Records of Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom Wilmington to Theresa May) University college with most alumni Prime MinistersChrist Church, Oxford13 (George Grenville to Sir Alec Douglas-Home) Vocational institution with most Prime Ministers as studentsThe Inns of Court11 (Lord Wilmington to Tony Blair). Of these, eight passed through Lincoln's Inn (William Pitt the Younger to Tony Blair). The first Prime Minister never to have been a university graduate was the Duke of Devonshire (served 1756–57), the last (as of ) was John Major (served 1990–97). The earliest Prime Minister to be an armed forces veteran was Henry Pelham, Prime Minister in 1743–54, who had served as a volunteer
Historical rankings of Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom of 258 academics who specialised in 20th-century British history and/or politics. There were 139 replies to the survey, a return rate of 54%—by far the most extensive survey done so far. The respondents were asked, among other historical questions, to rate all the 20th-century prime ministers (PM) in terms of their success and asking them to assess the key characteristics of successful PMs. Respondents were asked to indicate on a scale of 0 to 10 how successful or unsuccessful they considered each PM to have been in office (with 0 being highly unsuccessful and 10 highly successful). A mean of