Mastermind Club

Quiz 2022-10

Prime Ministers

Set by Mel Kinsey

The First 10 are on Queen Victoria's PM's
The Second 10 are on Whig PM's
The last 5 are Miscellaneous




Answers

1/ The Prime Minister who was already in office when Queen Victoria succeeded to the throne in 1837 quickly became the young queen’s mentor and political advisor. He is also remembered for having been dismissed from office by the monarch and for his wife’s affair with the poet, Lord Byron. Who was he?

Viscount Melbourne 

2/ Which Prime Minister, who was responsible for the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846, remains best-known for his role in creating the modern police force while serving as Home Secretary in the 1820s?

Sir Robert Peel 

3/ Who was the Prime Minister who sat in the House of Commons during his first ministry (1846 to 1852) but was a member of the House of Lords by the time his second ministry began in 1865?

Lord John Russell,

later Earl Russell

4/ Edward Smith-Stanley was leader of the Conservative party for over 20 years and held the post of Prime Minister on three separate occasions during the Victorian period. However, his total time in that office was less than four years. By what title is this Prime Minister better known?

Earl of Derby

5/ The Earl of which Scottish city held the post of Prime Minister from 1852 to 1855 as the head of a coalition government that took Britain into the Crimean War?

Aberdeen

6/  Which British Prime Minister, who died in office in 1865, was best known for his interest in foreign policy having held the post of Foreign Secretary for a total of about 15 years prior to taking the top job?

Lord Palmerston

7/ One of Queen Victoria’s favourite Prime Ministers was the man who passed the Royal Titles Act of 1876 which granted Victoria the title of ‘Empress of India’. He was also a noted novelist whose works included ‘Vivian Grey’, ‘Coningsby’ and ‘Sybil’. Who was this multi-talented man?

Benjamin Disraeli

8/  A man who held the post of Prime Minister on four separate occasions during Queen Victoria’s reign famously did not get on well with the formidable monarch. Which Prime Minister caused Queen Victoria to complain that “He always addresses me as if I were a public meeting”?

William Ewart Gladstone

9/ Which Victorian Prime Minister simultaneously held the post of Foreign Secretary for most of his three terms in office and was the last Prime Minister to have led his government solely from the House of Lords?

Marquess of Salisbury

10/ The last of the ten men to take a trip to visit Queen Victoria at Buckingham Palace and be confirmed as Prime Minister was an extremely wealthy Scottish peer who lasted just over a year in the job and was spectacularly unsuccessful at it. Who was he?

Earl of Rosebery

11/ Generally recognised as the first British Prime Minister, he had to deal with the aftermath of the South Sea Bubble crisis and instigated the War of Jenkins’ Ear in 1739.

Sir Robert Walpole

12/ This man (who never sat in the House of Lords) had to deal with both the Jacobite rising led by Bonnie Prince Charlie in 1745 and the adoption of the Gregorian calendar that resulted in the ‘loss’ of 11 days of his term in office.

Henry Pelham

13/  The first Prime Minister to have never sat in the House of Commons oversaw the majority of the Seven Years’ War, including the ‘Annus Mirabilis’ of 1759.

The Duke of Newcastle

14/ This man managed to infuriate the American colonies by passing both the Currency Act of 1764 and the infamous Stamp Act of 1765.

George Grenville

15/ This peer’s first stint as Prime Minister lasted less than a year but included the signing of the Treaty of Paris to end the American Revolutionary War in 1783.

The Duke of Portland

16/ Head of the government known as the ‘Ministry of All the Talents’ and son of a former Prime Minister; oversaw the act responsible for abolishing the slave trade in the British Empire.

Lord Grenville

17/ While he wasn’t busy drinking tea flavoured with bergamot, this man’s four year term in office included the passing of the Great Reform Act of 1832.

Earl Grey

18/  After dealing with Parliament being burnt to the ground in 1834, this Prime Minister had an Australian city named after him. His resignation caused the ‘Bedchamber Crisis’.

Lord Melbourne

19/ The grandfather of a famous philosopher – this man’s first ministry, from 1846 to 1852, was blighted by the Irish Potato Famine.

Lord Russell

20/ The last ‘Whig’ government was led by this man who focused on foreign policy; he oversaw the ending of the Crimean War in 1856 and led Britain into the Second Opium War with China.

Lord Palmerston

21/ Serving as Prime Minister from 1809 to 1812, who was the only Prime Minister to have been assassinated?

Spencer Perceval

22/ George Canning has the shortest reign of any P.M. so far. How long did he serve in office?

119 Days

23/ Who is the only Prime Minister to have held the four highest offices in government (Chancellor, Home Secretary, Foreign Secretary and P.M.)?

James Callaghan 

24/ Which is the only British Prime Minister to have captained his country at national level in any sport?

Edward Heath

(Admirals Cup)

25/ Who was the British Prime Minister at the time the American Declaration of Independance was signed?

Lord North