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John Major was born on March 29th 1943, the son of Tom and Gwen Major.

FAMILY:

Tom Major was born Abraham Thomas Ball in 1879 in Walsall, his first marriage to Kitty before marrying Gwendolyn Minny Coates (Gwen) in 1929. Tom Major died in 1963. Gwen was the daughter of grocer Harry Sewell Coates, born in 1881, and Ada Florence Moore. Ada Florence Moore was the daughter of William Moore and Lucy Ann Crust, who married Harry Coates in 1902. William Moore had been born in 1851 and marred Lucy Ann Crust in 1875. Lucy Ann Crust was the daughter of Samuel Crust, born in 1818, who himself was the son of Richard and Susannah Crust.

John Major had an older brother, Terry Major-Ball, who died in 2007. His older sister was born Patricia Ball in 1930, marrying the baker Peter Dessoy in 1958.

BEFORE ELECTION:

John Major attended Cheam Common and then passed his 11-plus examinations and attended Rutlish Grammar School. Major himself admitted that he enjoyed little about the school, although did pick up his lifelong interest in cricket. Major left school in 1959 at the age of 16 after obtaining a small number of O-Levels, which he later added to by attendance course. He joined the family ornaments business before in 1965 taking a job with the Standard Chartered Bank. He worked for the bank for a while in Nigeria before a serious car accident in May 1967.

Major's interest in politics began early and he stood in his first council election at the age of 21. Following a better national performance for the Conservatives, Major was elected as a councillor for the Ferndale Ward of Lambeth Council in 1968 when he went on to chair the Housing Committee. In 1971 his daughter, Elizabeth Major, was born, and in January 1975, his son, James Major, was born.

Major stood for the Parliamentary seat of St Pancras North at the February and October 1974 General Elections, but was then selected for the safe Conservative seat of Huntingdonshire in 1976. He went on to win this seat at the 1979 General Election.

AFTER BECOMING AN MP:

Major's first office was as a PPS in 1981, the first rung on the Ministerial ladder, and he became a junior whip in 1983. In 1985 Margaret Thatcher gave him his first departmental Ministerial job, Under-Secretary of State at the Department of Health and Social Security, then promoted to Minister of State of the same department the year after.

In 1987 the then Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, appointed Major to the Cabinet as Chief Secretary to the Treasury. This was said to be at the request of Nigel Lawson, who was the Chancellor of the Exchequer at the time. Without this request, Major would have become the Chief Whip, and as Major has said, the course of history could have been somewhat different.

PROMOTION:

Just two years after his appointment as Chief Secretary he became the Foreign Secretary, a promotion from the most junior members of the Cabinet to one of the most senior. The appointment was seen as a surprise, and was taken as a snub by Geoffrey Howe who was the previous holder of the position. Major argued with Thatcher that maybe he wasn't the best person to take on this job, as he feared that he would just be Thatcher's man in the Foreign Office.

Just three months after his appointment to Foreign Secretary he became the Chancellor of the Exchequer after the resignation of Nigel Lawson. By this time Thatcher's popularity in the parliamentary party was less securel after problems with damaging statements by former cabinet Ministers, European disagreements, a weakening economy and difficulties with the implementation of the community charge.

PRIME MINISTER:

After presenting just one budget, Major became Prime Minister after Thatcher's resignation. Major won the 1992 General Election for the Conservatives to the surprise of some observers who had thought that Neil Kinnock's Labour Party would win.

In June 1995, to counter damaging party splits, John Major resigned as Conservative Party Leader to fight a leadership contest. Beating John Redwood comprehensively in the first round there was no need for a second round which had been expected. Major stayed as Party leader and Prime Minister, with the acceptance that there would be no further leadership contests until the General Election.

AFTER 1997:

Hampered by party splits and a small majority which later became a minority, Major was unable to win the 1997 General Election, and Tony Blair's Labour Party won a landslide on the May 1st General Election.

For news since John Major's departure as Prime Minister, click here.