Robert Peel In 1830 the Whigs finally returned to power and Peel became a member of the Opposition for the first time. After successive election defeats, leadership of the Conservative Party gradually passed from Wellington to Peel, and when King William IV asked Wellington to become Prime Minister in November 1834, he declined and Peel was selected instead, with Wellington serving as caretaker until Peel took office. Peel then issued the Tamworth Manifesto (December 1834), laying down the principles upon which the modern British Conservative Party is based. His first ministry was a minority government, dependent on Whig support and with Peel
Records of Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom Ministers, including Thatcher, received it after serving office. As of , the only currently living Knight among them is John Major, knighted in 2005. The first and so far only Prime Minister to have received a British gallantry award was Sir Anthony Eden who won the Military Cross (MC) while serving in the army in the First World War, before entering parliament. After Sir Robert Walpole, three other Prime Ministers have been in office at a time when no former Prime Ministers were alive: After Lord Wilmington, eleven other Prime Ministers have been in office at a time when only