Edward Heath

Born in 1916 to a chambermaid and a carpenter in Broadstairs, Heath rose through student politics at Oxford and served as an artillery officer in World War II before entering Parliament in 1950. He climbed quickly - Chief Whip under Eden, Cabinet minister under Macmillan - and in 1965 became the first Conservative leader chosen by ballot, a working-class meritocrat in a party of grandees. He lost badly in 1966 but pulled off an unexpected win in 1970. As Prime Minister he decimalised the coinage, overhauled local government, and achieved what he considered his finest work: British entry into the European Economic Community in 1973. But his premiership unraveled amid the Troubles - he imposed internment and direct rule in Northern Ireland - and a collision with the unions. A miners' strike in early 1974 forced the Three-Day Week, and his snap election gamble that February returned a hung parliament. Heath lost office in March, lost the leadership to Thatcher a year later, and remained in the Commons until 2001, Father of the House and an increasingly bitter critic of everything she represented. He died in 2005 at 89.