Skip to content
Curated playlist

Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom

  • William, Prince of WalesAt 9:03 pm on the 21st of June 1982, William Arthur Philip Louis was born at St Mary's Hospital in London. He was the first direct heir to the British throne to be born in a hospital. Today he is William, Prince of Wales, heir apparent to…
  • David CameronDavid Cameron's last words in the Commons were "I was the future once." He said them in July 2016.
  • Winston ChurchillWinston Churchill escaped a prisoner-of-war camp in Pretoria by hiding on freight trains. It made him famous.
  • Neville ChamberlainNeville Chamberlain waved a single sheet of paper at a crowd after signing away part of Czechoslovakia.
  • Harold WilsonAt ten, Harold Wilson told his mother he would be prime minister. He went on to win four general elections.
  • David Lloyd GeorgeDavid Lloyd George had to be smuggled out of Birmingham disguised as a policeman.
  • Margaret ThatcherMargaret Thatcher kept a portrait of her chemistry tutor on the wall at 10 Downing Street.
  • Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of WellingtonWellington's mother called him her "awkward son Arthur." He later defeated Napoleon at Waterloo.
  • Queen CamillaQueen Camilla, born Camilla Rosemary Shand, is the second wife of King Charles III and queen of the United Kingdom and 14 other Commonwealth realms. In 1999, around 200 photographers and reporters from across the world crowded in to watch…
  • Prince Philip, Duke of EdinburghPrince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, was born on a dining room table. The date was the 10th of June 1921, and the place was Mon Repos, a villa on the Greek island of Corfu. Before he turned two, he was carried out of Greece in a fruit box. He…
  • George VNear the end of his life in January 1936, King George V of the United Kingdom asked his secretary a question. Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin later described the scene. Each time the dying king regained consciousness, he had some kind…
  • Benjamin DisraeliBenjamin Disraeli bought a controlling stake in the Suez Canal within days in 1875.
  • Edward VIIEdward VII was barely a month old on the 8th of December 1841 when he was created Prince of Wales. He would carry that title until the 22nd of January 1901, a span of 59 years and 45 days. No heir in British history had waited so long, and…
  • Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and GothaPrince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha never wore a crown, yet the clerk of the Privy Council, Charles Greville, once wrote of him: "He is King to all intents and purposes." Albert was the husband of Queen Victoria, and Greville's line…
  • Clement AttleeClement Attlee told the King, "I've won the election," and the King replied that he already knew.
  • Archibald Wavell, 1st Earl WavellArchibald Wavell beat Italy's army in Libya, then Winston Churchill replaced him in June 1941.
  • Bernard MontgomeryBernard Law Montgomery lay in an open field at Méteren on the 13th of October 1914, shot through the right lung by a sniper. The village sits near the Belgian border at Bailleul. Montgomery was a young officer of the Royal Warwickshire…
  • John Russell, 1st Earl RussellLord John Russell was barely five feet five, and cartoonists mocked him for it. He still reshaped British democracy.
  • Austen ChamberlainAusten Chamberlain won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1925 but never became prime minister. His half-brother Neville did.
  • Frederic Thesiger, 1st Viscount ChelmsfordA lifelong Conservative, Lord Chelmsford ran the navy under Labour's first government. He never joined the party.
  • John BuchanJohn Buchan, the Scottish novelist, ended his life as Lord Tweedsmuir, Governor General of Canada. In Montreal in 1937 he stood with a typed speech that reporters already held. By hand, he added the words "and to Canada's King" to a line…
  • Lord MountbattenLord Mountbatten sat alone in his study at the Viceroy's House as midnight arrived on the 15th of August 1947. India and Pakistan were becoming independent nations, and he reflected that for a few minutes more he remained the most powerful…
  • Max MüllerMax Müller persuaded the East India Company to fund his edition of the Rig-Veda. He worked on it from 1849 to 1874.
  • Eric WilliamsEric Williams turned a public park into a university. In 1955 he began lecturing in Woodford Square.
  • Nevile HendersonNevile Henderson wore a red carnation every day of his diplomatic career. Hitler privately despised him.
  • Martin GilbertA boy evacuated to Canada in wartime grew up to write Churchill's official biography.
  • Joseph ChamberlainAs mayor of Birmingham, Joseph Chamberlain forcibly bought the city's two gas companies.
  • Freeman Freeman-Thomas, 1st Marquess of WillingdonLord Willingdon quit a Bombay yacht club after it refused his Indian friends.

Queue