Gordon Brown Biography

- In 1972, he became the youngest ever Rector of Edinburgh University.

- Brown was the longest-serving chancellor in modern British history: from 1997 to 2007.

- A kick in the head during a rugby game at high school is blamed for Brown suffering a detatched retina the following year at university. He lost sight in one eye and has poor vision in the other.

- Brown’s first child with wife Sarah died at just 10 days old. Weighing 2lb 4oz, the premature baby girl, Jennifer Jane, died of a brain haemorrhage.

- Whilst Blair was prime minister Brown lived at number ten and the Blairs next door at number eleven, being a bigger property to house the Blairs bigger family.