document_title: Records of Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom

question_text: who is the longest serving prime minister of england

question_tokens: who is the longest serving prime minister of england

root

text: Records of Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom

text: Period of service[edit]

text: The Prime Minister with the longest single term was Sir Robert Walpole, lasting 20 years and 314 days from 4 April 1721 until 11 February 1742. This is also longer than the accumulated terms of any other Prime Minister.

tag: p

text:
The shortest period in office is more confused, depending on the criteria.
The shortest ever period was only three days, a record held by Lord Bath, from 10 February to 12 February 1746, who was asked to form a government but was unable to find more than one person who would agree to serve in his cabinet. A satirist of the time wrote: "the minister to the astonishment of all wise men never transacted one rash thing; and, what is more marvellous, left as much money in the Treasury as he found in it." James Waldegrave, 2nd Earl Waldegrave was a prime minister for four days, from 8 June to 12 June 1757. However, since neither of these Earls actually formed an effective government, there are other contenders for the record of shortest term of office among those who actually governed the country.

text: In November 1834, the Duke of Wellington declined to become Prime Minister in favour of Sir Robert Peel but formed a "caretaker" administration for 25 days (17 November 1834 – 9 December 1834) while Peel returned from Europe. However, as a caretaker administration this might not necessarily be considered a term of office in its own right.

text: Therefore, of those with clear and effective terms, the Prime Minister with the shortest single one was Lord Rockingham, whose second term lasted 96 days from 27 March 1782 until his death on 1 July 1782. However, combined with his first term (13 July 1765 – 30 July 1766) his total time in office was 1 year and 113 days, which exceeds the total periods of several other Prime Ministers. (The Duke of Wellington had also served as Prime Minister between 1828 and 1830.)

text: Consequently, the Prime Minister with the total shortest period in office was George Canning, whose sole term lasted 119 days from 10 April 1827 until his death on 8 August 1827.

text: The Prime Minister with the longest period between the start of their first appointment and the end of their final term was the Duke of Portland, whose first term began on 2 April 1783 and whose second and final term ended on 4 October 1809.

text: Number of terms[edit]

text: A Prime Minister's "term" is traditionally regarded as the period between their appointment and resignation, dismissal (or death, in the case of those who die in office), with the number of general elections taking place in the intervening period making no difference.

text: The only Prime Minister to serve four terms under that definition was William Ewart Gladstone (3 December 1868 – 20 February 1874, 23 April 1880 – 23 June 1885, 1 February 1886 – 25 July 1886 and 15 August 1892 – 5 March 1894).

text: Terms of Prime Ministers and reigns of sovereigns[edit]

text: The office of Prime Minister has coincided with the reigns of 11 British monarchs (including a Regency during the incapacity of George III from 1811 to his death in 1820), to whom the Prime Minister has been constitutionally head of government to the sovereign's headship of state.

text: Until 1837 the death of a sovereign led to Parliament being dissolved within six months which led to a general election. Results of such elections were:

text:
1727 – Sir Robert Walpole held
1761 – the Duke of Newcastle held
1820 – Lord Liverpool held
1830 – the Duke of Wellington defeated, Lord Grey appointed
1837 – Lord Melbourne held

tag: ul

text: Served under most sovereigns[edit]

text: Stanley Baldwin is the only Prime Minister to have served three sovereigns in succession – King George V, King Edward VIII and King George VI.

text: Through being in office at transitions between reigns, eight Prime Ministers each served under two sovereigns:

text:
Sir Robert Walpole – George I and George II
The Duke of Newcastle – George II and George III
Lord Liverpool – George III and George IV
The Duke of Wellington – George IV and William IV
Lord Melbourne – William IV and Queen Victoria
Lord  Salisbury – Queen Victoria and Edward VII
H. H. Asquith – Edward VII and George V
Sir Winston Churchill – George VI and Elizabeth II

text: Number of Prime Ministers serving during reign[edit]

text: George III had 14 Prime Ministers serving during his 59-year reign (reigned 1760–1820), beginning with the Duke of Newcastle. The last incumbent, Lord Liverpool, was the only one appointed by his son (the Prince Regent) during the father's final incapacity to rule.

text: In downward numerical order, numbers of Prime Ministers in office during other reigns are:

text:
Elizabeth II – 13, from Sir Winston Churchill to incumbent Theresa May (as of August 2018)
Victoria – 10, from Lord Melbourne to Lord Salisbury
George II – five, from Sir Robert Walpole to the Duke of Newcastle
George V – five, from H. H. Asquith to Stanley Baldwin
George IV – four, from Lord Liverpool to the Duke of Wellington
William IV – four, from the Duke of Wellington to Lord Melbourne
Edward VII – four, from Lord Salisbury to H. H. Asquith
George VI – four, from Stanley Baldwin to Winston Churchill
George I – one (Robert Walpole)
Edward VIII – one (Stanley Baldwin)

text: Prime Ministers born during reigns in which they held office[edit]

text: Only six Prime Ministers came to serve office under sovereigns in whose own reigns they were born. The present Prime Minister, Theresa May, is the third Prime Minister to have been born in the reign of the present sovereign Queen Elizabeth II.

text: King George III (reigned 1760–1820)

text:
Spencer Perceval (born 1762,[*] served 1809–12)
Lord Liverpool (born 1770, appointed 1812)

text: Queen Victoria (reigned 1837–1901)

text: Lord Rosebery (born 1847, served 1894–95)

text: Queen Elizabeth II (acceded 1952)

text:
Tony Blair (born 1953, served 1997–2007)
David Cameron (born 1966, served 2010–16)
Theresa May (born 1956, appointed 2016)

text: * ^ Perceval was assassinated in 1812. His is the only complete lifetime lived by a Prime Minister under a single sovereign.

text: Prime Ministers who lived under most reigns[edit]

text: Both Robert Walpole (1676–1745) and Lord Wilmington (c. 1673–1743) lived under the reigns of the same six sovereigns: Charles II, James II, William III and his joint sovereign Mary II, Queen Anne, George I and George II.

text: Sir Winston Churchill (1874–1965), Clement Attlee (1883–1967), Anthony Eden (1897–1977) and Harold Macmillan (1894–1986) all lived under the six reigns of Victoria, Edward VII, George V, Edward VIII, George VI and Elizabeth II.

text: Age[edit]

text: Age at appointment[edit]

text: The youngest Prime Minister to be appointed was William Pitt the Younger on 19 December 1783 at the age of 24 years, 6 months and 21 days.

text: The oldest Prime Minister to be appointed for the first time was Lord Palmerston on 6 February 1855 at the age of 70 years, 3 months and 17 days.

text: The oldest Prime Minister to be appointed overall, and oldest to win a General Election, was William Ewart Gladstone, who was born on 29 December 1809 and appointed for the final time on 15 August 1892 at the age of 82 years, 7 months and 3 days, following that year's General Election.

text: Age on leaving office[edit]

text: The youngest Prime Minister to leave office was the Duke of Grafton, who retired in 1770, aged 34. The oldest was Gladstone, who was 84 at the time of his final retirement in 1894.

text: Age differences of outgoing and incoming Prime Ministers[edit]

text: Greatest age difference – Lord Rosebery (born 7 May 1847) was 37 years 129 days younger than William Ewart Gladstone (born 29 December 1809) whom he succeeded after the final retirement of the latter in 1894.

text: Smallest age difference – George Canning (born 11 April 1770) was 67 days senior to Lord Liverpool (born 7 June 1770), whom he succeeded after Liverpool retired in 1827. Canning and Liverpool were one of four pairs of immediately consecutive Prime Ministers who shared a same birth year, the others being:

text:
William Pitt the Younger (served 1783–1801 and 1804–06) and Lord Grenville (served 1806–07) in 1759
Lord Aberdeen (served 1852–55) and Lord Palmerston (served 1855–58 and 1859–65) in 1784
Harold Wilson (served 1964–70 and 1974–76) and Edward Heath (served 1970–74) in 1916

text: The decade of the 1730s was the most productive for births of five future Prime Ministers – Lord Rockingham (born 1730, served 1765–66 and 1782), Lord North (born 1732, served 1770–82), the Duke of Grafton (born 1735, served 1768–70), Lord Shelburne (born 1737, served 1782–83) and the Duke of Portland (1738, served 1783 and 1807–09).

text: Longest lived[edit]

text: The longest-lived Prime Minister was James Callaghan, Baron Callaghan of Cardiff, who was born on 27 March 1912 and died on 26 March 2005 at the age of 92 years 364 days, which was the day before his 93rd birthday. Prior to this the longest living Prime Minister was Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton, who was born on 10 February 1894 and died on 29 December 1986 (aged 92 years, 322 days).

text: Of the four former Prime Ministers currently alive, the oldest is John Major, who was born on 29 March 1943 and is 75 years old. If he is still alive on 29 March 2036 (his 93rd birthday), he will surpass Callaghan's record and become the longest-lived Prime Minister.

text: Shortest lived[edit]

text: The shortest-lived Prime Minister was the Duke of Devonshire, who was born on 8 May 1720 and died on 2 October 1764 at the age of 44 years and 147 days.

text: Longest lived after office[edit]

text: The Prime Minister who lived the longest after leaving office for the final time was the Duke of Grafton, who left office on 28 January 1770 and died on 14 March 1811, a total of 41 years and 45 days.

text: In recent years, the Prime Minister who lived the longest after leaving office was Edward Heath, whose term ended on 4 March 1974; he died on 17 July 2005, 31 years and 135 days later.

text: Shortest lived after office[edit]

text: The Prime Minister who lived the shortest period after leaving office was Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, who resigned on 3 April 1908 and died just 19 days later on 22 April 1908, while still resident in 10 Downing Street.

text: Intervals between terms of office[edit]

text: The Duke of Portland was out of office between his two terms for 23 years and 101 days, from 19 December 1783 to 31 March 1807.

text: The shortest interval (or "fastest comeback") was achieved by Henry Pelham, who resigned on 10 February 1746 but returned to office two days later (12 February) when Lord Bath had been invited to form a ministry but failed to do so. The shortest interval where an intervening ministry had been formed was achieved by Lord Melbourne, who was out of office after being dismissed on 14 November 1834 but returned following the end of successor Sir Robert Peel's first ministry on 18 April 1835 – 155 days (under six months) later.

text: Female Prime Ministers[edit]

text: Of all Prime Ministers, only two have been female. Both were Conservative Party leaders.

text:
Margaret Thatcher (served 1979–90)
Theresa May (served 2016–present)

tag: ol

text: Birthplace[edit]

text: Two Prime Ministers were born in Ireland:

text:
Lord Shelburne was born in Dublin, Kingdom of Ireland before the Union of 1801.
The Duke of Wellington was born in Ireland: in one of Athy, Dublin or Dalgan Castle.

text: Bonar Law was born in the colony of New Brunswick in what is now Canada, the only Prime Minister born outside the British Isles.

text: All other Prime Ministers were born either in England (47) or Scotland (7). (Although generally considered a Welshman, David Lloyd George was actually born in Chorlton-on-Medlock, Lancashire.)

text: Facial hair[edit]

text: British male Prime Ministers when in office have been predominately clean shaven men, except for the following (as borne out by pictures):

text: Bearded

text:
Benjamin Disraeli (goatee) (served 1868 and 1874–80)
Lord Salisbury (only Prime Minister to wear a full-set beard; served 1885–86, 1886–92, 1895–1902)

text: Moustached when in office

text:
Arthur Balfour (served 1902–05)
Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman (served 1905–08)
David Lloyd George (served 1916–22)
Bonar Law (served 1922–23)
Ramsay MacDonald (served 1924 and 1929–35)
Neville Chamberlain (served 1937–40)
Clement Attlee (served 1945–51)
Sir Anthony Eden (served 1955–57)
Harold Macmillan (served 1957–63)

text: Side whiskers (sideburns)

text:
Lord Grey (served 1830–34)
Lord Melbourne (served 1834 and 1835–41)
Lord John Russell (served 1846–52 and 1865–66)
Lord Aberdeen (served 1852–55)
Lord Palmerston (served 1855–58 and 1859–65)
Lord Derby (served 1852, 1858–59 and 1866–68)
William Ewart Gladstone (served 1868–74, 1880–85, 1886 and 1892–94)

text: Ethnic minority Prime Ministers[edit]

text: The English are a majority within the United Kingdom. Several Prime Ministers have come from the other ethnic groups of the United Kingdom.

text: Irish

text:
Lord Shelburne (served 1782–83; had a large amount of English ancestry)
The Duke of Wellington (served 1828–30)
Lord Palmerston (served 1855–58 and 1859–65) –  represented an English constituency

text: Scottish

text:
Lord Bute (served 1762–63)
Lord Aberdeen (served 1852–55)
William Ewart Gladstone (served 1868–74, 1880–85, 1886 and 1892–94) – born in England to Scottish parents, represented a Scottish constituency (Midlothian) for his final three terms in office
Arthur Balfour (served 1902–05)
Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman (served 1905–08)
Bonar Law (served 1922–23) – born in Canada to Scottish parents
Ramsay MacDonald (served 1924 and 1929–35)
Tony Blair (served 1997–2007) – born in Scotland, and went to school there, but subsequently lived in England
Gordon Brown (served 2007–10)

text: Welsh

text: David Lloyd George (served 1916–22) – Welsh-speaking, only Prime Minister from a non-English-speaking background

text: Others

text: First British Prime Minister of Asian descent – Lord Liverpool whose mother was half-British, half-Indian; her Indian forebears were Hindus who had converted to Roman Catholicism,[1] making him Anglo-Indian.[2]

text: First ethnically Jewish British Prime Minister – Benjamin Disraeli (although religiously, his family joined the Church of England when he was nine).

text: Two other Prime Ministers are known to have had Jewish ancestors:

text:
James Callaghan's paternal grandmother, Elizabeth Bernstein, was Jewish.[3]
David Cameron is a great-great-grandson of Emile Levita, a German Jewish financier and a direct descendant of Renaissance scholar Elia Levita. Through Levita, Cameron is a descendant of the Levites, who themselves claim to be descended from Moses.[4] His wife, Cameron's great-great-grandmother, was a descendant of the wealthy Danish Jewish Rée family on her father's side.[5][6]

text: Religious minority Prime Ministers[edit]

text: Britain's Prime Ministers have been predominately Anglican by denomination, in an office which has had input into the appointment of that Church's bishops.  The first to hold the office from outside the English established church was Lord Bute, who was a member of the Scottish Episcopal Church, while the Duke of Grafton was the first to convert away by formally becoming a Unitarian, after leaving office. Tony Blair is the only British Prime Minister to become a Roman Catholic, albeit he converted after leaving office.

text: Prime Ministers of other denominations (when in office, unless otherwise stated) were:

text: Church of Scotland

text:
Arthur Balfour
Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman
Gordon Brown

text: Scottish Episcopal Church

text:
Lord Bute
Sir Alec Douglas-Home

text: Unitarian Church

text:
The Duke of Grafton – Church of England when in office, became member of Unitarian congregation in London in 1774.[7]
Neville Chamberlain

text: Congregationalist Church

text:
H. H. Asquith
Harold Wilson

text: Baptist

text:
David Lloyd George
James Callaghan – although he became atheist by the time he reached office while working as a trade union official.[8]

text: Free Church of Scotland

text:
Bonar Law
Ramsay MacDonald

text: Methodist Church of Great Britain

text: Margaret Thatcher – until 1951, was Anglican subsequently and while in office.

text: Roman Catholic Church

text: Tony Blair – Anglican while in office, he converted to Catholicism after leaving office in 2007.

text: Judaism

text: Benjamin Disraeli – until 1817, was Anglican subsequently and while in office.

text: Disabled Prime Ministers[edit]

text: At least seven Prime Ministers are known to have been physically disabled when in office:

text:
Lord Liverpool, who was incapacitated by a severe stroke on 17 February 1827,[9] forcing him to retire from office on 9 April 1827.
The Duke of Wellington, who was permanently deaf in his left ear after an operation (intended to improve hearing) in 1822.
William Ewart Gladstone, who lost the forefinger of his left hand in an accident with a firearm in 1842. (He also became partially blind by 1897, following his retirement from office.)
Sir Winston Churchill, who during his second term became increasingly deaf (condition onset in 1949) and had a series of strokes that led to his retirement and using a wheelchair in later years.[10]
Harold Macmillan, who was left with a slight limp and poor strength in his right hand, affecting his handwriting, after several wounds in the First World War.[11]
Gordon Brown, who lost the sight of one eye in a school rugby accident at age of sixteen.[12]
Theresa May, who has type 1 diabetes.[13]

text: Others became disabled after leaving office, notably:

text:
The Duke of Newcastle, who was left lame and speech-impaired after a stroke in December 1767.
Lord North, who lost his eyesight between 1786 and 1790.
Lord Rosebery, whose movement, hearing and eyesight were increasingly impaired between a stroke in 1918 and his death in 1929.
H. H. Asquith, who became a wheelchair user by his last year (1928) following a stroke.
Stanley Baldwin, 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley, who became deaf by October 1947, when he had to ask if a crowd cheering were booing him.[14]

text: Prior to taking office, and while serving as an MP, Alec Douglas-Home was immobilized following an operation to treat spinal tuberculosis from 1940 to 1943.

text: General elections[edit]

text: Most Prime Ministers in office between general elections[edit]

text: There have been two intervals between general elections, both in the 18th century, when on both occasions five successive Prime Ministers were in office.

text:
Between the general elections of 1761 and 1768: the Duke of Newcastle (resigned 26 May 1762), Lord Bute (resigned 8 April 1763), George Grenville (resigned 13 July 1765), Lord Rockingham (resigned 30 July 1766) and Lord Chatham (until dissolution of the parliament).
In the shorter interval between the general elections of 1780 and 1784: Lord North (resigned 22 March 1782), Lord Rockingham (second ministry, died in office 1 July 1782), Lord Shelburne (resigned 2 April 1783), the Duke of Portland (resigned 19 December 1783) and William Pitt the Younger (until dissolution of the parliament).

text: In modern times, since members of the House of Lords ceased to hold Prime Ministerial office (after 1902), there were three Prime Ministers in office between the general elections of 1935 and 1945: Stanley Baldwin (retired 28 May 1937), Neville Chamberlain (resigned 10 May, and subsequently died 1940) and Winston Churchill (until dissolution of the parliament).

text: Most general elections contested[edit]

text: The most number of general elections contested by an individual is six. H. H. Asquith contested the January 1910, December 1910, 1918, 1922, 1923 and the 1924 general elections.

text: The most number of general elections lost by an individual is five. Charles James Fox was unsuccessful after contesting the 1784, 1790, 1796, 1801 co-option and 1802 general elections, and subsequently never became Prime Minister. The most number of general elections won by an individual is four. Robert Walpole, Lord Liverpool, William Ewart Gladstone and Harold Wilson would all win four general elections.

text: Age at losing a general election[edit]

text: The youngest person to be on the losing side at a general election was Charles James Fox, who led his Whig Party to defeat in the 1784 general election when aged 35. The youngest Prime Minister to be on the losing side at a general election was Lord Rosebery, who, having resigned his ministry in May 1895, led his Liberal Party to defeat in the general election the following month when aged 48. Since peers ceased to hold this office (1902), the youngest losing Prime Minister was John Major, at 54 years and 33 days when the Conservative Party lost the 1997 general election.

text: William Ewart Gladstone, was the oldest, at 76 years, when his party lost the 1886 general election, although he returned to office in 1892. The oldest Prime Minister to be defeated without returning to office was Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, who was 75 when the Conservative Party lost the 1880 general election.

text: Age at winning a general election[edit]

text: The youngest Prime Minister to be on the winning side at a general election was William Pitt the Younger, who led his Tory Party to victory in the 1784 general election when aged 25. In recent years, the youngest Prime Minister to be on the winning side at a general election was David Cameron, who was 43 years and 209 days old when he led his Conservative Party to victory in the 2010 general election.

text: William Ewart Gladstone, was the oldest. He was 82 years of age when he returned to office after his Liberal Party were successful in the 1892 general election. The oldest Prime Minister to be victorious at a general election for the first time was Lord Palmerston, who was 72 years of age when his Whig Party won the 1857 general election.

text: Prime Ministers in office without a general election[edit]

text: Fourteen Prime Ministers never fought a general election while they held office (or to gain office), usually by serving terms sandwiched between the victor of one election and the Prime Minister who faced the next. Chronologically they were:

text:
Lord Wilmington
The Duke of Devonshire
Lord Bute
George Grenville
The Duke of Grafton
Lord Rockingham (served both his terms election-less)
Lord Shelburne
Spencer Perceval
George Canning
Lord Goderich
Lord Aberdeen
Lord Rosebery
Arthur Balfour[15]
Neville Chamberlain

text: Prime Ministers who served from (or later entered) the House of Lords[edit]

text: John Russell was unique in serving one entire term at Downing Street as Commons MP, when known as Lord John Russell (as younger son of a Duke of Bedford) in 1846–52, and his second and last entirely as a member of the Lords as the 1st Earl Russell in 1865–66, having been raised to the peerage between terms in 1861.

text: Without counting Lord Russell, eighteen Prime Ministers served their entire terms from the House of Lords where they were already members, chronologically:

text:
Lord Wilmington
The Duke of Newcastle[*]
The Duke of Devonshire
Lord Bute[*]
Lord Rockingham[*]
The Duke of Grafton
Lord Shelburne (later Lord Lansdowne)
Duke of Portland
Lord Grenville
Lord Liverpool
Lord Goderich (later Lord Ripon)
The Duke of Wellington
Lord Grey
Lord Melbourne
Lord Derby
Lord Aberdeen[*]
Lord Salisbury
Lord Rosebery[*]

text: * ^ These five Prime Ministers never served in the House of Commons during their political careers.

text: Three Prime Ministers were elevated from the Commons to the House of Lords during their terms through being raised to the peerage:

text:
Sir Robert Walpole, made the 1st Earl of Orford five days before formally resigning in 1742.
William Pitt the Elder, made the 1st Earl of Chatham five days after taking office in 1766.
Benjamin Disraeli, made the 1st Earl of Beaconsfield in 1876, two years after taking his second term of office in 1874.

text: Lord North succeeded to his father's peerage as the 2nd Earl of Guilford in 1790 after being in office.

text: Sir Alec Douglas-Home disclaimed his hereditary peerage as the 14th Earl of Home four days after coming to office in 1963 (under the Peerage Act of that year), giving up his seat in the Lords and subsequently sat in the Commons after succeeding in a by-election, pending which for 20 days he held office from neither House. He returned to the Lords when made life peer as Baron Home of the Hirsel in 1974.

text: Eleven Prime Ministers have served their entire terms as Members of the House of Commons but were elevated to the House of Lords afterwards by being created peers:

text:
Henry Addington became the 1st Viscount Sidmouth in 1805
Arthur Balfour became the 1st Earl of Balfour in 1922
H. H. Asquith became the 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith in 1925
Stanley Baldwin became the 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley in 1937
David Lloyd-George became the 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor in 1945 (22 years after being Prime Minister – although he did not live to take his seat in the Lords)
Clement Attlee became the 1st Earl Attlee in 1955
Sir Anthony Eden became the 1st Earl of Avon in 1961
Harold Wilson became Baron Wilson of Rievaulx in 1983 (life peer)
Harold Macmillan became the 1st Earl of Stockton in 1984
James Callaghan became Baron Callaghan of Cardiff in 1987 (life peer)
Margaret Thatcher became Baroness Thatcher in 1992 (life peer)

text: In contrast 17 Prime Ministers preceding the current (Theresa May) have never become members of the House of Lords. Henry Pelham (served 1743 to his death in 1754) was the first to be a lifelong 'Commoner' but the convention of Prime Ministers leading from the House of Commons only became established in the 20th century.

text: Holders of Irish peerages (with the exception of 28 Irish representative peers allowed after 1801, who were elected from among their peers) legally did not sit in the House of Lords in the Parliaments of Great Britain and the United Kingdom, but were allowed to sit in the House of Commons. Lord Palmerston was the only Irish peer to serve as Prime Minister, thus leading from the House of Commons.

text: Service in House of Commons[edit]

text: The shortest period between entering Parliament and being appointed Prime Minister was achieved by William Pitt the Younger who became Prime Minister two years after first becoming an MP. The longest period of service as an MP before becoming Prime Minister was 47 years for Lord Palmerston.

text: The oldest debut of a future Prime Minister as MP was by Neville Chamberlain who was elected, aged 49 years 261 days, at general election in 1918.[16]

text: The youngest at first election was Lord Euston (later the Duke of Grafton), who was elected at by election on 10 December 1756 aged 21 years and 73 days. He also had the shortest period as an MP enjoyed by a Prime Minister, nearly five months, representing two successive seats (the first of which he only held for 11 days before being elected for his second) until going to the House of Lords when he succeeded his father as the 3rd Duke of Grafton on 6 May 1757, eleven years before his term of office began.

text: The longest service as MP was enjoyed by Sir Winston Churchill, who sat for a total of 63 years and 360 days, for five successive seats, between 1 October 1900 and retiring on 25 September 1964, excluding two intervals out of parliament (in 1908 and 1922–24), retiring as Father of the House. He was in the Commons throughout both his terms as Prime Minister, and his service covered the terms of eleven other Prime Ministers, from Lord Salisbury (second ministry) to Sir Alec Douglas-Home, but did not serve under Bonar Law who was in office when Churchill was briefly out of parliament.

text: David Lloyd George had the longest unbroken career as an MP, for one seat, Carnarvon Boroughs, from a by-election on 10 April 1890 until his death (having received a peerage on 1 January 1945 but not been able to take his seat in the Lords) on 26 March 1945 – a period of 54 years and 350 days. From 1929 he had been Father of the House. It also covered the successive terms of eleven other Prime Ministers, from Lord Salisbury (first ministry) to Winston Churchill (first ministry).

text: Of intervals between service in the Commons, Sir Alec Douglas-Home had the longest between automatically vacating his seat at Lanark on 11 July 1951 by succeeding his father and going to the House of Lords as the 14th Earl of Home, and gaining his next seat at Kinross and Western Perthshire in a by-election on 7 November 1963 – a total of 12 years 123 days – after becoming Prime Minister and disclaiming his hereditary peerage. He had a previous interval out of the Commons between defeat in the 1945 General Election and returning in that of 1950 more than four years later.

text: Of parliamentary constituencies that have been represented, none have been represented by more than one serving Prime Minister. Four future Prime Ministers sat for Newport, Isle of Wight (constituency abolished 1832): Lord Palmerston and Sir Arthur Wellesley (later the Duke of Wellington) in 1807–09, George Canning in 1826–27 and William Lamb, later Lord Melbourne in April–May 1827.

text: It is rare for veteran Prime Ministers sitting in the Commons to lose seats through electoral defeat at subsequent general elections. Those who have are:

text:
Arthur Balfour (Manchester East) in 1906.
Herbert Asquith (East Fife) in 1918.
Ramsay MacDonald (Seaham) in 1935.

text: Prime Ministers who were Father of the House[edit]

text: Five Prime Ministers through longest unbroken service became Father of the House. Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman was the first Prime Minister to achieve this status, uniquely while in office, in 1907. He was still serving as an MP when he died shortly after retiring as Prime Minister. The others listed below became Father after the end of their terms. James Callaghan only 4 years and 36 days after end of office, while at the other extreme Edward Heath became Father 18 years after the end of his.

text:
Name

Entered House

Prime Minister

Became Father

Left House

Party

Constituency

Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman
1868
1905–1908
1907
1908 (died)

Liberal
Stirling Burghs

David Lloyd George
1890
1916–1922
1929
1945

Liberal
Caernarvon Boroughs

Sir Winston Churchill
1900
1940–19451951–1955
1959
1964

Conservative
Oldham (1900–06)Manchester North West (1906–08)Dundee (1908–22)Epping (1924–45)Woodford (1945–64)

James Callaghan
1945
1976–1979
1983
1987

Labour
Cardiff South and Penarth

Sir Edward Heath
1950
1970–1974
1992
2001

Conservative
Old Bexley and Sidcup

text: Education[edit]

text: School with most alumni Prime Ministers – Eton College – 19 (chronologically Sir Robert Walpole to David Cameron)

text: University with most alumni Prime Ministers – Oxford University – 27 (Lord Wilmington to Theresa May)

text: University college with most alumni Prime Ministers – Christ Church, Oxford – 13 (George Grenville to Sir Alec Douglas-Home)

text: Vocational institution with most Prime Ministers as students – The Inns of Court – 11 (Lord Wilmington to Tony Blair). Of these, eight passed through Lincoln's Inn (William Pitt the Younger to Tony Blair).

text: The first Prime Minister never to have been a university graduate was the Duke of Devonshire (served 1756–57), the last (as of 2018) was John Major (served 1990–97).

text: Armed forces veterans[edit]

text: The earliest Prime Minister to be an armed forces veteran was Henry Pelham, Prime Minister in 1743–54, who had served as a volunteer soldier in Dormer's regiment during the Jacobite rising of 1715 and fought at the Battle of Preston that year against the Jacobite forces.

text: As of 2018 the last Prime Minister to be an armed forces veteran was James Callaghan, Prime Minister in 1976–79, who served in the Royal Navy in the Second World War, from 1942 to 1945, seeing action with the East Indies Fleet and reaching the rank of Lieutenant. He was the only future Prime Minister to serve in the navy rather than the army.

text: In contrast to many nations, Britain has had only two Prime Ministers who have been military generals: Lord Shelburne, Prime Minister in 1782–83, who was promoted from Lieutenant-General to full General in the British Army in the latter year, and the Duke of Wellington, who achieved the supreme rank of Field Marshal in 1813. He was Prime Minister twice, in 1828–30 and 1834, in the interval between his two terms as Commander-in-Chief of the Forces. During his military career he took part in some 60 battles, seeing more wartime combat than any other future Prime Minister.

text: No future Prime Ministers have yet served in the flying services, although Neville Chamberlain, Prime Minister in 1937–40, and Sir Winston Churchill, Prime Minister in 1940–45 and 1951–55, were honorary Air Commodores in the Auxiliary Air Force during their respective terms of office.

text: Active service veterans[edit]

text: Jacobite Rising (1715)

text: Henry Pelham – Dormer's Regiment – fought Battle of Preston

text: Jacobite Rising (1745)

text: Lord Rockingham – Colonel of volunteers raised against invasion from Scotland

text: Seven Years' War

text: Lord Shelburne, Colonel, 20th Foot – Canada, France, Germany

text: French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars

text: The Duke of Wellington, Field Marshal, Army – Flanders, India, Peninsular War and Waterloo Campaign

text: In addition, the following served in home based militia, volunteer or yeomanry units raised during the same wars but were not deployed abroad:

text:
William Pitt the Younger, Colonel of volunteers (was serving when died in office 1806)
Lord Grenville, Major of yeomanry, Lieutenant-Colonel of volunteers
Henry Addington, Captain of volunteers
Spencer Perceval, Volunteer, London and Westminster Light Horse
Lord Liverpool, Colonel of fencible cavalry, later of militia
Lord Goderich, Major of yeomanry
Sir Robert Peel, Captain of militia
Lord Melbourne, Major of volunteer infantry
Lord Palmerston, Captain of volunteers, Lieutenant-Colonel of militia
Lord Russell, Captain of militia

text: Mahdist War

text: Sir Winston Churchill, Lieutenant, 4th Queen's Own Hussars, attached 21st Lancers

text: Boer War

text: Sir Winston Churchill, Lieutenant, South African Light Horse and war correspondent (prisoner of war)

text: First World War

text:
Sir Winston Churchill, Major, Grenadier Guards, later Lieutenant-Colonel, Royal Scots Fusiliers – Western Front
Clement Attlee, Major, South Lancashire Regiment – Gallipoli Campaign, Mesopotamian campaign and Western Front (wounded)
Sir Anthony Eden, Major, Rifle Brigade – Western Front
Harold Macmillan, Captain, Grenadier Guards – Western Front (wounded)

text: Second World War

text:
Edward Heath, Lieutenant-Colonel, Royal Artillery, North West Europe
James Callaghan, Lieutenant, Royal Navy, East Indies

text: War bereaved Prime Ministers[edit]

text: The following lost close relations in their lifetimes as a result of war:

text:
Lord Rosebery – one son killed in action, First World War
H. H. Asquith – one son killed in action, First World War (during his father's period in office)
Bonar Law – two sons killed in action, First World War
Anthony Eden – two brothers killed in action, First World War, and one son killed in action, Second World War
Alec Douglas-Home – one brother killed on active service, Second World War

text: Also:

text:
Lord Bute – one male line grandson (born in his lifetime) died serving aboard ship in the Napoleonic War
William Ewart Gladstone – two male line grandsons (born in his lifetime) were killed in action, First World War
Lord Salisbury – four male line grandsons (born in his lifetime) were killed in action, First World War

text: Decorated[edit]

text: The most decorated British Prime Minister was Sir Winston Churchill, KG, OM, CH, TD, who received a total of 38 orders, decorations and medals,[17] from the United Kingdom and thirteen other states (on continents of Europe, Africa, Asia and North America).  Ten were awarded for active service as an Army officer in Cuba, India, Egypt, South Africa, the United Kingdom, France and Belgium. The greater number of awards were given in recognition of his service as a minister of the British government.[18][19]

text: Churchill was also the first and so far only British Prime Minister to receive a Nobel Prize (for Literature, in 1953).

text: The most widely decorated Prime Minister by the number of states from which he received honours was the Duke of Wellington, KG, GCB, GCH, who is known to have received 28 orders, decorations and medals from the United Kingdom and seventeen other states (all in Europe), in recognition of his military services.

text: The British order of knighthood most frequently conferred on Prime Ministers has been the Order of the Garter, of which 30 male Prime Ministers (beginning with Sir Robert Walpole and later including Sir Winston Churchill and Sir Anthony Eden) have been Knight Companions (KG) and the first female, Margaret Thatcher, a Lady Companion (LG) of the Order. Nine Prime Ministers, including Thatcher, received it after serving office. As of 2018, the only currently living Knight among them is John Major, knighted in 2005.

text: The first and so far only Prime Minister to have received a British gallantry award was Sir Anthony Eden who won the Military Cross (MC) while serving in the army in the First World War, before entering parliament.

text: Number of living former Prime Ministers[edit]

text: None[edit]

text: After Sir Robert Walpole, three other Prime Ministers have been in office at a time when no former Prime Ministers were alive:

text:
Henry Pelham from the death of Robert Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford, in 1745 until his own death in 1754.
The Duke of Newcastle from the death of Pelham in 1754 until the end of his first term in 1756.
William Ewart Gladstone from the death of Disraeli in 1881 until the end of his second term in 1885.

text: One[edit]

text: After Lord Wilmington, eleven other Prime Ministers have been in office at a time when only one former Prime Minister has been alive:

text:
Henry Pelham from his appointment in August 1743 until the death of Robert Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford, in March 1745 only Walpole would be alive.
The Duke of Newcastle in his second term, (July 1757 to May 1762) only the Duke of Devonshire would be alive.
The Duke of Devonshire in his term, (November 1756 to June 1757) only the Duke of Newcastle would be alive.
Lord Russell in his second term, (October 1865 to June 1866) only Lord Derby would be alive.
Lord Derby in his third term, (June 1866 to February 1868) only Lord Russell would be alive.
Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, from the death of Lord Russell in May 1878 until the end of his second term in April 1880, only William Ewart Gladstone would be alive.
William Ewart Gladstone from his second appointment in April 1880 until the death of Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, in April 1881 only Disraeli would be alive. And in his third term (February 1886 to July 1886) and his fourth term (August 1892 to March 1894) only Lord Salisbury would be alive.
Lord Salisbury in his first term (June 1885 to January 1886) and second term (July 1886 to August 1892), only William Ewart Gladstone would be alive. And from the death of Gladstone in May 1898 until the end of his third term in July 1902 only Lord Rosebery would be alive.
Arthur Balfour from the death of Lord Salisbury in August 1903 until the end of his term in December 1905 only Lord Rosebery would be alive.
Sir Winston Churchill in his second term, (October 1951 to April 1955) only Clement Attlee would be alive.
Clement Attlee from the death of Stanley Baldwin, 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley, in November 1947 until the end of his term in October 1951 only Winston Churchill would be alive.

text: Most[edit]

text: The most living former Prime Ministers at any one time has been five, which has happened several times: the first time was between January and November 1770 (while Lord North was in office) and Lord Bute, George Grenville, Lord Rockingham, Pitt the Elder and the Duke of Grafton were still alive (Grenville died in November 1770); from 1964 to 1965 (while Wilson was in office) with Clement Attlee, Sir Winston Churchill, Sir Anthony Eden, Harold Macmillan and Sir Alec Douglas-Home (Churchill died in January 1965); from April 1976 to January 1977 (while Callaghan was in office) with Sir Anthony Eden, Harold Macmillan, Sir Alec Douglas-Home, Harold Wilson and Edward Heath (Eden died in January 1977); from May 1979 to December 1986 (while Thatcher was in office) with Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton; Alec Douglas-Home, Baron Home of the Hirsel; Sir Harold Wilson; Edward Heath; and James Callaghan (Macmillan died in December 1986). The most recent was between November 1990 and May 1995 (while John Major was in office) and Home, Wilson, Heath, Callaghan and Thatcher were still alive (Wilson died in May 1995).

text: Living former Prime Ministers[edit]

text: Currently there are four living former Prime Ministers, as of August 2018. From oldest to youngest:

text:
Sir John Majorserved 1990–97born 1943 (age 75)

Gordon Brownserved 2007–10born 1951 (age 67)

Tony Blairserved 1997–2007born 1953 (age 65)

David Cameronserved 2010–16born 1966 (age 51)

text: The most recent death of a former Prime Minister was that of Baroness Thatcher (served 1979–90) on 8 April 2013 (aged 87 years, 177 days).

text: Died in office[edit]

text: Seven Prime Ministers have died in office:

text:
Lord Wilmington, who died on 2 July 1743, aged 70.
Henry Pelham, who died on 6 March 1754, aged 59.
Lord Rockingham, who died on 1 July 1782, aged 52.
William Pitt the Younger, who died on 23 January 1806, aged 46, the youngest to die in office.
Spencer Perceval, who was assassinated by John Bellingham on 11 May 1812, aged 49.
George Canning, who died on 8 August 1827, aged 57.
Lord Palmerston, who died on 18 October 1865, aged 80 (two days before his 81st birthday); the oldest to die in office.

text: Spencer Perceval is the only British Prime Minister to have been assassinated. Sir Robert Peel, Margaret Thatcher and John Major survived assassination attempts in 1843, 1984 and 1991 respectively.

text: Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman and Bonar Law each resigned during their respective final illnesses. Law died five months after his resignation, but Campbell-Bannerman lived only another 19 days, dying at 10 Downing Street, the only Prime Minister ever to do so. Others who died within the same year they were Prime Minister were the Duke of Portland who died in 1809, 26 days after he left office and Neville Chamberlain, who died in 1940, six months (less a day) after he left office, of a cancer that was undiagnosed at the time of his resignation.

text: Died while immediate successor was in office[edit]

text: Nine Prime Ministers have died while their immediate successor was in office:

text:
The Duke of Portland died during Spencer Perceval's term.
Sir Robert Peel died during Lord John Russell's first term.
Lord Aberdeen died during Lord Palmerston's second term.
Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, died during William Ewart Gladstone's second term.
William Ewart Gladstone died during Lord Salisbury's third term.
Lord Salisbury died during Arthur Balfour's term.
Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman died during H. H. Asquith's term.
Bonar Law died during Stanley Baldwin's first term.
Neville Chamberlain died during Winston Churchill's first term.

text: All of the above-listed Prime Ministers were older than their immediate successors. The Duke of Portland and Lord Aberdeen are the only ones among this list who have both had immediate successors to die in office.

text: Married[edit]

text: The longest-married Prime Minister was James Callaghan who was married to his wife Audrey for 66 years from July 1938 until her death on 15 March 2005.

text: Three Prime Ministers married while in office, all to second wives:

text:
Sir Robert Walpole to Maria Skerrett before 3 March 1738; she died after a miscarriage on 4 June that year, after at least 93 days' marriage, making this the shortest marriage enjoyed by a Prime Minister (although she previously cohabited as his mistress).
The Duke of Grafton to Elizabeth Wrottesley on 24 June 1769; she survived him, dying in 1822.
Lord Liverpool to Lady Maria Chester on 24 September 1822; she survived him.

text: Widowed[edit]

text: Widowed the longest[edit]

text:
The British Prime Minister widowed the longest is Lord Rosebery who died more than 38 years after his wife.
Recently, the British Prime Minister widowed the longest is Harold Macmillan, who was widowed from 21 May 1966 to his death on 29 December 1986, a total of over 20 years.

text: Widowed the shortest[edit]

text: The British Prime Minister widowed the shortest is James Callaghan, who died on 26 March 2005. His wife, Audrey Callaghan, died on 15 March 2005, only 11 days before him.

text: Other widowed Prime Ministers[edit]

text:
Sir Robert Walpole (twice widowed, when in office: 1737 and 1738)
The Duke of Devonshire
George Grenville
Lord Shelburne (twice widowed)
Henry Addington
Lord Liverpool (widowed when in office: 1821; remarried)
The Duke of Wellington
Lord Melbourne
Lord Russell (remarried)
Lord Aberdeen (twice widowed)
Benjamin Disraeli
Lord Salisbury (when in office: 1899)
Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman (when in office: 1906)
H. H. Asquith (remarried)
David Lloyd George (remarried)
Bonar Law
Stanley Baldwin
Ramsay MacDonald
Clement Attlee
Alec Douglas-Home
Margaret Thatcher

text: Divorced[edit]

text: Only two British Prime Ministers have been divorced:

text:
The Duke of Grafton divorced his first wife, Anne (née Liddell), by Act of Parliament passed 23 March 1769, during his term of office, then remarried on 24 June that year to Elizabeth Wrottesley. (Anne remarried on 26 March 1769 to John FitzPatrick, 2nd Earl of Upper Ossory and died in 1804 in Grafton's lifetime.)
Sir Anthony Eden, divorced his first wife Beatrice (née Beckett) in 1950 then remarried two years later to Clarissa Spencer-Churchill on 14 August 1952, before his term of office began. (Beatrice never remarried and died in 1957 in Eden's lifetime.)

text: Kindred Prime Ministers[edit]

text: At least 24 British Prime Ministers were related to at least one other Prime Minister by blood or marriage.

text: Fathers and Sons[edit]

text: Two sets of father and son have successively held the office:

text:
Lord Chatham (aka "Pitt the Elder") and William Pitt the Younger
George Grenville and Lord Grenville

text: Brothers[edit]

text: The only brothers to hold the office were Henry Pelham, who was succeeded on his death in 1754 by the Duke of Newcastle.

text: Full cousins[edit]

text: Pitt the Younger and Lord Grenville (who directly succeeded the latter in office) were the only set of full cousins to hold the office, their fathers being brothers-in-law.

text: Uncles and Nephews[edit]

text: There have been three blood uncle-nephew sets of Prime Ministers:

text:
Lord Chatham and Lord Grenville
George Grenville and William Pitt the Younger
Lord Salisbury and Arthur Balfour, who succeeded Salisbury in office after the latter's last term. The phrase "Bob's your uncle" is said to have originated in connection with this set, from ministerial promotions Balfour gained under Salisbury.[20][21]

text: Great-great-uncle and Great-great-nephew[edit]

text: Lord Wilmington was two-greats uncle of Spencer Perceval, whose mother, Catherine (née Compton), Baroness Arden, was a blood great-niece of Wilmington.

text: Father-in-law and Son-in-law[edit]

text: The Duke of Portland, married in 1766 Lady Dorothy Cavendish, daughter of the Duke of Devonshire (who had died in 1764).

text: Brothers-in-law[edit]

text:
Pitt the Elder was married from 1754 to George Grenville's sister Hester.
Lord Palmerston was married from 1839 to Lord Melbourne's sister Emily, dowager Countess Cowper.

text: Uncle-in-law and Nephew-in-law[edit]

text: Sir Winston Churchill and Sir Anthony Eden. In 1952, during Churchill's second term, Eden married Clarissa, daughter of John Strange Spencer-Churchill, Winston's brother, before succeeding to the office.

text: Great-uncle-in-law and Great-nephew-in-law[edit]

text: Lord Grenville was married from 1792 to Anne Pitt, daughter of Thomas Pitt, 1st Baron Camelford who was a nephew of William Pitt the Elder.

text: Other connections[edit]

text: The Duke of Devonshire had family connections in different ways with five further Prime Ministers:

text:
Sir Robert Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford – Devonshire's sister Lady Rachel Cavendish was married from 1748 to Horatio Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford (second creation), whose father, Horatio Walpole, 1st Baron Walpole was Robert's brother.
Lord Shelburne, later Lord Lansdowne, whose great-grandson Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice, 5th Marquess of Lansdowne was father of Lady Evelyn Fitzmaurice who married in 1892 the 4th Duke's great-great-grandson Victor Cavendish, 9th Duke of Devonshire and also became mother-in-law of Harold Macmillan through her daughter Lady Dorothy Macmillan.
Lord Melbourne, whose brother, George Lamb, married in 1809 Lady Caroline St Jules, daughter of William Cavendish, 5th Duke of Devonshire and granddaughter of the 4th Duke.
Lord Russell, later the 1st Earl Russell, who became great-great uncle of Lady Dorothy Macmillan, the wife of Harold Macmillan. (The intervening chain of descent being Russell's sister, Louisa Hamilton, Duchess of Abercorn, who was mother of Maud Petty-Fitzmaurice, Marchioness of Lansdowne, in turn mother of Evelyn Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire, the mother of Dorothy.)
Harold Macmillan, who married in 1920 Lady Dorothy Cavendish, daughter of the 9th Duke of Devonshire and 3-greats-granddaughter of the 4th Duke.

text: Lord John Russell, later the 1st Earl Russell, was connected in different ways to two further Prime Ministers:

text:
Lord Aberdeen, whose first wife, Lady Catherine Hamilton was sister of James Hamilton, Viscount Hamilton, who was father of James Hamilton, 1st Duke of Abercorn who in 1832 married Russell's sister, Lady Louisa Jane Russell.
Sir Winston Churchill twice:
Churchill's paternal great-great grandfather George Spencer, 4th Duke of Marlborough married in 1762 Lady Caroline Russell, daughter of John Russell, 4th Duke of Bedford, who was Lord Russell's paternal grandfather via the 6th Duke of Bedford.
Churchill's paternal uncle, George Spencer-Churchill, 8th Duke of Marlborough, married in 1868 Lady Albertha Hamilton daughter of the above 1st Duke of Abercorn.

text: Frederick North, Lord North (later Lord Guilford) and Lord Bute – North's granddaughter, Lady Maria North, married Bute's great-grandson John Crichton-Stuart, 2nd Marquess of Bute.

text: The Duke of Wellington and Lord Salisbury – Salisbury's paternal aunt Lady Georgiana Cecil married Henry Wellesley, 1st Baron Cowley, Wellington's brother.

text: Lord Derby and Lord Rosebery – Rosebery's son Neil Primrose, married in 1915 Lady Victoria Stanley, daughter of the 17th Earl of Derby and great-granddaughter of the 14th Earl.

text: Miscellaneous[edit]

text: The Prime Minister who had the most children is Lord Grey, who fathered 17 children (16 legitimate, one illegitimate).

text: The tallest Prime Minister is believed to be Lord Salisbury, who was around 6 feet 4 inches (1.93 m) in height,[22] although Downing Street's own website lists 6-foot-1-inch (1.85 m) James Callaghan as the tallest.[23]

text: The longest personal name held by a British Prime Minister was that of Lord Derby whose three forenames and double-barreled surname – Edward George Geoffrey Smith-Stanley – total 32 letters. The shortest baptismal names, each 10 letters long, were held by Lord Bute who was plain John Stuart, and Sir Robert Peel. John Major was baptised "John Roy Major" but his birth certificate simply read "John Major", and so his legal name has only nine letters. (He used the middle name until the 1980s.)[24]

text: The richest Prime Minister was Lord Derby, with a personal fortune of over £7 million (about £444 million in today's money).[25] The poorest was William Pitt the Younger, who was £40,000 (now over £1 million) in debt by 1800.[26][27]

text: Three Prime Ministers ultimately died as a result of accidents:

text:
Lord Bute (fall at a home in Hampshire, died from complications at his London home) on 10 March 1792, aged 78, nearly 29 years after leaving office.
Sir Robert Peel (fall from his horse while riding in London), on 2 July 1850, aged 62, four years after leaving office.
Lord Salisbury (fall from his chair at Hatfield House), on 23 August 1903, aged 73, the year after leaving office.


document_title: Sister Christian

question_text: what does motoring mean in the song sister christian

text: Sister Christian

text: Origin and meaning[edit]

text: The song is about Keagy's little sister, Christy. Keagy wrote the song at his apartment, near Divisadero and California streets in San Francisco, after he had just returned from a visit to his hometown of Eugene, Oregon. He had been struck at how fast his teenaged sister, 10 years younger than he was, was growing up.[3]

text: "After we started playing it a lot, Jack turned to me and said, 'What exactly are you saying?'" Keagy recalled. "He thought the words were Sister Christian, instead of Sister Christy, so it just stuck."[3]

text: The lyric, "You're motoring. What's your price for flight? In finding Mr. Right?" is the subject of much debate. The band stated in a VH-1 Behind the Music interview[4] that the term "motoring" was synonymous with the term "cruising."

text: Differences between album version and 7" single version[edit]

text: On the single version, part of the second chorus is omitted. More specifically, the words "You've got him in your sight. And driving through the night," are omitted from the single version. The third chorus is repeated once on the album version, but not on the single.[5]

text: Music video[edit]

text: The music video (which uses the shorter single version) was filmed in San Rafael High School.

text: Other versions[edit]

text: A newly recorded acoustic version of the song was produced for the band's ninth album, Hole in the Sun.[6] A medley at the beginning of the movie Rock of Ages starts with a cover of this song.

text: Glee covered the song in its Season Four premiere episode, "The New Rachel." It was sung by junior student Brody Weston (portrayed by Dean Geyer) in the co-ed bathrooms of NYADA. Foster Farms covered the song with singing chickens.[7] Jensen Ackles covered the song at VegasCon 2015 Salute to Supernatural Las Vegas 2015, with the band Louden Swain, and Rob Benedict.[8][9]

text: Chart performance[edit]

text:
Chart (1984)
Peak
position

Australia (Kent Music Report)
99

Canada (RPM)[10]
1

Germany (Media Control Charts)[11]
67

U.S. Billboard Hot 100
5

U.S. Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks
2

tag: table

text: In popular culture[edit]

text: On ESPN's NFL Primetime, Chris Berman called former running back Bob Christian Bob "Sister" Christian.[citation needed] In the video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, the song was played on Emotion 98.3, which was one of the radio stations in the game.

text: In an episode of Parks and Recreation from 2014, Yo La Tengo dressed as Indiana basketball coach Bob Knight and performed "Sister Christian" as the 'Bobby Knight Rangers'. The song appears multiple times in American Dad!, and prominently in a key scene in Boogie Nights. The song is briefly featured in the 2009 film Friday the 13th.


document_title: Agriculture in China

question_text: where does most farming take place in china

text: Agriculture in China

text: History[edit]

text: The development of farming over the course of China's history has played a key role in supporting the growth of what is now the largest population in the world. Analysis of stone tools by Professor Liu Li and others has shown that the origins of Chinese agriculture is rooted in the pre-agricultural Paleolithic. During this time, hunter-gatherers harvested wild plants with the same tools that would later be used for millet and rice.[2]

text: Remains of domesticated millet have been found in northern China at Xinglonggou, Yuezhang, Dadiwan, Cishan, and several Peiligang sites. These sites cover a period over 6250-5050 BCE.[3] The amount of domesticated millet eaten at these sites was proportionally quite low compared to other plants. At Xinglonggou, millet made up only 15% of all plant remains around 6200-5400 BCE; a ratio that changed to 99% by 2050-1550 BCE.[4] Experiments have shown that millet requires very little human intervention to grow, which means that obvious changes in the archaeological record that could demonstrate millet was being cultivated do not exist.[3]

text: Excavations at Kuahuqiao, the earliest known Neolithic site in eastern China, have documented rice cultivation 7,700 years ago.[5] Approximately half of the plant remains belonged to domesticated japonica species, whilst the other half were wild types of rice. It is possible that the people at Kuahuqiao also cultivated the wild type.[3] Finds at sites of the Hemudu Culture (c.5500-3300 BCE) in Yuyao and Banpo near Xi'an include millet and spade-like tools made of stone and bone. Evidence of settled rice agriculture has been found at the Hemudu site of Tianluoshan (5000-4500 BCE), with rice becoming the backbone of the agricultural economy by the Majiabang culture in southern China.[6]

text: There is also a long tradition involving agriculture in Chinese mythology. In his book Permanent Agriculture: Farmers of Forty Centuries (1911), Professor Franklin Hiram King described and extolled the values of the traditional farming practices of China.[7]

text: Farming method improvements[edit]

text: Due to China's status as a developing country and its severe shortage of arable land, farming in China has always been very labor-intensive. However, throughout its history, various methods have been developed or imported that enabled greater farming production and efficiency. They also utilized the seed drill to help improve on row farming.

text: During the Spring and Autumn period (722–481 BC), two revolutionary improvements in farming technology took place. One was the use of cast iron tools and beasts of burden to pull plows, and the other was the large-scale harnessing of rivers and development of water conservation projects. The engineer Sunshu Ao of the 6th century BC and Ximen Bao of the 5th century BC are two of the oldest hydraulic engineers from China, and their works were focused upon improving irrigation systems.[8] These developments were widely spread during the ensuing Warring States period (403–221 BC), culminating in the enormous Du Jiang Yan Irrigation System engineered by Li Bing by 256 BC for the State of Qin in ancient Sichuan.

text: For agricultural purposes the Chinese had invented the hydraulic-powered trip hammer by the 1st century BC, during the ancient Han Dynasty (202 BC-220 AD).[9] Although it found other purposes, its main function was to pound, decorticate, and polish grain that otherwise would have been done manually. The Chinese also innovated the square-pallet chain pump by the 1st century AD, powered by a waterwheel or an oxen pulling on a system of mechanical wheels.[10] Although the chain pump found use in public works of providing water for urban and palatial pipe systems,[11] it was used largely to lift water from a lower to higher elevation in filling irrigation canals and channels for farmland.[12]

text: During the Eastern Jin (317–420) and the Northern and Southern Dynasties (420–589), the Silk Road and other international trade routes further spread farming technology throughout China. Political stability and a growing labor force led to economic growth, and people opened up large areas of wasteland and built irrigation works for expanded agricultural use. As land-use became more intensive and efficient, rice was grown twice a year and cattle began to be used for plowing and fertilization.

text: By the Tang Dynasty (618–907), China had become a unified feudal agricultural society. Improvements in farming machinery during this era included the moldboard plow and watermill. Later during the Yuan Dynasty (1271–1368), cotton planting and weaving technology were extensively adopted and improved.

text: While around 750, 75% of China's population lived north of the river Yangtze, by 1250, 75% of the population lived south of the river. Such large-scale internal migration was possible due to the introduction of quick-ripening strains of rice from Vietnam suitable for multi-cropping.[13]

text: The Qing, Ming and Yuan dynasties had seen the rise of collective help organizations between farmers.[14]

text: In 1909 US Professor of Agriculture Franklin Hiram King made an extensive tour of China (as well as Japan and briefly Korea) and he described contemporary agricultural practices. He favourably described the farming of China as 'permanent agriculture' and his book 'Farmers of Forty Centuries', published posthumously in 1911, has become an agricultural classic and has been a favoured reference source for organic farming advocates.

text: People's Republic of China[edit]

text: Following the Communist Party of China's victory in the Chinese Civil War, control of the farmlands was taken away from landlords and redistributed to the 300 million peasant farmers.[15] In 1952, gradually consolidating its power following the civil war, the government began organizing the peasants into teams. Three years later, these teams were combined into producer cooperatives, enacting the Socialist goal of collective land ownership. In the following year, 1956, the government formally took control of the land, further structuring the farmland into large government-operated collective farms.

text: In the 1958 "Great Leap Forward" campaign initiated by Mao Zedong, land use was placed under closer government control in an effort to improve agricultural output. In particular, the Great sparrow campaign had a direct negative impact on agriculture. Collectives were organized into communes, private food production was banned, and collective eating was required. Greater emphasis was also put on industrialization instead of agriculture. The farming inefficiencies created by this campaign led to The Great Chinese Famine, resulting in the deaths of somewhere between the government estimate of 14 million to scholarly estimates of 20 to 43 million.[16] Although private plots of land were re-instated in 1962 due to this failure, communes remained the dominant rural unit of economic organization during the Cultural Revolution, with Mao championing the "Learn from Tachai" campaign. Tachai's semiliterate party secretary Chen Yonggui was among those outmaneuvered by Deng Xiaoping after the death of Mao: from 1982–1985, the Dazhai-style communes were gradually replaced by townships.

text: Beginning in 1978, as part of the Four Modernizations campaign, the Family Production Responsibility System was created, dismantling communes and giving agricultural production responsibility back to individual households. Households are now given crop quotas that they were required to provide to their collective unit in return for tools, draft animals, seeds, and other essentials. Households, which now lease land from their collectives, are free to use their farmland however they see fit as long as they meet these quotas. This freedom has given more power to individual families to meet their individual needs. In addition to these structural changes, the Chinese government also engages in irrigation projects (such as the Three Gorges Dam), runs large state farms, and encourages mechanization and fertilizer use.[17]

text: By 1984, when about 99% of farm production teams had adopted the Family Production Responsibility System, the government began further economic reforms, aimed primarily at liberalizing agricultural pricing and marketing. In 1984, the government replaced mandatory procurement with voluntary contracts between farmers and the government. Later, in 1993, the government abolished the 40-year-old grain rationing system, leading to more than 90 percent of all annual agricultural produce to be sold at market-determined prices.

text: Since 1994, the government has instituted a number of policy changes aimed at limiting grain importation and increasing economic stability. Among these policy changes was the artificial increase of grain prices above market levels. This has led to increased grain production, while placing the heavy burden of maintaining these prices on the government. In 1995, the "Governor’s Grain Bag Responsibility System" was instituted, holding provincial governors responsible for balancing grain supply and demand and stabilizing grain prices in their provinces. Later, in 1997, the "Four Separations and One Perfection" program was implemented to relieve some of the monetary burdens placed on the government by its grain policy.[18]

text: As China continues to industrialize, vast swaths of agricultural land is being converted into industrial land. Farmers displaced by such urban expansion often become migrant labor for factories, but other farmers feel disenfranchised and cheated by the encroachment of industry and the growing disparity between urban and rural wealth and income.[19]

text: The most recent innovation in Chinese agriculture is a push into organic agriculture.[20] This rapid embrace of organic farming simultaneously serves multiple purposes, including food safety, health benefits, export opportunities, and, by providing price premiums for the produce of rural communities, the adoption of organics can help stem the migration of rural workers to the cities.[20] In the mid-1990s China became a net importer of grain, since its unsustainable practises of groundwater mining has effectively removed considerable land from productive agricultural use.[citation needed]

text: Major agricultural products[edit]

text: Crop distribution[edit]

text: Although China's agricultural output is the largest in the world, only about 15% of its total land area can be cultivated. China's arable land, which represents 10% of the total arable land in the world, supports over 20% of the world's population. Of this approximately 1.4 million square kilometers of arable land, only about 1.2% (116,580 square kilometers) permanently supports crops and 525,800 square kilometers are irrigated.[21] The land is divided into approximately 200 million households, with an average land allocation of just 0.65 hectares (1.6 acres).

text: China's limited space for farming has been a problem throughout its history, leading to chronic food shortage and famine. While the production efficiency of farmland has grown over time, efforts to expand to the west and the north have met with limited success, as such land is generally colder and drier than traditional farmlands to the east. Since the 1950s, farm space has also been pressured by the increasing land needs of industry and cities.

text: Peri-urban agriculture[edit]

text: Such increases in the sizes of cities, such as the administrative district of Beijing's increase from 4,822 km² in 1956 to 16,808 km² in 1958, has led to the increased adoption of peri-urban agriculture. Such "suburban agriculture" led to more than 70% of non-staple food in Beijing, mainly consisting of vegetables and milk, to be produced by the city itself in the 1960s and 1970s. Recently, with relative food security in China, periurban agriculture has led to improvements in the quality of the food available, as opposed to quantity. One of the more recent experiments in urban agriculture is the Modern Agricultural Science Demonstration Park in Xiaotangshan.[22]

text: Food crops[edit]

text: About 75% of China's cultivated area is used for food crops. Rice is China's most important crop, raised on about 25% of the cultivated area. The majority of rice is grown south of the Huai River, in the Zhu Jiang delta, and in the Yunnan, Guizhou, and Sichuan provinces.

text: Wheat is the second most-prevalent grain crop, grown in most parts of the country but especially on the North China Plain, the Wei and Fen River valleys on the Loess plateau, and in Jiangsu, Hubei, and Sichuan provinces. Corn and millet are grown in north and northeast China, and oat is important in Inner Mongolia and Tibet.

text: Other crops include sweet potatoes in the south, white potatoes in the north, and various other fruits and vegetables. Tropical fruits are grown on Hainan Island, apples and pears are grown in northern Liaoning and Shandong.

text: Oil seeds are important in Chinese agriculture, supplying edible and industrial oils and forming a large share of agricultural exports. In North and Northeast China, Chinese soybeans are grown to be used in tofu and cooking oil. China is also a leading producer of peanuts, which are grown in Shandong and Hebei provinces. Other oilseed crops are sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, rapeseed, and the seeds of the tung tree.

text: Citrus is a major cash crop in southern China, with production scattered along and south of the Yangtze River valley. Mandarins are the most popular citrus in China, with roughly double the output of oranges.[23]

text: Other important food crops for China include green and jasmine teas (popular among the Chinese population), black tea (as an export), sugarcane, and sugar beets. Tea plantations are located on the hillsides of the middle Yangtze Valley and in the southeast provinces of Fujian and Zhejiang. Sugarcane is grown in Guangdong and Sichuan, while sugar beets are raised in Heilongjiang province and on irrigated land in Inner Mongolia. Lotus is widely cultivated throughout southern China.[24][25] Arabica coffee is grown in the southwestern province of Yunnan.[26]

text: Fiber crops[edit]

text: China is the leading producer of cotton, which is grown throughout, but especially in the areas of the North China Plain, the Yangtze river delta, the middle Yangtze valley, and the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Other fiber crops include ramie, flax, jute, and hemp. Sericulture, the practice of silkworm raising, is also practiced in central and southern China.

text: Livestock[edit]

text: China has a large livestock population, with pigs and fowls being the most common. China’s pig population and pork production mainly lie along the Yangtze River. In 2011, Sichuan province had 51 million pigs (11% of China’s total supply).[27] In rural western China, sheep, goats, and camels are raised by nomadic herders.[28] In Tibet, yaks are raised as a source of food, fuel, and shelter. Cattle, water buffalo, horses, mules, and donkeys are also raised in China, and dairy has recently been encouraged by the government, even though approximately 92.3% of the adult population is affected by some level of lactose intolerance.

text: As demand for gourmet foods grows, production of more exotic meats increases as well. Based on survey data from 684 Chinese turtle farms (less than half of the all 1,499 officially registered turtle farms in the year of the survey, 2002), they sold over 92,000 tons of turtles (around 128 million animals) per year; this is thought to correspond to the industrial total of over 300 million turtles per year.[29]

text: Increased incomes and increased demand for meat, especially pork, has resulted in demand for improved breeds of livestock, breeding stock imported particularly from the United States. Some of these breeds are adapted to factory farming.[30]

text: Fishing[edit]

text: China accounts for about one-third of the total fish production of the world. Aquaculture, the breeding of fish in ponds and lakes, accounts for more than half of its output. The principal aquaculture-producing regions are close to urban markets in the middle and lower Yangtze valley and the Zhu Jiang delta.

text: Production[edit]

text: In its first fifty years, the People's Republic of China greatly increased agricultural production through organizational and technological improvements.

text:
Crop[31]
1949 Output (tons)
1978 Output (tons)
1999 Output (tons)

1.
Grain
113,180,000
304,770,000
508,390,000

2.
Cotton
444,000
2,167,000
3,831,000

3.
Oil-bearing crops
2,564,000
5,218,000
26,012,000

4.
Sugarcane
2,642,000
21,116,000
74,700,000

5.
Sugarbeet
191,000
2,702,000
8,640,000

6.
Flue-cured tobacco
43,000
1,052,000
2,185,000

7.
Tea
41,000
268,000
676,000

8.
Fruit
1,200,000
6,570,000
62,376,000

9.
Meat
2,200,000
8,563,000
59,609,000

10.
Aquatic products
450,000
4,660,000
41,220,000

text: However, since 2000 the depletion of China's main aquifers has led to an overall decrease in grain production, turning China into a net importer. The trend of Chinese dependence on imported food is expected to accelerate as the water shortage worsens.[32] Despite their potential, desalination plants find few customers because it is still cheaper to over-utilize rivers, lakes and aquifers, even as these are depleted.[33]

text: Today, China is both the world's largest producer and consumer of agricultural products.[34][35] However, the researcher Lin Erda has stated a projected fall of possibly 14% to 23% by 2050 due to water shortages and other impacts by climate change; China has increased the budget for agriculture by 20% in 2009, and continues to support energy efficiency measures, renewable technology, and other efforts with investments, such as the over 30% green component of the $586bn fiscal stimulus package announced in November 2008.[36]

text: Challenges[edit]

text: Inefficiencies in the agricultural market[edit]

text: Despite rapid growth of in output, the Chinese agricultural sector still faces several challenges. Farmers in several provinces, such as Shandong, Zhejiang, Anhui, Liaoning, and Xinjiang often have a hard time selling their agricultural products to customers due to a lack of information about current conditions.[37]

text: Between the producing farmer in the countryside and the end-consumer in the cities there is a chain of intermediaries.[37] Because a lack of information flows through them, farmers find it difficult to foresee the demand for different types of fruits and vegetables. In order to maximize their profits they, therefore, opt to produce those fruits and vegetables that created the highest revenues for farmers in the region in the previous year. If, however, most farmers do so, this causes the supply of fresh products to fluctuate substantially year on year. Relatively scarce products in one year are produced in excess the following year because like of expected higher profit margins. The resulting excess supply, however, forces farmers to reduce their prices and sell at a loss. The scarce, revenue creating products of one year become the over-abundant, loss-making products in the following, and vice versa.[38]

text: Efficiency is further impaired in the transportation of agricultural products from the farms to the actual markets. According to figures from the Commerce Department, up to 25% of fruits and vegetables rot before being sold, compared to around 5% in a typical developed country. As intermediaries cannot sell these rotten fruits they pay farmers less than they would if able to sell all or most of the fruits and vegetables. This reduces farmer’s revenues although the problem is caused by post-production inefficiencies, which they are not themselves aware of during price negotiations with intermediaries.[39]

text: These information and transportation problems highlight inefficiencies in the market mechanisms between farmers and end consumers, impeding farmers from taking advantage of the fast development of the rest of the Chinese economy. The resulting small profit margin does not allow them to invest in the necessary agricultural inputs (machinery, seeds, fertilizers, etc.) to raise productivity and improve their standards of living, from which the whole of the Chinese economy would benefit. This in turn increases the exodus of people from the countryside to the cities, which already face urbanization issues.[40]

text: International trade[edit]

text: China is the world's largest importer of soybeans and other food crops,[41] and is expected to become the top importer of farm products within the next decade.[42] In 2017, farmers in the providence of Donggaozhuang began selling yarn in an online marketplace owned by Alibaba Group. Many farmers later sold their farmland to focus on online sales as the access to global consumers yielded much more income then traditional farming. [43]

text: While most years China's agricultural production is sufficient to feed the country, in down years, China has to import grain. Due to the shortage of available farm land and an abundance of labor, it might make more sense to import land-extensive crops (such as wheat and rice) and to save China's scarce cropland for high-value export products, such as fruits, nuts, or vegetables. In order to maintain grain independence and ensure food security, however, the Chinese government has enforced policies that encourage grain production at the expense of more-profitable crops. Despite heavy restrictions on crop production, China's agricultural exports have greatly increased in recent years.[44]

text: Governmental influence[edit]

text: One important motivator of increased international trade was China's inclusion in the World Trade Organization (WTO) on December 11, 2001, leading to reduced or eliminated tariffs on much of China's agricultural exports. Due to the resulting opening of international markets to Chinese agriculture, by 2004 the value of China's agricultural exports exceeded $17.3 billion (US). Since China's inclusion in the WTO, its agricultural trade has not been liberalized to the same extent as its manufactured goods trade. Markets within China are still relatively closed-off to foreign companies. Due to its large and growing population, it is speculated that if its agricultural markets were opened, China would become a consistent net importer of food, possibly destabilizing the world food market. The barriers enforced by the Chinese government on grains are not transparent because China’s state trading in grains is conducted through its Cereal, Oil, and Foodstuffs Importing and Exporting Corporation (COFCO).[45]

text: Food safety[edit]

text: As a developing nation, China has relatively low sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) standards for its agricultural goods. Corruption in the government, such as the bribery of the former head of the State Food and Drug Administration Zheng Xiaoyu, has also complicated China's regulation difficulties.[46] Excessive pesticide residues, low food hygiene, unsafe additives, contamination with heavy metals and other contaminants, and misuse of veterinary drugs have all led to trade restrictions with developed nations such as Japan, the United States, and the European Union.[47] These problems have also led to public outcry, such as in the melamine-tainted dog food scare and the carcinogenic-tainted seafood import restriction, leading to measures such as the "China-free" label.[48]

text: About one tenth of China's farmland is contaminated with heavy metals, according to the Ministry of Environmental Protection of the People's Republic of China.[49]

text: Organic food products[edit]

text: Suppliers[edit]

text: China has developed a Green Food program where produce is certified for low pesticide input.[20] This has been articulated into Green food Grade A and Grade AA. This Green Food AA standard has been aligned with IFOAM international standards for organic farming and has formed the basis of the rapid expansion of organic agriculture in China.[20]


document_title: Wayne's World 2

question_text: who played betty jo in wayne's world 2

question_tokens: who played betty jo in wayne 's world 2

text: Wayne's World 2

text: Plot[edit]

text: Rock-and-roll fans Wayne Campbell and Garth Algar now host their public-access television television show, Wayne's World, from an abandoned factory in Aurora, Illinois. After an Aerosmith concert, Wayne has a dream in which he meets Jim Morrison and a "weird naked Indian" in a desert. Morrison convinces Wayne that his destiny is to organize a major music festival. Wayne and Garth dub the concert "Waynestock" and hire Morrison's former roadie, Del Preston. Their early attempts to sign bands and sell tickets fail, and Wayne wonders if the endeavor is futile.

text: Wayne's girlfriend Cassandra, singer of the band Crucial Taunt, has a new producer, Bobby Cahn, who tries to pull her away from Wayne and Illinois. After Wayne admits spying on her due to his suspicion of Bobby's ulterior motives, Cassandra breaks up with him and becomes engaged to Bobby. Garth meets a beautiful woman, Honey Hornée, who attempts to manipulate Garth into killing her ex-husband, but Garth ends the relationship.

text: Tickets are sold for Waynestock but no bands arrive. Leaving Garth to keep the rowdy crowd in check, Wayne disrupts Cassandra's wedding before escaping the ceremony with her, a scene closely resembling the finale of The Graduate. Meanwhile, Garth has stage fright during the concert. Wayne returns to find the bands have still not arrived.

text: In the dream desert, Wayne and Garth consult Morrison, who says that the bands will not come and that all that matters is they tried. They become lost in the desert. Finding this unacceptable, Wayne and Garth reenact the ending of Thelma & Louise, driving their car off a cliff while trying to find the bands. Finally, Wayne and Garth stage an ending in which the bands arrive and Waynestock is a success. Bobby arrives to Waynestock to get Cassandra but is not allowed inside.

text: After the concert, the park is covered with trash and the "weird naked Indian" cries. Wayne and Garth begin to remove the litter, promising to clean the entire park.

text: Cast[edit]

text:
Mike Myers as Wayne Campbell
Dana Carvey as Garth Algar
Tia Carrere as Cassandra Wong
Christopher Walken as Robert G. "Bobby" Cahn
Kevin Pollak as Jerry Segel
Ralph Brown as Del Preston
James Hong as Jeff Wong, Cassandra's father and martial arts expert
Kim Basinger as Honey Hornée
Jim Downey as the dubbed voice of Jeff Wong
Chris Farley as Milton, an aimless friend of Wayne and Garth's
Ed O'Neill as Glen
Michael A. Nickles as Jim Morrison
Larry Sellers as The Naked Indian
Frank DiLeo as Frankie 'Mr. Big' Sharp
Lee Tergesen as Terry, Wayne and Garth's bud
Scott Coffey as a Metalhead
Drew Barrymore as Bjergen Kjergen
Olivia d'Abo as Betty Jo
Charlton Heston as the "good actor" gas station attendant who replaces the "bad actor" Al Hansen
Jay Leno as Himself
Heather Locklear as Herself
Ted McGinley as "Mr. Scream"
Tim Meadows as Sammy Davis, Jr.
Robert Smigel and Bob Odenkirk as nerds backstage at the concert
Bobby Slayton as the Watermelon Guy
Harry Shearer as "Handsome" Dan
Rip Taylor as Himself
Steven Tyler as Himself (lead vocalist of Aerosmith)
Joe Perry as Himself (lead guitarist of Aerosmith)
Brad Whitford as Himself (rhythm guitarist of Aerosmith)
Tom Hamilton as Himself (bassist of Aerosmith)
Joey Kramer as Himself (drummer of Aerosmith)
Rich Fulcher as Garth's body double when they "travel to London"

text: Production[edit]

text: Penelope Spheeris, who directed the first film believes that Myers encouraged the studio not to have her back for the sequel due to personality conflicts with Myers during the making of the first film.[2] She went on to direct another TV to big screen adaptation, The Beverly Hillbillies instead and was replaced by Stephen Surjik for the sequel.

text: Myers' original script for Wayne's World 2 had Wayne and Garth forming their own country and seceding from the US after finding an ancient scroll, in a story taken from the 1949 British comedy Passport to Pimlico. This version was well into pre-production before it came to light that the studio had no idea the script was based on a previous film and thus had not obtained the rights to Passport to Pimlico. Production was immediately halted--director Surjik said: “I could hear the chainsaws literally chopping the sets down.”[3]

text: Studio executive Sherry Lansing was reportedly furious with Myers and threatened to ruin his life and career if he didn't immediately produce a new script.[4]

text: Reception[edit]

text: Wayne's World 2 received mixed reviews.[5] On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 60% "Fresh" rating, based on 43 reviews, with an average rating of 5.8/10, with the site's critical consensus reading, "The characters are still endearing, but the jokes in Wayne's World 2 are more hit-and-miss the second time around".[6]

text: Film critic Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three out of four stars, and wrote that Wayne and Garth are "impossible to dislike".[7]

text: Box office[edit]

text: Although it was intended to be a Christmas season blockbuster, Wayne's World 2 did not receive the box office intake or positive fan reaction that the first film did. Its final North American gross was $48 million, slightly more than its $40 million production budget, but much less than the original film's gross of over $100 million. Wayne's World 2 also suffered from competition from other holiday season blockbusters such as Mrs. Doubtfire, Schindler's List, and The Pelican Brief.[8]

text: Soundtrack[edit]


document_title: Colonel Bogey March

question_text: theme song to bridge on the river kwai

question_tokens: theme song to bridge on the river kwai

text: Colonel Bogey March

text: History[edit]

text: Since at that time service personnel were not encouraged to have professional lives outside the armed forces, British Army bandmaster F. J. Ricketts published "Colonel Bogey" and his other compositions under the pseudonym Kenneth Alford.[1] Supposedly, the tune was inspired by a military man and golfer who whistled a characteristic two-note phrase (a descending minor third interval  Play (help·info)) instead of shouting "Fore!" It is this descending interval that begins each line of the melody. The name "Colonel Bogey" began in the later 19th century as the imaginary "standard opponent" of the Colonel Bogey scoring system,[2] and by Edwardian times the Colonel had been adopted by the golfing world as the presiding spirit of the course.[3] Edwardian golfers on both sides of the Atlantic often played matches against "Colonel Bogey."[4] Bogey is now a golfing term meaning "one over par."

text: Reception[edit]

text: The sheet music was a million-seller, and the march was recorded many times. At the start of World War II, "Colonel Bogey" became part of the British way of life when the tune was set to a popular song: "Hitler Has Only Got One Ball" (originally "Goering Has Only Got One Ball" after the Luftwaffe leader suffered a grievous groin injury, but later reworded to suit the popular taste[citation needed]), with the tune becoming an unofficial national anthem to rudeness.[5] "Colonel Bogey" was used as a march-past by the 10th and 50th Battalions of the Canadian Expeditionary Force,[6] the latter perpetuated today by The King's Own Calgary Regiment (RCAC) of the Canadian Forces, who claim "Colonel Bogey" as their authorised march-past in quick time.

text: The Colonel Bogey March melody was used for a song of The Women's Army Corps, a branch of the U.S. Army from 1943 until its absorption into the regular Army in 1978. The lyrics written by Major Dorothy E. Nielsen (USAR) were this: "Duty is calling you and me, we have a date with destiny, ready, the WACs are ready, their pulse is steady a world to set free. Service, we're in it heart and soul, victory is our only goal, we love our country's honor and we'll defend it against any foe."[7]

text: In 1951, during the first computer conference held in Australia, this song was the first music played by a computer,[8] by CSIRAC, a computer developed by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation.

text: The march has been used in German commercials for Underberg digestif bitter since the 1970s,[9] and has become a classic jingle there.[10]

text: The tune has been used in more than forty films, including The Love Race (1931), The Lady Vanishes (1938), The Mouse That Roared (1959), The Parent Trap (1961), and The Breakfast Club (1985).[11]

text: Another parody of the Colonel Bogey March is Comet, a humorous song about the ill effects of consuming the cleaning product of the same name. [12] In The Simpsons episode “Stark Raving Dad”, Bart sings a tune reminiscent of the Comet tune with similar lyrics, "Lisa, her teeth are big and green. Lisa, she smells like gasoline. Lisa, da da da Disa. She is my sister, her birthday, I missed-a."

text: In the opening scene and throughout The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air episode “I Know Why The Caged Bird Screams”, Carlton and company sings the tune with alternative lyrics referring to the school mascot, "Peacocks! We're marching down the field. Peacocks! And we refuse to yield! No one's tougher, 'Cause we are rougher! We are the Peacocks of ULA!" The song and "march" is called the "Peacock Strut" throughout the episode.

text: The melody was used in a scene in the film Spaceballs as small "Dinks" walk the desert singing the tune with only the word, "Dink" by themselves and again with the protagonists.

text: The Bridge on the River Kwai[edit]

text: English composer Malcolm Arnold added a counter-march, which he titled "The River Kwai March," for the 1957 dramatic film The Bridge on the River Kwai, set during World War II. The two marches were recorded together by Mitch Miller as "March from the River Kwai – Colonel Bogey." Consequently, the "Colonel Bogey March" is often miscredited as "River Kwai March." While Arnold did use "Colonel Bogey" in his score for the film, it was only the first theme and a bit of the second theme of "Colonel Bogey," whistled unaccompanied by the British prisoners several times as they marched into the prison camp. Since the film depicted prisoners of war held under inhumane conditions by the Japanese, Canadian officials were embarrassed in May 1980, when a military band played "Colonel Bogey" during a visit to Ottawa by Japanese prime minister Masayoshi Ōhira.[13]