Andrew Bonar Law, a future British prime minister, was born on this date in 1858 in the village of Rexton, in what later became the Canadian province of New Brunswick.  Bonar Law was the only British PM up to today’s Boris Johnson to have been born outside the United Kingdom.  His father was a church minister at the time.In later childhood Bonar Law was sent to the UK where he began his rise to British political greatness.  he entered politics in 1900 and went on to serve in Lloyd George's wartime cabinet and later was elected leader of the Conservative Party.  Andrew Bonar Law went on to serve briefly as Britain’s Prime Minister in the 1920s.  The 150^th anniversary of his birth fell in 2008 and it was my honour to mark this special anniversary with a column in the Windsor Star. You can find it below. So, happy Andrew Bonar Law day!Time to celebrate unknown PM; Meet Andrew Bonar Law, Britain's only Canadian-born leaderby Arthur Milnes, Windsor StarSince his tragic death in 1923, only 209 days after he became Britain's prime minister, Andrew Bonar Law has not done well in the historical sweepstakes.Despite his significance in British politics during the early part of the 20th century, especially considering his service as Tory leader in the run-up to the First World War and beyond, he has, sadly, remained, The Unknown Prime Minister.This sad descriptive is said to have been bequeathed him by Herbert Henry Asquith the very day Bonar Law was interred at Westminster Abbey. Asquith is reputed to have remarked it was very fitting that the "Unknown Prime Minister" was buried near the Unknown Soldier in the Abbey. Few biographies have been written, and his name is rarely invoked by either historians or his heirs to leadership in the modern-day British Conservative party.This month is the 150th anniversary of Bonar Law's birth. And since the Brits have done as much as possible to forget him, it high time Canadians fill the void.Bonar Law, after all, was the only British prime minister to have been born in Canada -- and the only one ever born outside the U.K. (until Prime Minister Boris Johnson today). It also has to be noted that his closest friend in adult life was none other than his fellow New Brunswicker (and Canadian) Max Atkien, known in British society, and now, before history, as Lord Beaverbrook.Since the British don't want him, this week we begin the campaign to repatriate Bonar Law's historical reputation back to Canada, where at least we do our best to honour it already. The Presbyterian manse in Rexton, N.B., where the future statesman of Britain and Empire was born on Sept. 16, is already a historic site. (It was called Kingston at the time of Bonar Law's birth).It is proudly funded by the residents of the tiny village and only a year ago, the provincial government of New Brunswick provided a generous infusion of funds. (Bonar Law's father ministered to the congregation there for more than 30 years).Open from June until mid-September each year, the Bonar Law Historic Site, restored to interpret life on a 19th century working farm in Canada, boasts free admission, offers guided tours in French or English, has a gift shop, and has a place where visitors can picnic.Thanks to concern for the historical memory of a British prime minister, visitors to the Canadian site -- located on Andrew Bonar Law Avenue and featuring a cairn to honour Bonar Law unveiled in 1925 -- will continue in the years ahead to learn about -- in Canada mind you -- about the early years of a British PM. Though the population of Rexton is only about 1,000, the village's website -- www.villageofrexton.com -- proudly trumpets the fact a British prime minister was born there and villagers have taken the time to place a biography of Bonar Law on their homepage.It might not be Trafalgar Square or Chartwell, but it is something.So, I have to ask my British friends the age-old question: What have you done for Bonar Law lately?Only a year ago I stood in awe at your Westminster Abbey, breathing in millennia of British history in that hallowed place. During a special moment on the tour for me as a Canadian, I was able to look down at the simple marker of Bonar Law's in the Abbey floor. My British tour guide, in a gesture I'll always be grateful for, had taken the time to find my "fellow" Canadian for me on my first-ever visit to your land. Afterward, I purchased a copy of R.J.Q. Adams' Bonar Law, the first full-length biography of my "Canadian" comrade in decades (published in 1999).Back at my hotel in Covent Garden, I was shattered after I cracked it open, expecting to read about the 12 years of his early life this British prime minister had lived amongst us as a fellow Canadian who went to bigger things in the mighty Empire my grandparents use to tell me we once belonged to.It wasn't to be."Andrew Bonar Law is often recalled as Britain's Canadian prime minister," the professor wrote. "Technically, this is not the case ... in those days, nine years before Canadian federation. New Brunswick was a separate colony."I searched for British sources to counter the good professor's claim in his (otherwise) excellent book. Back in Canada, and using the Internet, I finally found it, more than a year after that terrible night at the Mountbatten in Covent Garden. It was a staring straight at me the whole time: Number10gov.uk - the official site of the British Prime Minister's office on the Internet."Andrew Bonar Law was the Canadian-born son of a Scottish clergyman," the site announces. "He worked as a boy on his father's smallholding. At 12 he went to live with his late mother's cousins who were rich Glaswegian merchant bankers in Scotland."So, if Bonar Law's Canadian bona fides are good enough for No. 10, they are good enough for me. And they should be good enough for all Britons.And Canadians today.In fact, Downing Street's generosity has given me a thought on this, the 150th anniversary of the birth of a New Brunswick boy who went on to become prime minister of one of the great powers of his time. Let's share him and jointly, starting now, honour Bonar Law together and resolve in the future to do as much as we can to trumpet the joint friendship and historical ties between our two great nations.Bonar Law, I suspect, would like that.The Unknown Prime Minister no more.[caption id="attachment_583605" align="alignleft" width="220"] Portrait of Andrew Bonar Law[/caption]Arthur Milnes is an accomplished public historian and award-winning journalist.  He was research assistant on The Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney’s best-selling Memoirs and also served as a speechwriter to then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper and as a Fellow of the Queen’s Centre for the Study of Democracy under the leadership of Tom Axworthy.  A resident of Kingston, Ontario, Milnes serves as the in-house historian at the 175 year-old Frontenac Club Hotel.