The 'Great Offices of State'

Once upon a time, in England, there were Great Officers of State. Wikipedia lists nine of them. Some of these offices still exist; some of them have been merged with more up–to–date posts; others have fallen by the wayside.

In some cases at least, the titles of the nine Great Officers can sound quite arcane to modern ears. They were satirised by Gilbert & Sullivan in The Mikado – where Ko–Ko was the Lord High Executioner, and Pooh–Bah was the Lord High Everything Else.

Nowadays, you will sometimes hear mention of "the four Great Offices of State". This (usually) refers to the offices of Prime Minister, Home Secretary, Foreign Secretary and Chancellor of the Exchequer.

This page covers both the traditional Great Officers and the modern Great Offices. I hope this will help to resolve any confusion, and not add to it ...

Prime Ministers are covered in Prime Ministers: Classified and Prime Ministers: Details. This page lists the people who have held the other three Great Offices – Home Secretary, Foreign Secretary and Chancellor of the Exchequer – since 1945 (and, in the case of Foreign Secretary, from 1905 to 1919). It also lists the nine traditional "Great Officers".

You may find further details about the people listed on this page in Members of Parliament.

The Nine Traditional "Great Officers of State"

In order of precedence (starting with the most senior):

Once the most powerful position in England: generally vacant since 1421, and only appointed to serve at a coronation, where he bears St. Edward's Crown; up to 1948, also presided over the trials of peers in the House of Lords		Lord High Steward
Responsible for the efficient functioning and independence of the courts; up to 2007, presided over proceedings in the House of Lords; also up to 2007, was the head of the judiciary in England and Wales; the Constitutional Reform Act of 2005 transferred these responsibilities to the Lord Speaker and the Lord Chief Justice respectively; also acts as the custodian of the Great Seal of the Realm, which is used to symbolise the Sovereign's approval of important state documents; from 2005–7, this position was held jointly with that of Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs; since 2007, it has been held jointly with the position of Secretary of State for Justice		Lord (High) Chancellor
Head of the government department with responsibility for public finance and economic policies; since the 17th century, these powers have been in the hands of a board, of which the Prime Minister is normally the First Lord and the Chancellor of the Exchequer is the Second Lord		Lord High Treasurer
Responsible for presiding over meetings of the Privy Council, presenting business for the monarch's approval; in modern times, this is a Cabinet post in its own right		Lord President of the Council
Traditionally the custodian of the monarch's personal seal (as opposed to the Great Seal of the Realm); nowadays a sinecure, normally combined with the position of Leader of the House of Lords or Commons (which confers membership of the Cabinet)		Lord (Keeper of the) Privy Seal
Officer in charge of the Palace of Westminster (a hereditary post)		Lord Great Chamberlain
Traditionally, commander of the royal armies and Master of the Horse (with responsibility for the sovereign's horses and hounds); merged with the crown during the reign of Henry VIII, since when it has been in abeyance except during coronations		Lord High Constable
Responsible for organising major ceremonial state occasions, including coronations and state funerals; also oversees the College of Arms, which is responsible for heraldic matters		Earl Marshal
Titular head of the Royal Navy; title vested in the sovereign in 1964, following the abolition of the Board of Commissioners and the position of First Lord of the Admiralty; bestowed by the Queen on the Duke of Edinburgh in 2011, on the occasion of his 90th birthday		Lord High Admiral

Lord Chancellor

Of the nine Great Officers, I reckon the only one that's had any real relevance within the memory of anyone who's still partaking in quizzes is the Lord Chancellor.

As we've seen, the main responsibilities of the Lord Chancellor were transferred in 2007 to the Lord Speaker and the Lord Chief Justice; since 2007, the title has been held jointly with that of Secretary of State for Justice.

This section lists the last six people to hold the position of Lord Chancellor, including the incumbent in 2005 when it was combined with that of Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs (and Secretary of State for Justice since 2007).

1970–4	Heath	Son of a previous Lord Chancellor, whose father had played football for Wanderers, Old Etonians and Scotland; MP for Oxford, 1938–50; entered the House of Lords when he inherited his father's title on his death in 1950, becoming Leader of the House of Lords; renounced his title and stood for leadership of the Conservative Party, on Macmillan's resignation in 1963; was beaten by Alec Douglas–Home (Macmillan's preferred candidate), but returned to Parliament as member for St. Marylebone; accepted a life peerage in 1970, allowing Heath to appoint him as Lord Chancellor, and appointed again by Thatcher in 1979		Lord Hailsham (Quintin Hogg)
1979–87	Thatcher
1974–9	Wilson, Callaghan	Brother of a former Welsh rugby captain; as a barrister, led the prosecution of Moors Murderers Ian Brady and Myra Hindley		Lord Elwyn–Jones
Jun–Oct 1987	Thatcher	MP for Wimbledon, 1970–87; awarded a life peerage in 1987 on being appointed Lord Chancellor; resigned four months later due to ill health; his son is a popular actor; his sister (Baroness Butler–Sloss) chaired the inquests into the deaths of Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed, and was appointed as chair of the inquiry into child sex abuse in 2014, but resigned after only six days following controversy over her brother's position as Attorney General during part of the time in question		Lord (Michael) Havers
1987–97		Appointed Lord Advocate (Scotland's senior law officer) in 1979 by Margaret Thatcher, despite not being a member of the Conservative Party (but joined on taking up office and being awarded a life peerage!); one of the longest–serving Lord Chancellors ever		Lord Mackay of Clashfern
1997–2003	Blair	Appointed by his former pupil barrister (Blair); attracted controversy in 1998 when his official residence in the Palace of Westminster was redecorated at a cost of £650,000 to the taxpayer (including £59,000 for hand–printed wallpaper)		Lord Irvine of Lairg
2003–7		Blair's flatmate when they were both young barristers in London, in the late 1970s; turned down as prospective Labour candidate for Dudley in 1997, for refusing to take his four children out of public schools; the first life peer created by Tony Blair, becoming Solicitor General; took over responsibility for the Millennium Dome in 1998, following Peter Mandelson's resignation; appointed Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs (a new post) in 2003, and Justice Secretary (another new post, replacing Constitutional Affairs) in 2007; replaced 49 days later, when Gordon Brown replaced Blair as Prime Minister, by Jack Straw		Lord (Charles) Falconer of Thoroton

The Four Great Offices

The only person to have held all four		James Callaghan
The only person to have held the other three, without ever being Prime Minister		R. A. 'Rab' Butler

Home Secretary

Prime Minister	Years		Name
Atlee	1945–51		James Chuter Ede
Churchill	1951–4		Sir David Maxwell Fyfe
Eden	1954–7		Gwilym Lloyd George
Macmillan	1957–62		R. A. 'Rab' Butler
Macmillan, Douglas Home	1962–4		Henry Brooke
Wilson	1964–5		Sir Roy Soskice
	1965–7		Roy Jenkins
	1967–70		James Callaghan
Heath	1970–2		Reginald Maudling
	1972–4		Robert Carr
Wilson	1974–6		Roy Jenkins
Callaghan	1976–9		Merlyn Rees
Thatcher	1979–83		William Whitelaw
	1983–5		Leon Brittan
	1985–9		Douglas Hurd
	1989–90		David Waddington
Major	1990–2		Kenneth Baker
	1992–3		Kenneth Clarke
	1993–7		Michael Howard
Blair	1997–2001		Jack Straw
	2001–4		David Blunkett
	2004–6		Charles Clarke
	2006–7		John Reid
Brown	2007–9		Jacqui Smith
	2009–10		Alan Johnson
Cameron	2010–16		Theresa May
May	2016–18		Amber Rudd
	2018–19		Sajid Javid
Johnson	2019–22		Priti Patel
Truss	2022		Suella Braverman
Sunak	2022–4
Starmer	2024 to date		Yvette Cooper

Foreign Secretary

Prime Minister	Years		Name
Campbell–Bannerman, Asquith	1905–16		Sir Edward Grey
Lloyd George	1916–19		Arthur Balfour

Baldwin, Chamberlain	1935–8		Anthony Eden
Chamberlain, Churchill	1938–40		Lord Halifax
Churchill	1940–5		Anthony Eden
Atlee	1945–51		Ernest Bevin
	Mar–Oct 1951		Herbert Morrison
Churchill	1951–5		Anthony Eden
Eden	Apr–Dec 1955		Harold Macmillan
Eden, Macmillan	1955–60		Selwyn Lloyd
Macmillan	1960–3		Earl Home
Douglas Home	1963–4		R. A. 'Rab' Butler
Wilson	1964–5		Patrick Gordon Walker
	1965–6		Michael Stewart
	1966–8		George Brown
	1968–70		Michael Stewart
Heath	1970–4		Sir Alec Douglas–Home
Wilson	1974–6		James Callaghan
Callaghan	1976–7		Anthony Crosland
	1977–9		David Owen
Thatcher	1979–82		Lord Carrington
	1982–3		Francis Pym
	1983–9		Sir Geoffrey Howe
	Jul–Oct 1989		John Major
Thatcher, Major	1989–95		Douglas Hurd
Major	1995–7		Malcolm Rifkind
Blair	1997–2001		Robin Cook
	2001–6		Jack Straw
	2006–7		Margaret Beckett
Brown	2007–10		David Miliband
Cameron	2010–14		William Hague
	2014–16		Philip Hammond
May	2016–18		Boris Johnson
	2018–19		Jeremy Hunt
Johnson	2019–21		Dominic Raab
	2021–2		Liz Truss
Truss	2022		James Cleverly
Sunak	2022–4
Starmer	2024 to date		David Lammy

Chancellor of the Exchequer

Prime Minister	Years		Name
Atlee	1945–7		Hugh Dalton
	1947–50		Sir Stafford Cripps
	1950–1		Hugh Gaitskell
Churchill	1951–4		R. A. 'Rab' Butler
Eden	1955–7		Harold Macmillan
Macmillan	1957–8		Peter Thorneycroft
	1958–60		Derick Heathcoat–Amory
	1960–2		Selwyn Lloyd
Macmillan, Douglas Home	1962–4		Reginald Maudling
Wilson	1964–7		James Callaghan
	1967–70		Roy Jenkins
Heath	Jun–Jul 1970		Ian McLeod
	1970–4		Anthony Barber
Wilson, Callaghan	1974–6		Denis Healey
Thatcher	1979–83		Sir Geoffrey Howe
	1983–9		Nigel Lawson
	1989–90		John Major
Major	1990–3		Norman Lamont
	1993–7		Kenneth Clarke
Blair	1997–2007		Gordon Brown
Brown	2007–10		Alistair Darling
Cameron	2010–16		George Osborne
May	2016–19		Philip Hammond
Johnson	2019–20		Sajid Javid
	2020–2		Rishi Sunak
Truss	2022		Kwasi Kwarteng
	2022		Jeremy Hunt
Sunak	2022–4
Starmer	2024 to date		Rachel Reeves

© Haydn Thompson 2017–24