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Historically it has also been common to grant prime ministers a [[peerage]] upon retirement from the Commons, elevating the individual to the Lords. Formerly, the peerage bestowed was usually an [[earl]]dom.{{refn|Churchill was offered a [[Duke of London|dukedom]] but declined.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Rasor |first=Eugene L. |url=https://archive.org/details/winstonschurchil00raso |title=Winston S. Churchill, 1874–1965: a comprehensive historiography and annotated bibliography |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-313-30546-7 |page=[https://archive.org/details/winstonschurchil00raso/page/205 205] |url-access=registration}}</ref>|group= n}} The last such creation was for [[Harold Macmillan]], who resigned in 1963. Unusually, he became [[Earl of Stockton]] only in 1984, over twenty years after leaving office.
Macmillan's successors [[Alec Douglas-Home]], [[Harold Wilson]], [[James Callaghan]], [[Margaret Thatcher]], [[David Cameron]], and [[Theresa May]] all accepted [[life peer]]ages (although Douglas-Home had previously disclaimed his hereditary title as [[Earl of Home]]). [[Edward Heath]] did not accept a peerage of any kind; neither have any of the prime ministers who have retired since 1990 other than Cameron (having done so to re-join the Cabinet, rather than as an honour per se) and May. Edward Heath (in 1992), [[John Major]] (in 2005) and [[Tony Blair]] (in 2022) were appointed as Knights Companion of the Garter. Major (in 1998) and [[Gordon Brown]] (in 2024) were appointed members of the [[Order of the Companions of Honour]], although Blair had previously disclosed that he did not want honours bestowed for himself or future prime ministers.{{cn|date=October 2023}}
The most recent former prime minister to die was Margaret Thatcher (1979–1990) on 8 April 2013. Her death meant that for the first time since 1955 (the year in which the [[Earldom of Attlee]] was created, subsequent to the death of [[Earl Baldwin of Bewdley|Earl Baldwin]] in 1947) the membership of the House of Lords included no former prime minister, a situation which remained the case until David Cameron was appointed to the House in November 2023.
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