Twanna M. Powell Lecture Series - 4/25/2001
John Major
The Right Honorable John Major, Conservative Member of Parliament for Huntingdon, is the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He was appointed Prime Minister on November 28, 1990 and re-elected Prime Minister when the Conservative Party won an unprecedented fourth term in Office at the General Election of April 1992.
Mr. Major first became involved in politics at the age of 16, when he joined the Young Conservatives. In 1968 he won his first Election in Lambeth, a district of London. Upon entering Parliament in 1979, Mr. Major held several positions in Government, beginning with the most junior, Parliamentary Private Secretary at the Home Office
As Prime Minister, Mr. Major continued the United Kingdom's strong ties with the United States, giving full support to the United States in the Persian Gulf in 1991, and thereafter to the U.S. position on Iraq in the United Nations. The British commitment to the Gulf War was second in size only to the U.S.
Mr. Major served seven years as Prime Minister. At the end of his tenure in 1997, he handed over the strongest economy any incoming British Government had inherited, with The Daily Telegraph in London observing that "John Major leaves a richer legacy than any of his predecessors."
Out of office, Mr. Major has continued to work together with Prime Minister Tony Blair to secure a full and lasting peace in Northern Ireland. On New Year's Day 1999, he was awarded one of the United Kingdom's greatest honours: The Companion of Honour, bestowed on him by HM Queen Elizabeth in recognition of his initiation of the Northern Ireland Peace Process.
Mr. Major continues to serve in the House of Commons as a Member of Parliament. His charitable interests include the Presidency of the National Asthma Campaign and Patron of the Child of Achievement Awards. He also takes an active interest in the work of the Royal National Institute for the Blind, the Society for the Protection of Cruelty to Children, and the Consortium for Street Children.
Mr. Major has been married to Dame Norma since 1970 (she was made a Dame of the British Empire by HM Queen Elizabeth in June 1999). They have two children, Elizabeth and James.