Anthony Eden

The Earl of Avon

Term of Office:	7 April 1955 - 11 January 1957
PM Predecessor:	Winston Churchill
PM Successor:	Harold Macmillan
Date of Birth:	12 June 1897
Place of Birth:	Bishop Auckland, Durham
Political Party:	Conservative

Eden studied at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford. Following a military career during the First World War, for which he received a Military Cross, Eden entered politics in 1923 when elected as Member of Parliament for Leamington and Warwick. He became Parliamentary Private Secretary at the Foreign Office in 1926. In 1931 he was promoted to Under-Secretary of State. In 1935 he briefly served as Minster for the League of Nations under Stanley Baldwin's Government but was soon promoted to Foreign Secretary. Three years later, he resigned from Neville Chamberlain's Government in 1938 due to personal conflicts with Chamberlain, as well as in protest to Chamberlain's implementation of a policy of appeasement of Nazi Germany. In 1939 on the outbreak of war he returned to Chamberlain's government as Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs. When Winston Churchill became Prime Minister, Eden was appointed as Secretary of State for War. Later in 1940 he was appointed Foreign Secretary once more. In 1942 he was given the additional job of Leader of the House of Commons. After Clement Attlee's landslide election victory in 1945, Eden returned to the Opposition benches as Deputy Leader of the Opposition. From 1951 to 1955 he was Foreign Secretary for a third time.

He succeeded Winston Churchill as Prime Minister of the UK in 1955, and resigned in 1957 in the aftermath of the Suez Crisis. About the crisis, Eden famously defended his decision to bomb Egyptian troops following the nationalisation of the Suez Canal by remarking "We are in an armed conflict; that is the phrase I have used. There has been no declaration of war". The crisis ended ignominiously for the 'old colonial power' Britain and in particular Eden. He faced fierce criticism from both the United Nations and critics at home. Stricken with illness, he resigned in January 1957 as both Prime Minister and MP.

He was made Earl of Avon in 1961. The book Another World is an account of his experiences as a soldier. Eden died in Salisbury in 1977.

Anthony Eden's Government, April 1955 - January 1957

• Anthony Eden: Prime Minister
• Lord Kilmuir: Lord Chancellor
• Lord Salisbury: Lord President of the Council
• H.F.C. Crookshank: Lord Privy Seal
• Richard Austen Butler: Chancellor of the Exchequer
• Harold Macmillan: Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs
• Gwilym Lloyd George: Secretary of State for the Home Department
• Alan Lennox-Boyd: Secretary of State for the Colonies
• Lord Home: Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations
• Peter Thorneycroft: President of the Board of Trade
• Lord Woolton: Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
• Sir David Eccles: Minister of Education
• James Stuart: Secretary of State for Scotland
• Derick Heathcoat Amory: Minister of Agriculture
• Sir Walter Monckton: Minister of Labour and National Service
• Selwyn Lloyd: Minister of Defence
• Duncan Edwin Sandys: Minister of Housing and Local Government
• Osbert Peake: Minister of Pensions and National Insurance

Changes

• December 1955 - Richard Austen Butler succeeds H.F.C. Crookshank as Lord Privy Seal. Harold Macmillan succeeds Butler as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Selwyn Lloyd succeeds Macmillan as Foreign Secretary. Sir Walter Monckton succeeds Lloyd as Minister of Defence. Iain Macleod succeeds Monckton as Minister of Labour and National Service. Lord Selkirk succeeds Lord Woolton as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. The Minister of Public Works, Patrick Buchan-Hepburn, enters the Cabinet. The Minister of Pensions and National Insrurance leaves the Cabinet upon Peake's retirement.
• October 1956: Sir Walter Monckton becomes Paymaster-General. Anthony Henry Head succeeds Monckton as Minister of Defence.

Preceded by: New Creation

Earl of Avon

Followed by: Nicholas Eden

Referenced By