George Bush Snr's Biography

George Herbert Walker Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts on 12 June 1924.

Like his son, President George W Bush, George Bush Snr went to Phillips Academy and to Yale.

He served as a naval pilot in the Pacific in World War Two.

Before going into politics, George Bush senior worked in the oil industry, including as head of the Zapata Off-Shore Company.

In 1966 George Herbert Walker Bush gained his first major foothold on the political ladder when he was elected as a Republican to the Texas Seventh US Congressional District.

In 1971, Bush was appointed by then President Nixon as US Ambassador to the United Nations. In 1973 he became head of the Republican Party National Committee. In 1976, under Gerald Ford, Bush became Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) for a year.

Bush served two terms (1981-1989) as vice president to Ronald Reagan, before himself being elected to the top spot.

In 1989 George Bush Snr was elected the 41st president of the United States defeating Democrat Michael Dukakis.

George Bush Snr ordered the invasion of Panama to overthrow Noriega in 1989 and presided over the US-led United Nations campaign to drive Iraqi forces out of Kuwait during the Gulf War in 1991.

In the 1992 presidential elections Bush Snr lost out to Democrat, Bill Clinton.

In her autobiography, The Downing Street Years, Margaret Thatcher wrote:

"I later learned that President Bush was sometimes exasperated by my habit of talking non-stop about issues which fascinated me and felt that he ought to be leading the discussion. More important than all of this perhaps was the fact that, as President, George Bush felt the need to distance himself from his predecessor: turning his back fairly publicly on the special position I had enjoyed in the Reagan Administration's counsels and confidence was a way of doing that. That was understandable; and by the time of my last year in office we had established a better relationship. By then I had learned that I had to defer to him in conversation and not to stint the praise. If that was what was necessary to secure Britain's interest and influence I had no hesitation in eating a little humble pie."

In 2018, George HW Bush died aged 94.