Prime Minister of the United Kingdom retirement from the Commons, which elevates the individual to the House of Lords. Formerly, the peerage bestowed was usually an earldom, with Churchill offered a dukedom. From the 1960s onward, life peerages were preferred, although in 1984 Harold Macmillan was created Earl of Stockton. Sir Alec Douglas-Home, Harold Wilson, James Callaghan and Margaret Thatcher accepted life peerages, although Douglas-Home had previously disclaimed his hereditary title as Earl of Home. Edward Heath did not accept a peerage of any kind and nor have any of the Prime Ministers to retire since 1990; although Heath and Major were later appointed as Knights
Life Peerages Act 1958 peerages. This gradually diminished the numerical dominance of hereditary peers. The Act allowed for the creation of female peers entitled to sit in the House of Lords. The first such women peers took their seats on 21 October 1958. A life peer is created by the sovereign by Letters Patent under the Great Seal on the advice of the Prime Minister. Before the Act was enacted, former Prime Ministers were usually created Viscounts or Earls (which are hereditary peerages) in recognition of their public service in high office, as were the Viceroys of India and exceptional military or front bench