Eduardo Dato Iradier
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Eduardo Dato Iradier (August 12, 1856 – March 8, 1921). Spanish Prime Minister from 1913-1915, in 1917, and from 1920-1921.
Born in A Coruña, Spain, he moved with his family to Madrid while still young. He obtained a degree in law in 1875 and opened his law office two years later. Elected to the Spanish parliament in 1883, he became Undersecretary for the Ministry of the Interior in 1892.
He would hold the position of Minister of the Interior and Minister of Justice over the next fifteen years. In 1907, he ran for and won the position of Mayor of Madrid. In 1910, he entered the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences. In 1913 he became Prime Minister of Spain for the first time. In 1915, he left that position, but would return to it for a short while in 1917. Then he moved to the post of Minister of State and stayed there until 1920, when he led the government as Prime Minister again. He was shot by Catalan anarchists as he left the parliament building in Madrid. This was the second murder of a Spanish prime minister in less than a decade; in 1912 Jose Canalejas had been killed similarly.
Dato was a member of the Permanent Court in The Hague (he became vice-president in 1913), member of the International Law Institute, administrator of the bank firm 'Banco Hipotecario' and president of the National Institute of Social Security, the Council of Public Instruction and the Academy of Jurisprudence and Legislation. The King post-humously bestowed the Duchy of Dato to his daughter. He also received the following decorations: the Chain of the Order of Carlos III and the Cross of St Gregorio Magno y Casto de Portugal.
