List of nicknames of prime ministers of the United Kingdom
Wikimedia list article

This is a list of nicknames of prime ministers of the United Kingdom. Since Sir Robert Walpole, most prime ministers have had a nickname which was in common usage at the time they were in office. Many nicknames can be perceived as disparaging although others are complimentary or affectionate.
18th century
Robert Walpole
Cock Robin
Sir Bluestring
Screen-Master General
Earl of Wilmington
George II's Favourite Nonentity
Henry Pelham
King Henry the Ninth
Duke of Newcastle
Hubble-Bubble
Earl of Bute
Jack Boot
George Grenville
Gentle Shepherd
William Pitt the Elder
The Great Commoner, in reference to his continued refusal of a peerage whilst in office, though he later accepted the title Earl of Chatham
Duke of Grafton
Royal Oak
The Turf Macaroni
Lord North
Boreas (the north wind)
Lord-deputy North
Earl of Shelburne
Malagrida, after the Jesuit missionary Gabriel Malagrida
The Jesuit in Berkerly Square
William Pitt the Younger
Pitt the Younger, to distinguish him from his father, Pitt the Elder.
Three-bottle man, in reference to his heavy consumption of port wine.
19th century
Henry Addington
The Doctor
Lord Grenville
Bogey
Spencer Perceval
Little P
George Canning
The Cicero of the British Senate
The Zany of Debate
Viscount Goderich
Prosperity Robinson
Goody Goderich
The Blubberer
Duke of Wellington
The Iron Duke
Robert Peel
Orange Peel, a reference to his views on Ireland.
Earl Russell
Finality Jack
The Widow's Mite
Earl of Derby
Scorpion Stanley
The Rupert of Debate
Earl of Aberdeen
Lord Haddo, the courtesy title by which he was known before he succeeded to his grandfather's title of Earl of Aberdeen.
Lord Palmerston
Lord Cupid
Lord Pumicestone
Benjamin Disraeli
Dizzy
William Gladstone
Grand Old Man or its acronym GOM
God's Only Mistake, used by Disraeli as a mocking alternative to Gladstone's preferred nickname (Grand Old Man).
The People's William
Murderer of Gordon, a scathing inversion of Gladstone's preferred nickname (Grand Old Man) following the death of General Gordon at Khartoum. Gladstone had delayed sending Gordon military reinforcements, so was blamed for Gordon's subsequent defeat and execution by the Mahdists of the Sudan.
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