WELL, THAT DIDN’T LAST VERY LONG
Shortlived England manager Sam Allardyce isn’t the only person to be out of a job before it had barely started…
MUCH has been made of the fact that Sam Allardyce lasted just 67 days as manager of the England football team and was in charge for precisely one game before leaving by “mutual agreement” after being caught out by a newspaper sting. But if it is any consolation to “Big Sam” he is not alone in having a dream job cut short.
Leroy Rosenior, manager of Torquay United, May 17, 2007
Allardyce may hold the record for the shortest reign as England manager but no one is ever likely to enjoy a briefer period at club level than Rosenior’s blink-and-you’ll-miss-it stint at Torquay.
Just 10 minutes – 600 seconds – after the former West Ham striker was reappointed boss of the League One side a consortium completed a takeover of the club and hired Exeter City’s assistant manager Paul Buckle instead.
George Entwistle, BBC director-general, September 17 – November 10, 2012
The shortest serving DG in the BBC’s history made the ultimately fatal mistake of not previewing an episode of Newsnight that was poised to accuse an unnamed senior Thatcherera Tory of sexually abusing children.
The identity of the individual concerned – the late former party treasurer Lord McAlpine – soon came to light, he protested his innocence and sued for defamation, Newsnight’s witness recanted and the BBC was forced to pay out libel damages of £185,000.
A week after the programme went out Entwistle was subjected to a devastating interrogation by John Humphrys on Radio 4’s Today programme during which he came across as woefully hands-off. Twelve hours later he was sacked having lasted a grand total of 54 days in the top job.
Lady Jane Grey, queen of England, July 10-19, 1553
Lady Jane became queen only because her fiercely Protestant father-in-law the Duke of Northumberland plotted to prevent a Catholic ascending to the throne.
The duke had acted as regent to the ailing 15-year-old King Edward VI for three years by the time the boy-king took to his death-bed and it was child’s play for Northumberland to persuade Edward to declare both his Catholic half-sisters, Mary and Elizabeth, illegitimate, leaving Jane at the front of the line of succession.
Four days after Edward’s death, Jane was duly proclaimed queen but Mary had widespread support in the country and nine days after Jane was installed Mary had her locked up in the Tower Of London. Seven months later she was executed.
William Henry Harrison, president of the USA, March 4 – April 4, 1841
Harrison was 67 when he fought the presidential campaign of 1840 and at his inauguration was keen to show that he retained the vigour that had made him a successful army general.
On a cold wet day he wore neither hat nor overcoat and rode on horseback to the ceremony rather than in the closed carriage that had been offered to him. He also delivered the longest inaugural address in American history at 8,445 words which took him nearly two hours to read out.
Three weeks later Harrison went down with a cold that soon turned into pneumonia and pleurisy. His doctors bled him with leeches and gave him doses of dubious medicines such as opium and Virginia snake-weed but he died 30 days, 12 hours and 30 minutes after taking office – the shortest term of any US president.
Michael O’Neill, chief executive of Barclays, April 12, 1999
O’Neill, a former US Marine, was a star performer with Bank of America who was lured to Barclays by a three-year package worth £10million. But after delaying his start date by three weeks because of a bout of flu O’Neill was given a medical on his first day in the job and diagnosed with arrhythmic heartbeat – a serious condition that is aggravated by stress – and advised not to take up the post. He duly resigned with immediate effect.
Earl of Bath, prime minister of Great Britain, February 10–12, 1746
William Pulteney was asked to form a Cabinet by George II after the previous administration had resigned en masse but the new First Lord of the Treasury (as the prime minister was then known) could not muster enough support to form a viable government and resigned two days later.
One contemporary wag satirically praised the unfortunate earl for “the most wise and honest of all administrations, the minister having… never transacted one rash thing; and, what is more marvellous, left as much money in the Treasury as he found in it.”
Pope Urban VII, September 15-27, 1590
Urban managed to hold on to his job for only 13 days before passing away from malaria ahead of his official coronation. But he did manage to issue one seminal edict before he expired: the world’s first smoking ban.
Anyone who “took tobacco in the porchway of or inside a church, whether by chewing it, smoking it with a pipe or sniffing it in powdered form” would risk excommunication.
The law remained on the books in various forms until 1724 when Pope Benedict XIII, a smoker himself, repealed it.