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$Title{United Kingdom
The Rt Hon John Major}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Embassy of the United Kingdom, Washington DC}
$Affiliation{Embassy of the United Kingdom, Washington DC}
$Subject{minister
major


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$Date{1990}
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Title:       United Kingdom
Book:        Facts about the United Kingdom
Author:      Embassy of the United Kingdom, Washington DC
Affiliation: Embassy of the United Kingdom, Washington DC
Date:        1990

The Rt Hon John Major

[See John Major: Courtesy Embassy of the United Kingdom, New York.]

MP Prime Minister, First Lord of Treasury and Minister for the Civil Service

     The Rt Hon John Major, Conservative Member of Parliament for Huntingdon,
is the Prime Minister. He was appointed Prime Minister, First Lord of the
Treasury and Minister for the Civil Service on 28 November 1990.

     John Major was born in 1943 and educated at Rutlish Grammar School. He
was an executive with Standard Chartered Bank from 1965 to 1979 and is an
Associate of the Institute of Bankers. He served on Lambeth Borough Council
from 1968 to 1971.

     Before his election to Parliament as Member for Huntingdonshire in 1979,
Mr Major contested Camden (St Pancras) in February and October 1974. Since
the general election of 1983 and following constituency boundary changes, he
has sat for Huntingdon.

     From 1981 to 1983 Mr Major was Parliamentary Private Secretary to the
Minister of State at the Home Office. He became an Assistant Government Whip
in 1983, being appointed a Lord Commissioner of the Treasury (a senior
Government Whip) in 1984. In 1985 he was made Parliamentary Under-Secretary
of State for Social Security at the Department of Health and Social Security
and was promoted to Minister of State for Social Security and the Disabled in
1986, remaining in this post until his appointment as Chief Secretary to the
Treasury following the general election of June 1987.

     He served as Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs and
Minister of Overseas Development from July to October 1989, when he became
Chancellor of the Exchequer. He remained in this post until his appointment
as Prime Minister in November 1990.

     Mr Major was a member of the board of Warden Housing Association from
1975 to 1983. He was a Joint Secretary of the Conservative Back-Bench
Environment Committee from 1979 to 1981; parliamentary consultant to the
Guild of Glass Engravers from 1979 to 1983; and President of the Eastern
Area Young Conservatives from 1983 to 1985.

     His recreations include opera and cricket.

     Mr Major is married and has a son and a daughter.