Overview of Andrew Bonar-Law

Politician and British Prime Minister. Although born in New Brunswick (Canada), the son of an Ulster clergyman, Bonar-Law moved to Glasgow with his aunt to complete his education at the High School there. At the age of sixteen he took a job in the merchant bank owned by his mother's family. He was the Member of Parliament for Glasgow (1900-6) and thereafter for Dulwich (London). He succeeded Arthur Balfour as leader of the Conservative Party (1911) and supported the Ulster Unionists in the campaign against Irish home-rule, which took that country to the brink of civil war and the ramifications of which still resonate today. Perhaps most notably, Bonar-Law joined David Lloyd-George in a war-time partnership during World War I, serving as Chancellor of the Exchequer and Leader of the House of Commons. Despite failing health, he was persuaded to succeed Lloyd-George as Prime Minister (1922), but resigned just months before his death the following year.