James Callaghan

The Right Honourable

The Lord Callaghan of Cardiff
The Right Honourable; The Lord Callaghan of Cardiff;
	Callaghan in 1975
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
	In office; 5 April 1976 – 4 May 1979
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Preceded by	Harold Wilson
Succeeded by	Margaret Thatcher
Leader of the Opposition
	In office; 4 May 1979 – 10 November 1980
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Prime Minister	Margaret Thatcher
Preceded by	Margaret Thatcher
Succeeded by	Michael Foot
Leader of the Labour Party
	In office; 5 April 1976 – 10 November 1980
Deputy	Michael Foot
Preceded by	Harold Wilson
Succeeded by	Michael Foot
Father of the House of Commons
	In office; 9 June 1983 – 18 May 1987
Preceded by	John Parker
Succeeded by	Bernard Braine
Prime Minister
Ministerial offices
Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
	In office; 5 March 1974 – 8 April 1976
Prime Minister	Harold Wilson
Preceded by	Sir Alec Douglas-Home
Succeeded by	Anthony Crosland
Home Secretary
	In office; 30 November 1967 – 19 June 1970
Prime Minister	Harold Wilson
Preceded by	Roy Jenkins
Succeeded by	Reginald Maudling
Chancellor of the Exchequer
	In office; 16 October 1964 – 30 November 1967
Prime Minister	Harold Wilson
Preceded by	Reginald Maudling
Succeeded by	Roy Jenkins
Parliamentary and Financial Secretary to the Admiralty
	In office; 2 March 1950 – 25 October 1951
Prime Minister	Clement Attlee
Preceded by	John Dugdale
Succeeded by	Sir Allan Noble
Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Transport
	In office; 7 October 1947 – 2 March 1950
Prime Minister	Clement Attlee
Preceded by	George Strauss
Succeeded by	The Lord Lucas of Chilworth
Leader
Shadow Cabinet offices
Shadow Foreign Secretary
	In office; 19 April 1972 – 28 February 1974
Leader	Harold Wilson
Preceded by	Denis Healey
Succeeded by	Geoffrey Rippon
Shadow Secretary of State for Employment
	In office; 19 October 1971 – 19 April 1972
Leader	Harold Wilson
Preceded by	Barbara Castle
Succeeded by	Denis Healey
Shadow Home Secretary
	In office; 19 June 1970 – 19 October 1971
Leader	Harold Wilson
Preceded by	Quintin Hogg
Succeeded by	Shirley Williams
Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer
	In office; 2 November 1961 – 16 October 1964
Leader	Hugh Gaitskell; George Brown (acting); Harold Wilson;
Preceded by	Harold Wilson
Succeeded by	Reginald Maudling
Member of the House of Lords
	Lord Temporal
	Life peerage; 5 November 1987 – 26 March 2005
Member of Parliament; for Cardiff South and Penarth; (Cardiff South, 1945–1950;; Cardiff South East, 1950–1983)
	In office; 26 July 1945 – 18 May 1987
Preceded by	Arthur Evans
Succeeded by	Alun Michael
Personal details
Born	Leonard James Callaghan; 27 March 1912; Portsmouth, Hampshire, England
Died	26 March 2005 (aged 92); Ringmer, East Sussex, England
Political party	Labour
Spouse(s)	Audrey Moulton; (m. 1938; died 2005)
Children	3, including Margaret
Military service
Branch/service	Royal Navy
Rank	Lieutenant
Battles/wars	Second World War

Leonard James "Jim" Callaghan, Baron Callaghan of Cardiff, (/ˈkæləˌhæn/; 27 March 1912 – 26 March 2005) was a British Labour politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (UK) from 1976 to 1979.^[1]

Born in the 1910s, Callaghan was an old-style socialist, lacking any higher education,^[1] and served as Member of Parliament (MP) for a Cardiff constituency.^[1] He is the only person to have held all three leading UK Cabinet positions (Chancellor, Home Secretary and Foreign Secretary), prior to their premiership. He was never expected to reach the premiership, having taken a back seat to the younger and more charismatic Harold Wilson for many years. However, when Wilson unexpectedly announced his retirement in 1976, Callaghan was the most experienced candidate to replace him. His time as prime minister was one of more open government but the electorate was dissatisfied with his relaxed response to high inflation and more industrial unrest, and replaced Labour with a Conservative government under Margaret Thatcher.

Callaghan resigned as Leader of the Labour Party shortly afterwards, but remained an MP for some years before being sent to the House of Lords as Baron Callaghan of Cardiff.^[1]

James Callaghan Media

- Depicted person: James Callaghan – former prime minister of the United Kingdom (1912–2005)
Callaghan (second left) with finance ministers in The Hague, 1966
Callaghan in 1970 (left), with Prime Minister of Northern Ireland James Chichester-Clark
Callaghan and Dutch foreign minister Max van der Stoel in 1975
Callaghan (right) with US president Jimmy Carter in 1978
Callaghan (right) with Helmut Schmidt, Jimmy Carter and Valéry Giscard d'Estaing in Guadeloupe, 1979
Votes by party in the 1979 vote of no confidence in the Callaghan ministry. The motion passed by one vote.
Callaghan's ashes were scattered in the flowerbed around the Peter Pan statue (pictured in 2008) at London's Great Ormond Street Hospital
Coronet of a British Baron
Arms of James Callaghan