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The soldier turned diplomat
The soldier turned diplomat
Harold Alexander may be associated with Italy in the Second World War, but his actions in Latvia in 1919 potentially prevented a civil war.
Prime Ministers and Presidents: special relationships
In December 1941, after the Americans had been plunged into the Second World War by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Winston Churchill crossed the Atlantic to confer with Franklin Roosevelt. As a mark of the closeness of the wartime alliance, he was …
Prime Ministers and the Olympic Games
Britain has a proud Olympic tradition. Since the revival of the modern Games in 1896, Britain is one of few nations to have sent competitors to every summer Olympics, and this year London has the distinction of being the first …
Number 10 under Lloyd George 1916-1922
No previous Prime Minister ran 10 Downing Street like David Lloyd George. His predecessors had governed conventionally; he launched a revolution as profound as that under Henry VIII. This was partly because he headed a wartime coalition government, which called for an …
Maurice Hankey: Architect of Modern Government
Maurice Hankey (1877-1963) deserves to be far better known than he is today as the principal architect of the Cabinet Office in modern British government. It would be wrong to see the current system as identical to that established by …
The Cabinet Secretary - A Tale of Three Roles
At the beginning of 2012 Sir Gus O’Donnell, Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Home Civil Service, retired. Rather than handing over to a single successor his post was divided into three. The role of Cabinet Secretary was filled by …
Government Art Collection at Number 10
In the late 1890s HM Treasury gave the Office (later the Ministry) of Works money for the purchase of art for Government buildings in London. This was the origin of the Government Art Collection (GAC). Today the GAC is responsible for acquiring and …
Living above the shop: Margaret Thatcher at Downing Street
Margaret Thatcher moved into Number 10 in June 1979 shortly after winning her first general election. She was not greatly impressed by the untidy flat and dullish official rooms, and when she left Downing Street eleven and a half years later, …
The Institution of Prime Minister
“How the power of Prime Ministry grew up into its present form it is difficult to trace precisely.” In 1841 a former Prime Minister, Viscount Melbourne, explained the above to Queen Victoria. Details of the lives of individual Prime Ministers …