





11 May 1812

Spencer Perceval became Britain's only Prime Minister to be assassinated

Prime Minister Spencer Perceval was assassinated by John Bellingham in the lobby of the House of Commons in London – the only assassination of a British Prime Minister.

Bellingham was furious at the Government’s refusal to offer compensation after he served a lengthy prison term in Russia over a disputed debt incurred on a trading mission.

On 11 May, he waited in the lobby at Westminster, and when Perceval appeared, shot him in the heart. He then calmly sat on a bench waiting for arrest. Tried on 15 May, he was publicly hanged three days later.

“I trust that this serious lesson will operate as a warning to all future ministers” John Bellingham

At Bellingham's Old Bailey trial, his lawyer tried to plead insanity for his client. But Bellingham was having none of it. During a passionate defence, Bellingham said: “I trust that this serious lesson will operate as a warning to all future ministers, and that they will henceforth do the thing that is right, for if the upper ranks of society are permitted to act wrong with impunity, the inferior ramifications will soon become wholly corrupted.”

At the execution, many onlookers agreed. “You have rendered an important service to your country, you have taught ministers that they should do justice,” wrote one. Bellingham's skull is preserved at Barts Pathology Museum.

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It became a mutual life insurance company in 1908 before growing into the UK’s largest mutual life and pensions company.

Its founding principles are self-reliance, community and keeping members at the heart of all decisions.