The subtitle of this book is: A Complete Listing of Holders of Political and Religious Office in the British Isles Since the Fifth Century. It brings together the names and dates of the major British office holders of the constituent kingdoms of the British Isles since the Roman Conquest. The material is presented in tabular form and provides birth and death dates, dates of taking office and length of service. There is also a series of “league tables” showing holders of major public office by length of time in the post and oldest/youngest, etc. The book consists almost entirely of tables with some explanatory notes.
The scope of this compendium is vast, the contents listing alone covers 15 pages. The early sections on sovereigns cover tribal sovereigns, Roman Governors, and the post‐Roman “High Kings” such as Vortigern and Uther Pendragon; then follow sections on Sovereigns of Anglo‐Saxon England (Mercia, Northumbria, etc.); Rulers of Wales; Rulers of Scotland; then Sovereigns of England and Great Britain, from the Earls “with a large degree of autonomy” through to the present day, and including Queens' Consorts, Princes of Wales, and dates of coronations and royal marriages.
The section on Prime Ministers covers the period from 1721 and this is followed by lists of all the cabinet offices in every government for the same period. The section of Privy Councillors covers the period from 1540 to the reign of George II. The massive Ministers section covers over 300 pages and contains lists of all the ministries with all their office holders, from Charles James Fox (1748‐1806), who was appointed Foreign Secretary on 27 March 1782, and was in office for three months, three weeks, and then a further eight months the following year, to John Fraser, who was Minister of State for Prices and Consumer Protection in 1976 for three years. The comings and goings of ministers, parliamentary secretaries and ministers of state, as well as the creation, disbandment, amalgamations and transmutations of ministries, are legion. Compiler Timothy Venning must have many headaches in sorting them all out and making them comprehensible. A small section on Scotland to 1707 follows, then we have Court Offices such as Stewards of the Household, Lord Chamberlains, Constables of the Tower of London, Masters of the King's/Queen's Music, Poets Laureate, even Royal Librarians. The section Officials includes Parliamentary Private Secretaries, Lords Chief Justices, Masters of the Rolls, Chancellors of Oxford and Cambridge Universities, Party Leaders, and Permanent Secretaries. Other sections cover Speakers and Clerks of the House of Commons; Military Offices (Civil War Commanders and regimental commanders of the New Model Army, 1645‐1960, to present‐day Chiefs of Defence Staff); Ireland (Justiciars, Lords Lieutenant, Viceroys, etc.); Devolved Government (from 1999); Bishops and Archbishops of Britain; Catholic Archbishops and Bishops from 1851; Moderators of the General Assembly (Church of Scotland); Presidents of Assembly (Primitive and Wesleyan Methodists); and Presidents of Conference (United Methodists).
My apologies for this long listing, but the coverage of this compendium is truly breathtaking. The compiler gives us a useful selection of sources used and websites which would interest reference and research staff, but this cannot do justice to the staggering amount of research undertaken and the logistics of organising the data collected. There is a touch of “listomania” in the league tables, listing, for no apparent reason, that William Cavendish‐Bentinck, Duke of Portland, was the eighth oldest Prime Minister to hold office, and that David Lloyd George was the 12th oldest Prime Minister when he died. William Gladstone (84) and James Callaghan (92) as the oldest in these categories respectively are surely sufficient?
There is no index to either the names of people covered or to the offices. If the former is of doubtful value, the latter is certainly a serious omission. The hundreds of tables in the massive section on Ministers (and Ministries) are in no clear order and surely an index including entries for topics such as Lords Privy Seal, Wales – Ministers of State, and Leaders of the House of Lords would have been a doodle after what the compiler has already done? If this omission was an economy, it was a bad decision. I must say, though, that the book does have clear page layouts and the listing of contents is comprehensive. The latest dates I found were for May 2005. This is good, though I do wonder how the work will be updated. The majority of the work will not need revision – Quintus Pelilius Cerealis and Ivar “the Boneless” are not going to cease being the AD71 Roman Governor of Britain and Viking Ruler of York (867‐873) respectively, barring new evidence – but the entries for present‐day office holders will date quickly.
While many of these listings can be found in other sources – kings and prime ministers for example – others are not readily accessible elsewhere. This comprehensive compendium will be a boon for research students of history and politics, and for journalists in search of interesting angles and biographical information.
