Who was the last Prime Minister to be assassinated

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Q.� What happened

A.� Perceval was shot as he passed through the lobby of the House of Commons by John Bellingham on 11 May, 1812. He was on his way to a debate.� Bellingham, who had been trying unsuccessfully to obtain government compensation for debts incurred while he was in Russia, surrendered immediately.� Bellingham was thought insane. However, he was tried at the Old Bailey, found guilty and executed on 18 May.� Fast-track justice.

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Q.� Anything else special about Perceval (apart from the unusual spelling if his surname)

A.� He was a brilliant man - and scourge of the Luddite rebellion threatening the country (click here for a feature on the Luddites). I expect you'd like a mini biography, wouldn't you

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Q.� Of course!

A.� Perceval was born on 1 November, 1762, the fifth of nine children born to John Perceval, second Earl of Egmont and his second wife Catherine Compton.� Spencer had seven half-brothers and sisters. The family was Irish in ancestry.�

He was educated at Harrow and Trinity College, Cambridge, called to the Bar in 1786, and became a recorder. Perceval and his wife Jane Spencer-Wilson had six sons and six daughters.� In 1796, Perceval became MP for Northampton, then Solicitor-General, Attorney-General and Chancellor of the Exchequer.�

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Q. So he was a high-flier

A. Oh yes. Perceval wrote the George III's speech for the state opening of parliament in 1807. In 1809, on the death of Lord Portland, he was appointed as Prime Minister. George III described him as the most straightforward man he had even known. Perceval was buried in the family vault in St. Luke's, Charlton, on 16 May 1812.

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Q.� And there have been no other assassination attempts on PMs since

A.� Wrong. Both Margaret Thatcher and John Major escaped with their lives.

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Q.� Remind me.

A.� At 2.54am on 12 October, 1984, the IRA tried to murder Thatcher and her cabinet at the Conservative Party Conference in Brighton. Thatcher was staying at the Grand Hotel, preparing for bed when she heard the blast. Neither she nor her husband Denis was injured, but� five people died in the attack and 30 were injured. Among those dead were MP Anthony Berry, Tory area leader Eric Taylor and Roberta Wakeham, whose husband John was Tory chief whip. Margaret Tebbit, wife of former Conservative Party chairman Norman Tebbit, was paralysed.

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Q.� And what about Mr Major

A.� Two attempts were made. An IRA team fired three mortar bombs at 10 Downing Street on 7 February, 1991, as the Cabinet debated the Gulf crisis. The bombs, launched from a van which had stopped on a Whitehall street corner, came within yards of their target. One landed in the back garden of No 10, only 40ft from the building. It scorched a wall, made a crater several feet wide and shattered the upper windows. The other two bombs landed near a police post on Mountbatten Green, where they failed to explode but burst into flames. A witness said they lay burning 'like bloody great Roman candles'.

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Q.� And the other attempt

A.� In 1992 the terrorists tried again, this time hijacking a mini-cab, packing it with explosives and blowing it up outside the gates of Downing Street.

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By Steve Cunningham