List of Speakers of the British House of Commons

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This is a list of Speakers of the House of Commons of Great Britain from 1707 to 1800 and the House of Commons of the United Kingdom from 1801.

For the 'prolocutors' and speakers of the House of Commons of England, see List of Speakers of the House of Commons of England.

Numbering of Speakers

The succession numbers, used in the body of the tables in this article, are split between different eras. In each table the numbers are based upon the number of individuals to hold the office of Speaker in the era covered. Individuals with split terms retain the same succession number throughout a table.

An alternative approach is to give a different succession number for each split term and to number continuously through the English, British and UK Parliaments. Based on that alternative approach, Mr Speaker Bercow is enumerated as the 157th Speaker.

List of Speakers

Speakers of the House of Commons of Great Britain 1707–1800

The Kingdom of Great Britain was created by the Acts of Union 1707. At the beginning of 1801, Great Britain was combined with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, with a single House of Commons serving the whole kingdom.

No.[A 1] Term of office Speaker Portrait Constituency[A 2] Peerage
1 1707 1708 Sir John Smith 100px Andover ...
2 1708 1710 Sir Richard Onslow[A 3] 1stLordOnslow.jpg Surrey 1st Baron Onslow
3 1710 1713 William Bromley[A 4] WilliamBromleySpeaker.jpg Oxford University ...
4 1714 1715 Sir Thomas Hanmer, Bt[A 5] SirThomasHanmer.jpg Suffolk ...
5 1715 1727 Sir Spencer Compton[A 6] 100px Sussex 1st Earl of Wilmington
6 1728 1761 Sir Arthur Onslow 100px Surrey ...[A 7]
7 1761 1770 Sir John Cust, Bt 100px Grantham ...[A 8]
8 1770 1780 Sir Fletcher Norton[A 9] Fletcher Norton.jpg Guildford 1st Baron Grantley
9 1780 1789 Sir Charles Wolfran Cornwall CharlesWolfranCornwall.jpg Winchelsea[A 10] ...[A 11]
10 1789 1789 William Wyndham Grenville[A 12] 1st Baron Grenville.jpg Buckinghamshire 1st Baron Grenville
11 1789 1800 Henry Addington 100px Devizes 1st Viscount Sidmouth
Notes
  1. ↑ Numbering is from 1707. It is more usual to number Speakers to include those from the English predecessor body. On that basis Smith is the 125th and Addington is the 135th Speaker.
  2. ↑ Constituency at the time of first election as Speaker.
  3. ↑ Onslow was the last Speaker to be defeated in his constituency in a general election.
  4. ↑ Bromley resigned from the chair to become Secretary of State for the Northern Department. He continued to serve in the House of Commons until his death on 13 February 1732.
  5. ↑ Hanmer vacated the chair but continued to serve in the House of Commons until 1727.
  6. ↑ Compton vacated the chair but continued to serve in the House of Commons until 1728.
  7. ↑ Onslow, the longest-serving Speaker, retired from the chair and the House of Commons. He seems to have been the last Speaker who survived his term by a significant period without being offered a peerage.
  8. ↑ Cust died shortly after he ceased to occupy the chair.
  9. ↑ Norton was not re-elected as Speaker in 1780, but retained his seat as an MP until 1782.
  10. ↑ Cornwall was subsequently MP for Rye 1784–1789.
  11. ↑ Cornwall died in office.
  12. ↑ Grenville resigned from the chair to become Home Secretary. He continued to serve in the House of Commons until 1790.

Speakers of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom from 1801

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was created in 1801. In 1922 the Irish Free State ceased to be part of the UK. The official name of the United Kingdom was changed to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, in 1927.

No.[B 1] Term of office Speaker Portrait Party[B 2] Constituency[B 3] Peerage
1 1801 Henry Addington[B 4] 100px Tory Devizes 1st Viscount Sidmouth
2 1801 1802 Sir John Mitford John Freeman-Mitford, 1st Baron Redesdale by Sir Martin Archer Shee.jpg Tory East Looe 1st Baron Redesdale
3 1802 1817 Charles Abbot 100px Tory Helston[B 5] 1st Baron Colchester
4 1817 1835 Charles Manners-Sutton 100px Tory Scarborough[B 6] 1st Viscount Canterbury
5 1835 1839 James Abercromby[2] James Abercrombie of Fife, 1st Baron Dunfermline.jpg Whig Edinburgh 1st Baron Dunfermline
6 1839 1857 Charles Shaw-Lefevre Charles Shaw-Lefevre, Viscount Eversley.jpg Whig North Hampshire 1st Viscount Eversley
7 1857 1872 John Evelyn Denison 100px Liberal North Nottinghamshire 1st Viscount Ossington
8 1872 1884 Henry Brand 100px Liberal Cambridgeshire 1st Viscount Hampden
9 1884 1895 Arthur Wellesley Peel 100px Liberal Warwick[B 7] 1st Viscount Peel
10 1895 1905 William Court Gully 100px Liberal Carlisle 1st Viscount Selby
11 1905 1921 James Lowther 100px Conservative Penrith[B 8] 1st Viscount Ullswater
12 1921 1928 John Henry Whitley 1915 John Henry Whitley.jpg Coalition Liberal Halifax ...[B 9]
13 1928 1943 Edward FitzRoy Edward FitzRoy, Commons Speaker.png Conservative Daventry ...[B 10]
14 1943 1951 Douglas Clifton Brown No image.svg Conservative Hexham 1st Viscount Ruffside
15 1951 1959 William Morrison WilliamMorrisonDunrossil cropped.jpg Conservative Cirencester and Tewkesbury 1st Viscount Dunrossil
16 1959 1965 Sir Harry Hylton-Foster No image.svg Conservative Cities of London and Westminster ...[B 11]
17 1965 1971 Dr Horace King Horace King in Bonn, 1966.jpg Labour Southampton Itchen The Baron Maybray-King
18 1971 1976 Selwyn Lloyd 100px Conservative Wirral The Baron Selwyn-Lloyd
19 1976 1983 George Thomas No image.svg Labour Cardiff West 1st Viscount Tonypandy
20 1983 1992 Bernard Weatherill No image.svg Conservative Croydon North East The Baron Weatherill
21 1992 2000 Betty Boothroyd Boothroyd Westminster Hall 2011.jpg Labour West Bromwich West The Baroness Boothroyd
22 2000 2009 Michael Martin Michael Martin MP.jpg Labour Glasgow Springburn[B 12] The Baron Martin of Springburn
23 2009 John Bercow John Bercow Senate of Poland 01.JPG Conservative Buckingham
Notes
  1. ↑ Numbering is from 1801. It is more usual to number Speakers to include those from the English and British predecessor bodies. On that basis Addington is the 135th Speaker and Bercow the 157th.
  2. ↑ Party allegiance at the time of first election as Speaker. The modern convention is for the Speaker to sever connections with his or her former party. From 1935, the Speaker has sought re-election as such, not using a party label.[1] The general convention is that the Speaker is not opposed by major party candidates at general elections.
  3. ↑ Constituency at the time of first election as Speaker.
  4. ↑ Addington resigned from the chair to become Prime Minister. He continued to serve in the House of Commons until 1805.
  5. ↑ Abbot was subsequently MP for Heytesbury 1802, Woodstock 1802–1806 and Oxford University 1806–1817.
  6. ↑ Manners-Sutton was subsequently MP for Cambridge University 1832–1835. In 1835 he was defeated for re-election as Speaker, but retained his seat as an MP for a few weeks until he was created a peer. No subsequent Speaker has been defeated or remained in the House of Commons, for more than a few days after leaving the chair.
  7. ↑ Peel was subsequently MP for Warwick and Leamington 1885–1895.
  8. ↑ Lowther was subsequently MP for Penrith and Cockermouth 1918–1921.
  9. ↑ Whitley declined the customary peerage upon his retirement from the chair and the House of Commons.
  10. ↑ Fitzroy died in office. His widow was created 1st Viscountess Daventry.
  11. ↑ Hylton-Foster died in office. His widow was created The Baroness Hylton-Foster.
  12. ↑ Martin was subsequently MP for Glasgow North East from 2005. He resigned the Speakership in 2009. He was the first Speaker to be forced to leave the chair by public pressure since Sir John Trevor was expelled from the House and the chair in 1695.

References

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