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 only Prime Minister ever to do so. Others who died within the same year they were Prime Minister were the Duke of Portland who died in 1809, 26 days after he left office and Neville Chamberlain, who died in 1940, six months (less a day) after he left office, of a cancer that was undiagnosed at the time of his resignation. Nine Prime Ministers have died while their immediate successor was in office: All of the above-listed Prime Ministers were older than their immediate successors. The Duke of Portland and Lord Aberdeen are the only ones among this list who