UK Prime Ministers Hit By Illness

Here are some of the previous prime ministers to have fought ill health

(AFP) - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s battle against coronavirus is the latest in a long line of illnesses to hit the country’s leaders over the centuries.

Here are some of the previous prime ministers to have fought ill health:

Britain’s most celebrated prime minister was beset by illness when he led the country during World War II, and his political career was eventually ended by poor health.

He suffered a heart attack while staying at the White House after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, and two serious bouts of pneumonia.

He had a severe stroke during his second term as prime minister in June 1953, and was off work until October.

Unthinkable in today’s frenzied media landscape, Churchill was able to conceal the illness from both parliament and the public, but retired in 1955 as the pressure took its toll physically and mentally.

Liberal leader Lloyd George, who was prime minister during World War I, was stricken by the deadly Spanish Flu virus in September 1918 as the conflict still raged.

Lloyd George was 55 -- the same age as Johnson -- when he contracted the illness, which killed up to 50 million worldwide.

He also had to isolate and required intensive care treatment.

Despite being "touch and go" for days, the public were unaware of his condition due to a news blackout imposed under wartime censorship.

Palmerston, who served twice as prime minister at the height of Britain’s imperial power in the mid-19th century, is the last British premier to die in office.

He was still serving in 1865, aged 80, when he developed a violent fever that led to his death. He was given a state funeral and buried at London’s Westminster Abbey.

Trailblazing nurse Florence Nightingale, whose name was chosen for Britain’s temporary coronavirus field hospital opened last week, said of his death: "I shall lose a powerful protector".

The three-term Labour prime minister spent five hours in hospital after complaining of chest pains in 2003, leading to doctors giving him an electric shock to correct an irregular heartbeat.

Blair’s office said at the time that he "does not have, has never had, a heart condition", but he underwent a procedure a year later to provide long-term correction of an abnormal heart rhythm.

Johnson’ predecessor, who served between 2016 and 2019, was diagnosed in 2012 with chronic condition type 1 diabetes, which results in cells in the pancreas that make insulin being destroyed.

"My reaction was: ‘Oh no, I’m going to have to inject’ and thinking about what that would mean in practical terms," she later told a charity, adding she required four injections a day to manage the condition.

Tory leader Perceval is the only British prime minister to have been assassinated, having been shot in 1812.

Perceval, who led the country for three years until his death, was in the House of Commons when a man drew a pistol and shot him in the chest.

The killer, John Bellingham, was a merchant who believed he was due compensation from the government after being imprisoned in Russia.