Researching former Prime Ministers

My interest in former Prime Ministers was sparked by that 'incident' as Lady Thatcher famously/infamously called her resignation announcement on 22 November 1990 in her famous/infamous interview with Saga magazine in 1998. Interest sparked, my research into what Harold Macmillan described as his 'life after death' really began on 28 November 1990. 

It featured in my undergraduate dissertation on Margaret Thatcher and her 'ism' after Downing Street. It was the subject of my PhD, as yet unfinished. My findings about ex-premiers' parliamentary activity were published in a research paper, and in The Journal of Legislative Studies. Other papers were written, but nothing done with them: one on the Earl of Rosebery and the Parliament Act 1911, and one on James Callaghan after 1980.

And then, in the early 2000s life intervened. So all the research I'd done - in newspaper articles, archives, parliamentary records, in interviews, and in correspondence - was filed, and put away. But still my interest never left me. Over the following twenty years, I continued collecting material, and on occasion spoke of the completion of my PhD being my retirement project.

Then last year, my former supervisor, Professor The Lord Norton of Louth, suggested that I consider submitting an abstract for the conference that the Centre for Legislative Studies and the Centre for British Politics held on 'Margaret Thatcher: her life, work, and legacy'. Abstract submitted, abstract accepted, I set to work. And in a few months had condensed my material on her to c.150,000 words. Which somehow I then managed to get to a paper of c.10,000 words. But the other 140,000 words weren't lost. For between last July and earlier this year - and after a number of revelatory and entertaining visits to The National Archives - I completed a full-length (c.90,000 word) study of her Lady Thatcher's life after 1990.

That also involved reflecting on the former Prime Ministers before her and on the ones since her. From that, a number of themes have emerged.

First, the uniqueness of Lady Thatcher's post-premiership while at the same time it being similar to many others. Lady Thatcher's ex-prime ministership was also, in various ways, a bridge from being one type of former Prime Minister to being another type of former Prime Minister.

Second, the distinct nature as a group of the former Prime Ministers from Sir Winston Churchill to Lady Thatcher. That is going to be subject of my next study: 'The Ex-Premiers: The Office of Prime Minister Emeritus from Churchill to Thatcher'.

Third, how the former Prime Ministers after Lady Thatcher have changed from what went before while at the same time remaining the same in some respects. One friend has suggested I write about the Major-Truss post-premierships as 'Carry On former ex-Premiers: The Office of Prime Minister Emeritus from Major to Truss'.

Anyway, all of this is kind of captured in these images of (some of) the material I've collected over the years.

The first image covers Churchill to Callaghan. There's also quite a bit that I've already digitised that isn't featured here.

Then Lady Thatcher: 78 scrapbooks of press cuttings, a number of lever arch files, and much else digitised. It has to be said, and maybe I would say this, wouldn't I?, but there is something special - and particular - about researching Lady Thatcher's premier emeritus years. There is Lady Thatcher herself for one thing. Her personality flows through, illuminates, magnifies, and dominates everything. I've often been reminded of how alive Queen Victoria is in the letters she wrote. It's the same with Lady Thatcher. She is alive - present and a presence - in the documentation. Allied to that, there is how we have responded to Lady Thatcher. I have often laughed out loud - but not too loudly, clearly - at The National Archives reading the reactions others' had to some particular thing Lady Thatcher had done or planned to do after 1990. It was the same when I interviewed people. Perhaps the most revealing aspect of those interviews was the respect in which James Callaghan came to be held after 1980. But reading the transcripts again now, the gems are the comments on Lady Thatcher.

Finally, a suitcase containing Major to Truss - with much of the material about ex-prime ministers these days being digital only.

In sorting all the above out I've come across some things that show that however much in British politics has changed since 1955 so far as former Prime Ministers are concerned quite a bit has remained the same.

Exhibit A - my notes from my visit to The Churchill Archives in 1997. A former Prime Minister taking part in a General Election campaign - just like now.

Exhibit B - my notes from my visit to The Avon Papers in 1997. A former Prime Minister being involved in the European issue - just like now. 

And what of the future? Well, the papers of the current ex-premiers will one day become available for research. And there will be files to be released by The National Archives, with ones on Lady Thatcher potentially stretching well into the 2030s, if not beyond. There will also be the opening of her post-1990 papers at Churchill College. How many laugh out loud moments will they generate? 

And there will also be some judgement possible to be made about the post-prime ministership of Tony Blair. Perhaps more than any of the other ex-premiers since Lady Thatcher, it is his ex-premiership that is the most interesting. In some ways, it is more interesting even than Lady Thatcher's, and in any event it will surely be seen to be one of the most interesting in British history.