Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury his nephew, Arthur Balfour. King Edward VII conferred upon him the Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order (GCVO), with the order star set in brilliants, during his resignation audience. Salisbury, due to breathing difficulties caused by his great weight, took to sleeping in a chair at Hatfield House. His death in August 1903 followed a fall from that chair, when by then he had a weak heart condition and blood poisoning caused by an ulcerated leg. Salisbury was buried at St Etheldreda's Church, Hatfield, where his predecessor as prime minister, Lord Melbourne, is also interred. When Salisbury died his
Records of Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom when he succeeded his father as the 3rd Duke of Grafton on 6 May 1757, eleven years before his term of office began. The longest service as MP was enjoyed by Sir Winston Churchill, who sat for a total of 63 years and 360 days, for five successive seats, between 1 October 1900 and retiring on 25 September 1964, excluding two intervals out of parliament (in 1908 and 1922–24), retiring as Father of the House. He was in the Commons throughout both his terms as Prime Minister, and his service covered the terms of eleven other Prime Ministers, from Lord