List of Speakers of the British House of Commons

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		Andover	...
2	1708	1710	Sir Richard Onslow[A 3]		Surrey	1st Baron Onslow
3	1710	1713	William Bromley[A 4]		Oxford University	...
4	1714	1715	Sir Thomas Hanmer, Bt[A 5]		Suffolk	...
5	1715	1727	Sir Spencer Compton[A 6]		Sussex	1st Earl of Wilmington
6	1728	1761	Sir Arthur Onslow		Surrey	...[A 7]
7	1761	1770	Sir John Cust, Bt		Grantham	...[A 8]
8	1770	1780	Sir Fletcher Norton[A 9]		Guildford	1st Baron Grantley
9	1780	1789	Sir Charles Wolfran Cornwall		Winchelsea[A 10]	...[A 11]
10	1789		William Wyndham Grenville[A 12]		Buckinghamshire	1st Baron Grenville
11	1789	1800	Henry Addington		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	Parliaments	Party[B 2]	Constituency[B 3]	Peerage
1	1801		Henry Addington[B 4]		1st	Tory	Devizes	1st Viscount Sidmouth
2	1801	1802	Sir John Mitford		1st	Tory	East Looe	1st Baron Redesdale
3	1802	1817	Charles Abbot		2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th	Tory	Helston[B 5]	1st Baron Colchester
4	1817	1835	Charles Manners-Sutton		5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th	Tory	Scarborough[B 6]	1st Viscount Canterbury
5	1835	1839	James Abercromby[2]		12th, 13th	Whig	Edinburgh	1st Baron Dunfermline
6	1839	1857	Charles Shaw-Lefevre		13th, 14th, 15th, 16th	Whig	North Hampshire	1st Viscount Eversley
7	1857	1872	John Evelyn Denison		17th, 18th, 19th, 20th	Liberal	North Nottinghamshire	1st Viscount Ossington
8	1872	1884	Henry Brand		20th, 21st, 22nd	Liberal	Cambridgeshire	1st Viscount Hampden
9	1884	1895	Arthur Wellesley Peel		22nd, 23rd, 24th, 25th	Liberal	Warwick[B 7]	1st Viscount Peel
10	1895	1905	William Court Gully		26th, 27th	Liberal	Carlisle	1st Viscount Selby
11	1905	1921	James Lowther		27th, 28th, 29th, 30th, 31st	Conservative	Penrith[B 8]	1st Viscount Ullswater
12	1921	1928	John Henry Whitley		31st, 32nd, 33rd, 34th	Coalition Liberal	Halifax	...[B 9]
13	1928	1943	Edward FitzRoy		34th, 35th, 36th, 37th	Conservative	Daventry	...[B 10]
14	1943	1951	Douglas Clifton Brown		37th, 38th, 39th	Conservative	Hexham	1st Viscount Ruffside
15	1951	1959	William Morrison		40th, 41st	Conservative	Cirencester and Tewkesbury	1st Viscount Dunrossil
16	1959	1965	Sir Harry Hylton-Foster		42nd, 43rd	Conservative	Cities of London and Westminster	...[B 11]
17	1965	1971	Dr Horace King		43rd, 44th, 45th	Labour	Southampton Itchen	The Baron Maybray-King
18	1971	1976	Selwyn Lloyd		45th, 46th, 47th	Conservative	Wirral	The Baron Selwyn-Lloyd
19	1976	1983	George Thomas		47th, 48th	Labour	Cardiff West	1st Viscount Tonypandy
20	1983	1992	Bernard Weatherill		49th, 50th	Conservative	Croydon North East	The Baron Weatherill
21	1992	2000	Betty Boothroyd		51st, 52nd	Labour	West Bromwich West	The Baroness Boothroyd
22	2000	2009	Michael Martin		52nd, 53rd, 54th	Labour	Glasgow Springburn[B 12]	The Baron Martin of Springburn
23	2009		John Bercow		54th, 55th, 56th	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

1. Craig, F.W.S. (1989). British Electoral Facts 1832–1987. Politico's Publishing. ISBN 978-0-900178-30-6.
2. Anderson, John (1856). A History of Edinburgh from the Earliest Period to the Completion of the Half Century 1850: With Brief Notices of Eminent Or Remarkable Individuals. A. Fullarton & co. p. 444. ISBN 978-1-85285-581-9. Retrieved 2008-10-21.

• Laundy, Philip (1964). The Office of Speaker. Cassell & Company.
• Marsden, Philip (1979). The Officers of the Commons 1363–1978. Her Majesty's Stationery Office.
• Butler, David; Butler, Gareth (2000). Twentieth Century Political Facts 1900–2000 (Hardcover ed.). Macmillan Press. ISBN 0-333-77221-0.
• Cook, Chris; Keith, Brendan (1975). British Historical Facts 1830–1900. Macmillan Press.
• Cook, Chris; Stevenson, John (1980). British Historical Facts 1760–1830. Macmillan Press. ISBN 0-333-21512-5.