George Nicoll Barnes
Personal details
Born	Andrew Bonar Law (1858-09-16)16 September 1858 Kingston, Colony of New Brunswick[b]
Died	30 October 1923(1923-10-30) (aged 65) London, Middlesex, England
Resting place	Westminster Abbey
Nationality	British
Political party	Conservative
Other political affiliations	Unionist
Spouse	Annie Robley ​ ​ (m. 1891; died 1909)​
Children	6, including Richard
Profession	Iron merchant
Signature
a. ^ Office vacant from 25 May 1915 to 19 October 1915 b. ^ Now Rexton, New Brunswick, Canada.

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Law was born in the British colony of New Brunswick (now a Canadian province). He was of Scottish and Ulster Scots descent and moved to Scotland in 1870. He left school aged sixteen to work in the iron industry, becoming a wealthy man by the age of thirty. He entered the House of Commons at the 1900 general election, relatively late in life for a front-rank politician; he was made a junior minister, Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade, in 1902. Law joined the Shadow Cabinet in opposition after the 1906 general election. In 1911, he was appointed a Privy Councillor, before standing for the vacant party leadership. Despite never having served in the Cabinet and despite trailing third after Walter Long and Austen Chamberlain, Law became leader when the two front-runners withdrew rather than risk a draw splitting the party.

As Leader of the Conservative Party and Leader of the Opposition, Law focused his attentions in favour of tariff reform and against Irish Home Rule. His campaigning helped turn Liberal attempts to pass the Third Home Rule Bill into a three-year struggle eventually halted by the start of the First World War, with much argument over the status of the six counties in Ulster which would later become Northern Ireland, four of which were predominantly Protestant.

Law first held Cabinet office as Secretary of State for the Colonies in H. H. Asquith's Coalition Government (May 1915 – December 1916). Upon Asquith's fall from power he declined to form a government, instead serving as Chancellor of the Exchequer in David Lloyd George's Coalition Government. He resigned on grounds of ill health early in 1921. In October 1922, with Lloyd George's Coalition having become unpopular with the Conservatives, he wrote a letter to the press giving only lukewarm support to the Government's actions over Chanak. After Conservative MPs voted to end the Coalition, he again became party leader and, this time, prime minister. Bonar Law won a clear majority at the 1922 general election, and his brief premiership saw negotiation with the United States over Britain's war loans. Seriously ill with throat cancer, Law resigned in May 1923, and died later that year. He was the fourth shortest-serving prime minister of the United Kingdom (211 days in office).