65 Facts About James Callaghan

James Callaghan was a Member of Parliament from 1945 to 1987.

James Callaghan was elected to Parliament at the 1945 election, and was regarded as being on the left wing of the Labour Party.

James Callaghan remained in the Shadow Cabinet during Labour's period in Opposition from 1970 to 1974; upon Labour's victory at the 1974 election, Wilson appointed James Callaghan as Foreign Secretary.

James Callaghan was responsible for renegotiating the terms of Britain's membership of the European Communities, and strongly supported the successful "Yes" vote campaign in the 1975 referendum, which confirmed the UK's membership of the EC.

When Wilson suddenly announced his retirement in March 1976, James Callaghan defeated five other candidates to be elected Leader of the Labour Party; he was appointed prime minister on 5 April 1976.

James Callaghan initially remained as Labour leader, serving as Leader of the Opposition until November 1980.

James Callaghan attempted to reform the process by which Labour elected its leader.

James Callaghan died on 26 March 2005 and remains to date the UK's longest-lived former prime minister.

Leonard James Callaghan was born at 38 Funtington Road, Copnor, Portsmouth, England, on 27 March 1912.

James Callaghan took his middle name from his father, James, who was the son of an Irish Catholic father who had fled to England during the Great Irish Famine and a Jewish mother.

James Callaghan's father ran away from home in the 1890s to join the Royal Navy; as he was a year too young to enlist, he gave a false date of birth and changed his surname from Garogher to James Callaghan, so that his true identity could not be traced.

James Callaghan rose to the rate of Chief Petty Officer.

James Callaghan's mother was Charlotte Callaghan an English Baptist.

James Callaghan senior served in the First World War on board the battleship HMS Agincourt.

James Callaghan gained the Senior Oxford Certificate in 1929, but could not afford entrance to university and instead sat the Civil Service entrance exam.

At the age of 17, James Callaghan left to work as a clerk for the Inland Revenue at Maidstone in Kent.

James Callaghan was finally allowed to join the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve as an Ordinary Seaman in 1942.

James Callaghan was assigned to the Japanese section and wrote a service manual for the Royal Navy The Enemy: Japan.

James Callaghan then served in the East Indies Fleet on board the escort carrier HMS Activity and was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant in April 1944.

James Callaghan had been encouraged to put his name forward for the Cardiff South seat by his friend Dai Kneath, a member of the IRSF National executive from Swansea, who was in turn an associate and friend of the local Labour Party secretary, Bill Headon.

James Callaghan won his Cardiff South seat at the 1945 UK general election.

James Callaghan defeated the sitting Conservative MP, Sir Arthur Evans, by 17,489 votes to 11,545.

James Callaghan campaigned on such issues as the rapid demobilisation of the armed forces and for a new housing construction programme.

James Callaghan stood on the left wing of the Party, and was a vocal critic of the United States in 1945, joining 22 other rebels in voting against accepting the Anglo-American loan.

James Callaghan did not join the Keep Left group of left-wing Labour MPs, but he did sign a letter in 1947 with 20 other MPs from the group calling for a 'socialist foreign policy' which would create an alternative to the ruthless capitalism of the United States and the totalitarian Bolshevism of the USSR.

James Callaghan was appointed parliamentary secretary to the Ministry of Transport in 1947 where, advised by the young chief constable of Hertfordshire, Sir Arthur Young, his term saw important improvements in road safety, notably the introduction of zebra crossings, and an extension in the use of cat's eyes.

James Callaghan moved to be parliamentary and financial secretary to the Admiralty from 1950, where he was a delegate to the Council of Europe and resisted plans for a European army.

James Callaghan was popular with Labour MPs, and was elected to the Shadow Cabinet every year while the Labour Party was in opposition from 1951 to 1964.

James Callaghan was now a staunch Gaitskellite on the Labour right wing.

James Callaghan was Parliamentary Adviser to the Police Federation from 1955 to 1960 when he negotiated an increase in police pay with then-General Secretary Arthur Charles Evans.

James Callaghan ran for the Deputy Leadership of the party in 1960 as an opponent of unilateral nuclear disarmament, and despite the other candidate of the Labour right agreeing with him on this policy, he forced Brown to a second vote.

When Hugh Gaitskell died in January 1963, James Callaghan ran to succeed him, but came third in the leadership contest, which was won by Harold Wilson.

James Callaghan later admitted in his autobiography that he could have handled the matter better, and in his haste to tackle the balance of payments problem, had failed to consult foreign governments.

James Callaghan responded by pointing out that, had it not been for the Middle East crisis, Britain would have been heading for a balance of payments surplus in 1967.

Wilson and James Callaghan refused a contingency fund offered from the IMF because of several conditions attached which they believed would allow the IMF to interfere with economic policy.

However, in the run up to the public announcement, James Callaghan found himself in a tricky situation when answering questions in the House of Commons: One backbencher Robert Sheldon tabled a motion concerning a rumour that Britain would be receiving a loan from banks.

James Callaghan did not wish to lie to the Commons, but at the same time going public about the devaluation decision before the 18th would be financially disastrous for the country.

James Callaghan answered the initial question by stating that he did not comment on rumours.

James Callaghan replied that he had "nothing to add or subtract from, anything I have said on previous occasions on the subject of devaluation".

James Callaghan immediately offered his resignation as chancellor, and increasing political opposition forced Wilson to accept it.

Wilson then moved Roy Jenkins, the home secretary, to be chancellor; James Callaghan became the new home secretary on 30 November 1967.

James Callaghan was responsible for the Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1968, a controversial piece of legislation prompted by Conservative assertions that an influx of Kenyan Asians would soon inundate the country.

James Callaghan was in charge of drawing up a new policy statement in 1972 which contained the idea of the Social Contract between the government and trade unions.

James Callaghan was awarded the Freedom of the City of Cardiff on 16 March 1975.

James Callaghan was the favourite to win the leadership election; although he was the oldest candidate, he was the most experienced and least divisive.

James Callaghan became prime minister at a time when Britain was experiencing double-digit inflation and rising unemployment.

James Callaghan intended to convey the message that he had not promised an election, but many at the conference misinterpreted it.

James Callaghan later admitted in regard to the Winter of Discontent that he had "let the country down".

James Callaghan agreed to a proposal by Brian Walden, a former Labour MP who was by then a broadcaster, to take part in two televised debates with Margaret Thatcher to be produced by LWT with the intention that they would be broadcast on ITV on 22 and 29 April 1979.

James Callaghan's refusal meant that the debates did not go ahead.

James Callaghan's failure to call an election during 1978 was widely seen as a political miscalculation; indeed, he himself later admitted that not calling an election was an error of judgement.

Notwithstanding electoral defeat, James Callaghan stayed on as Labour leader until 15 October 1980, shortly after the party conference had voted for a new system of election by electoral college involving the individual members and trade unions.

James Callaghan's resignation ensured that his successor would be elected by MPs only.

James Callaghan was one of the last remaining MPs elected in the Labour landslide of 1945.

James Callaghan served as a non-executive director of the Bank of Wales.

Tony Benn recorded in his diary entry of 3 April 1997 that during the 1997 general election campaign, James Callaghan was telephoned by a volunteer at Labour headquarters asking him if he would be willing to become more active in the party.

In October 1999, James Callaghan told The Oldie Magazine that he would not be surprised to be considered as Britain's worst prime minister in 200 years.

James Callaghan said in this interview that he "must carry the can" for the Winter of Discontent.

James Callaghan's interests included rugby, tennis and agriculture.

James Callaghan died on 26 March 2005 at his home in Ringmer, East Sussex, of lobar pneumonia, cardiac failure and kidney failure, the day before his 93rd birthday.

James Callaghan died just 11 days after his wife of 67 years, who had spent the last four years of her life in a nursing home due to Alzheimer's disease.

James Callaghan died as Britain's longest-lived former prime minister, having surpassed Harold Macmillan's record 39 days earlier.

James Callaghan died 4 months before former Prime Minister Edward Heath.

Lord James Callaghan was cremated, and his ashes were scattered in a flowerbed around the base of the Peter Pan statue near the entrance of London's Great Ormond Street Hospital, where his wife had formerly been chair of the board of governors.

Practically all commentators agree that James Callaghan made a serious mistake by not calling an election in the autumn of 1978.