Eden, Sir (Robert) Anthony, 1st Earl of Avon 1897-1977
British statesman and Prime Minister

Born at Windlestone Hall, Bishop Auckland, County Durham, he was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford. He won the MC in 1917, and became Tory MP for Warwick and Leamington (1923-57). In 1931 he became Foreign Under-Secretary, in 1934 Lord Privy Seal and in 1935 Foreign Secretary. He resigned in 1938 following differences with the Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, principally on the issue of the policy towards Fascist Italy. In 1940 he was Churchill's Secretary of State for War, issuing the historic appeal that brought the Home Guard into being. In 1940 he was Foreign Secretary again. Strenuous wartime work culminated in his leadership of the British delegation to the 1945 San Francisco Conference which established the United Nations. With Labour in power from 1945 to 1951, he was deputy Leader of the Opposition, returning to the Foreign Office once more in 1951 in Churchill's government. He succeeded Churchill as Prime Minister in 1955, a year marked by the summit conference at Geneva with the heads of government of the USA, France and the USSR. In 1956 he ordered British and French forces to occupy the Suez Canal Zone ahead of the invading Israeli army. His action was condemned by the UN and caused a bitter and prolonged controversy in Great Britain which did not subside when he ordered a withdrawal. In failing health, he abruptly resigned the premiership in 1957. He was created an earl in 1961. Regarded as one of the Western world's most experienced statesmen, he aimed principally for world peace based on respect for law. He wrote Place in the Sun, Foreign Affairs (1939), Freedom and Order and Days for Decision (1949), his memoirs (3 vols, 1960-65) and an account of his prepolitical life, Another World (1976).

Bibliography: Sidney Aster, Anthony Eden (1976)