Records of Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom transitions between reigns, eight Prime Ministers each served under two sovereigns: George III had 14 Prime Ministers serving during his 59-year reign (reigned 1760–1820), beginning with the Duke of Newcastle. The last incumbent, Lord Liverpool, was the only one appointed by his son (the Prince Regent) during the father's final incapacity to rule. In downward numerical order, numbers of Prime Ministers in office during other reigns are: Only six Prime Ministers came to serve office under sovereigns in whose own reigns they were born. The present Prime Minister, Theresa May, is the third Prime Minister to have been born in
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom century as a convention of the constitution, the position of Leader of the Opposition was given statutory recognition in 1937 by the Ministers of the Crown Act. British Prime Ministers have never been elected directly by the public. A Prime Minister need not be a party leader; David Lloyd George was not a party leader during his service as prime Minister during World War I, and neither was Ramsay MacDonald from 1931 to 1935. Prime Ministers have taken office because they were members of either the Commons or Lords, and either inherited a majority in the Commons or won more