Brief Biography:

He was educated at Portsmouth Grammar School and began work in 1929 as a tax officer with the Inland Revenue but resigned in 1937 to take up a post as a full-time union official.

In 1942 he volunteered for service in the Royal Navy, following in the footsteps of his father who had served as a Chief Petty Office, and later saw action in the Far East, firstly as a ordinary seaman and after promotion as a lieutenant in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve. Having joined the Labour Party in 1931 he stood as a candidate at the 1945 general election and was elected as member of parliament (MP) for the constituency of South Cardiff (1945-50). He subsequently went onto represent South-East Cardiff (1950-83) and Cardiff South and Penarth (1983-87). His ministerial career began under Clement Atlee in the period 1945-51 when he served in a number of junior positions. When his party went into opposition after losing the general election of 1951, he held a number of positions in the Labour shadow cabinets of the 1950s and early 1960s. In 1963 he unsuccessfully challenged for the leadership of the party. When Labour returned to power in 1964 he was appointed Chancellor of Exchequer (1964-67) but in 1967 after economic problems he resigned and became Home Secretary (1967-70). This department still had responsibility for Northern Ireland but in reality, since devolved power had been transferred to a local parliament in 1921, the Home Office had given little consideration to issues relating to the region. With the rise of the civil rights movement and growing pressure from some Labour backbench MPs who had come together to form their own pressure group, the Campaign for Democracy in Ulster (CDU), he sought to persuade the Northern Ireland government to speed up its programme of reform. In the absence of these conditions in Northern Ireland quickly began to deteriorate and this was to culminate in serious disturbances in August 1969. As a result on 14 August 1969 Harold Wilson, then Prime Minister, together with Callaghan, took the decision to deploy British troops to support the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) in trying to deal with the situation. This move marked the first real intervention by the authorities at Westminster in the affairs of Northern Ireland since the early 1920s. Given this development Callaghan was anxious to use it to try to ensure that the Northern Ireland government pushed ahead quickly with plans to introduce reforms in areas such as electoral matters, the aalocation of public housing, and local government reform. In addition under his guidance significant changes were made to the nature of policing in Northern Ireland most notably the abolition of the B-Specials. Alongside overseeing these changes Callaghan also had to face a deteriorating security situation given the re-emergence of the Irish Republican Army (IRA). Thus as the situation continued to deteriorate he began to consider the possibility of suspending the Stormont Parliament and introducing direct rule from London. However Labour lost the 1970 general election and the problems of dealing with Northern Ireland became the responsibility of the incoming Conservative government.

When Labour returned to power in 1974 he became Foreign Secretary (1974-76)but then in 1976 he succeeded Wilson as Leader of his party and Prime Minister (1976-79). During this time in office he was faced with more pressing domestic economic and social problems and Northern Ireland was not high on his agenda. No new political initiatives were attempted other than to repeat that the long term policy of the Labour Party was to encourage unification by consent. The only real point at which his government provoked controversy came with its decision to increase the number of Northern Ireland Westminster constituencies. Whilst this was welcomed by unionist opinion Northern nationalists were highly critical and saw the move as an attempt to persuade unionists MPs to support what was a minority Labour government.

In 1979 he lost office when Labour were defeated at the general election in May. In 1980 he stepped down as party leader, although he remained an MP until 1987. In 1987 he was given a life peerage and took his seat in the House of Lords as Lord Callaghan of Cardiff.

Book References:

Callaghan, James. (1973), A House Divided. London: Collins.
Callaghan, James. (1987), Time and Chance. London:
Donoughue, Bernard. (1987), Prime Minister: The Conduct of Policy under Harold Wilson and James Callaghan. London: Cape.
Elliott, Sydney. and Flackes, W.D. (1999), Northern Ireland: A Political Directory 1968-1999. Belfast: Blackstaff Press.
Morgan, Kenneth Owen. (1997), Callaghan: A Life. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Ramsden, John. (ed.) (2002), The Oxford Companion to Twentieth-Century Politics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Web Sources:

http://www.hewett.norfolk.sch.uk/curric/POLIT/brit/callagha.htm
http://www.britannia.com/gov/primes/prime55.html

[Entry written by B.Lynn - 7 November 2002]