Andrew Bonar Law (16 September 1858 – 30 October 1923) is notable for being the first British Prime Minister to have been born outside the British Isles. (He was born in Canada; he moved to Scotland at age 12.) He was Prime Minister for 7 months (October 1922 to May 1923), in between David Lloyd George and Stanley Baldwin, resigning upon learning that he was dying of throat cancer.
Oddly, Law is probably far better remembered in Ireland than in Britain itself for the large role he played during the Home Rule crisis from about 1912 to 1914 when he was Leader of the Opposition and fought tooth and nail against the introduction of Home Rule for Ireland.
Prior to being Prime Minister in his own right, Law served in Lloyd George's coalition cabinet, firstly as chancellor, then as Leader of the House of Commons. At the post-war election in 1918, the Conservatives earned enough seats that they could theoretically have reneged on their coalition agreement and set up as a majority government, but Law decided against this, as firstly it would have made him look untrustworthy, and secondly, he could sense that it was better to let Lloyd George and the Liberals be in charge of sorting out the looming Irish situation. This, more than anything he did during his time as Prime Minister, was likely his real political legacy, as the Liberals would rapidly fall away into obscurity, while the Conservatives would go on to hold a near-monopoly on Downing Street for nearly four decades.
Mentioned in When the Boat Comes In (a song that prepares to list all the great things he has done... complete silence follows) and That Other Wiki tells us that he was mentioned in Upstairs Downstairs.
Referenced in classic 1960s BBC radio comedy Round the Horne, as Julian and Sandy's law firm is called (in polari
) 'Bona Law'.
His name can cause confusion. Whereas David Lloyd George had the surname "Lloyd George", Andrew Bonar Law's surname was just "Law". He usually used his middle name as his personal name, so he was usually called "Bonar Law". And note that it was pronounced "bonner", and not in the way you were thinking.
