Maurice Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton, (10 February 1894 – 29 December 1986) was a British
Conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...
statesman and politician who was
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister advises the sovereign on the exercise of much of the royal prerogative, chairs the Cabinet and selects its ministers. As modern pr ...
from 1957 to 1963. Caricatured as "
Supermac
The SuperMac was a line of Macintosh clones produced by UMAX Technologies from 1996 to 1998. Their models included the SuperMac S900/S910, J700, C500 and C500e/i/LT, C600e/v/LT/x and Aegis 200. The C500 was marketed as the Apus 2000 in Europe. T ...
", he was known for his
pragmatism
Pragmatism is a philosophical tradition that considers words and thought as tools and instruments for prediction, problem solving, and action, and rejects the idea that the function of thought is to describe, represent, or mirror reality. ...
, wit and unflappability.
Macmillan was badly injured as an infantry officer during the First World War. He suffered pain and partial immobility for the rest of his life. After the war he joined
his family book-publishing business, then entered Parliament at the
1924 general election. Losing his seat in 1929, he regained it in 1931, soon after which he spoke out against the high rate of unemployment in Stockton-on-Tees. He opposed the
appeasement of Germany practised by the Conservative government. He rose to high office during the Second World War as a protégé of Prime Minister
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 Winston Churchill in the Second World War, dur ...
. In the 1950s Macmillan served as
Foreign Secretary
The secretary of state for foreign, Commonwealth and development affairs, known as the foreign secretary, is a minister of the Crown of the Government of the United Kingdom and head of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. Seen as ...
and
Chancellor of the Exchequer
The chancellor of the Exchequer, often abbreviated to chancellor, is a senior minister of the Crown within the Government of the United Kingdom, and head of His Majesty's Treasury. As one of the four Great Offices of State, the Chancellor is ...
under
Anthony Eden
Robert Anthony Eden, 1st Earl of Avon, (12 June 1897 – 14 January 1977) was a British Conservative Party politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1955 until his resignation in 1957.
Achieving rapid promo ...
.
When Eden resigned in 1957 following the
Suez Crisis
The Suez Crisis, or the Second Arab–Israeli war, also called the Tripartite Aggression ( ar, العدوان الثلاثي, Al-ʿUdwān aṯ-Ṯulāṯiyy) in the Arab world and the Sinai War in Israel,Also known as the Suez War or 1956 Wa ...
, Macmillan succeeded him as prime minister and
Leader of the Conservative Party. He was a
One Nation Tory of the
Disraelian tradition and supported the
post-war consensus
The post-war consensus, sometimes called the post-war compromise, was the economic order and social model of which the major political parties in post-war Britain shared a consensus supporting view, from the end of World War II in 1945 to the ...
. He supported the
welfare state
A welfare state is a form of government in which the state (or a well-established network of social institutions) protects and promotes the economic and social well-being of its citizens, based upon the principles of equal opportunity, equitabl ...
and the necessity of a
mixed economy
A mixed economy is variously defined as an economic system blending elements of a market economy with elements of a planned economy, markets with state interventionism, or private enterprise with public enterprise. Common to all mixed economi ...
with some nationalised industries and strong trade unions. He championed a
Keynesian
Keynesian economics ( ; sometimes Keynesianism, named after British economist John Maynard Keynes) are the various macroeconomic theories and models of how aggregate demand (total spending in the economy) strongly influences economic output an ...
strategy of
deficit spending
Within the budgetary process, deficit spending is the amount by which spending exceeds revenue over a particular period of time, also called simply deficit, or budget deficit; the opposite of budget surplus. The term may be applied to the budget ...
to
maintain demand and pursuit of
corporatist
Corporatism is a Collectivism and individualism, collectivist political ideology which advocates the organization of society by Corporate group (sociology), corporate groups, such as agricultural, labour, military, business, scientific, or guil ...
policies to develop the domestic market as the engine of growth. Benefiting from favourable international conditions, he presided over an
age of affluence, marked by low unemployment and high—if uneven—growth. In his speech of July 1957 he told the nation it had 'never had it so good', but warned of the dangers of inflation, summing up the fragile prosperity of the 1950s. He led the Conservatives to success in
1959
Events January
* January 1 - Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when the forces of Fidel Castro advance.
* January 2 - Lunar probe Luna 1 was the first man-made object to attain escape velocity from Earth. It reached the vicinity of E ...
with an increased majority.
In international affairs, Macmillan worked to rebuild the
Special Relationship with the United States from the wreckage of the 1956 Suez Crisis (of which he had been one of the architects), and facilitated the
decolonisation
Decolonization or decolonisation is the undoing of colonialism, the latter being the process whereby imperial nations establish and dominate foreign territories, often overseas. Some scholars of decolonization focus especially on independence m ...
of Africa. Reconfiguring the nation's defences to meet the realities of the nuclear age, he ended
National Service
National service is the system of voluntary government service, usually military service. Conscription is mandatory national service. The term ''national service'' comes from the United Kingdom's National Service (Armed Forces) Act 1939.
The ...
, strengthened the
nuclear forces
The nuclear force (or nucleon–nucleon interaction, residual strong force, or, historically, strong nuclear force) is a force that acts between the protons and neutrons of atoms. Neutrons and protons, both nucleons, are affected by the nucl ...
by acquiring
Polaris, and pioneered the
Nuclear Test Ban
The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) is a multilateral treaty to ban nuclear weapons test explosions and any other nuclear explosions, for both civilian and military purposes, in all environments. It was adopted by the United Nation ...
with the United States and the Soviet Union. After the
Skybolt Crisis undermined the Anglo-American strategic relationship, he sought a more active role for Britain in Europe, but his unwillingness to disclose United States nuclear secrets to France contributed to a French veto of the United Kingdom's entry into the
European Economic Community. Near the end of his premiership, his government was rocked by the
Vassall and
Profumo scandals, which to cultural conservatives and supporters of opposing parties alike seemed to symbolise moral decay of the British establishment. Following his resignation, Macmillan lived out a long retirement as an elder statesman, being an active member of the
House of Lords
The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the Bicameralism, upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by Life peer, appointment, Hereditary peer, heredity or Lords Spiritual, official function. Like the ...
in his final years. He was as trenchant a critic of his successors in his old age as he had been of his predecessors in his youth. He died in December 1986 at the age of 92; the second longest-lived Prime Minister in British history.
Macmillan was the last British prime minister born during the
Victorian era
In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardia ...
, the last to have served in the First World War and the last to receive a hereditary peerage.
Early life
Family
Macmillan was born on 10 February 1894, at 52
Cadogan Place
Cadogan Place is a street in Belgravia, London. It is named after Earl Cadogan and runs parallel to the lower half of Sloane Street. It gives its name to the extensive Cadogan Place Gardens, private communal gardens maintained for Cadogan reside ...
in
Chelsea
Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to:
Places Australia
* Chelsea, Victoria
Canada
* Chelsea, Nova Scotia
* Chelsea, Quebec
United Kingdom
* Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames
** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...
, London, to Maurice Crawford Macmillan (1853–1936), a publisher, and his wife, the former Helen (Nellie) Artie Tarleton Belles (1856–1937), an artist and socialite from
Spencer, Indiana
Spencer is a town in Washington Township, Owen County, in the U.S. state of Indiana. The population was 2,217 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Owen County.
Spencer is part of the Bloomington, Indiana Metropolitan Statistical Are ...
. He had two brothers, Daniel, eight years his senior, and Arthur, four years his senior. His paternal grandfather,
Daniel MacMillan
Daniel MacMillan ( gd, Dòmhnall MacMhaolain; 13 September 1813 – 27 June 1857) was a Scottish publisher from the Isle of Arran, Scotland. MacMillan was one of the co-founders of Macmillan Publishers along with his brother Alexander in L ...
(1813–1857), who founded
Macmillan Publishers
Macmillan Publishers (occasionally known as the Macmillan Group; formally Macmillan Publishers Ltd and Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC) is a British publishing company traditionally considered to be one of the 'Big Five' English language publi ...
, was the son of a Scottish
crofter
A croft is a fenced or enclosed area of land, usually small and arable, and usually, but not always, with a crofter's dwelling thereon. A crofter is one who has tenure and use of the land, typically as a tenant farmer, especially in rural are ...
from the
Isle of Arran. He considered himself a Scot.
Schooling, university and early political views
Macmillan received an intensive early education, closely guided by his American mother. He learned French at home every morning from a succession of nursery maids, and exercised daily at Mr Macpherson's Gymnasium and Dancing Academy, around the corner from the family home. From the age of six or seven he received introductory lessons in classical Latin and Greek at
Mr Gladstone's day school, close by in
Sloane Square
Sloane Square is a small hard-landscaped square on the boundaries of the central London districts of Belgravia and Chelsea, located southwest of Charing Cross, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. The area forms a boundary betwe ...
.
Macmillan attended
Summer Fields School
Summer Fields is a fee-paying boys' independent day and boarding preparatory school in Summertown, Oxford. It was originally called Summerfield and used to have a subsidiary school, Summerfields, St Leonards-on-Sea (known as "Summers mi").
H ...
,
Oxford
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
(1903–06). He was Third Scholar at
Eton College
Eton College () is a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI under the name ''Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore'',Nevill, p. 3 ff. intended as a sister institution to King's College, C ...
, but his time there (1906–10) was blighted by recurrent illness, starting with a near-fatal attack of pneumonia in his first
half
One half ( : halves) is the irreducible fraction resulting from dividing one by two or the fraction resulting from dividing any number by its double. Multiplication by one half is equivalent to division by two, or "halving"; conversely, ...
; he missed his final year after being invalided out, and was taught at home by private tutors (1910–11), notably
Ronald Knox
Ronald Arbuthnott Knox (17 February 1888 – 24 August 1957) was an English Catholic priest, theologian, author, and radio broadcaster. Educated at Eton and Balliol College, Oxford, where he earned a high reputation as a classicist, Knox wa ...
, who did much to instil his
High Church
The term ''high church'' refers to beliefs and practices of Christian ecclesiology, liturgy, and theology that emphasize formality and resistance to modernisation. Although used in connection with various Christian traditions, the term originate ...
Anglicanism
Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of the ...
. He won an
Exhibition (scholarship)
An exhibition is a type of scholarship award or bursary.
United Kingdom and Ireland
At the universities of Dublin, Oxford, Cambridge and Sheffield, at some public schools, and various other UK educational establishments, an exhibition is a sma ...
to
Balliol College, Oxford
Balliol College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. One of Oxford's oldest colleges, it was founded around 1263 by John I de Balliol, a landowner from Barnard Castle in County Durham, who provided the f ...
.
As a child, teenager and later young man, he was an admirer of the policies and leadership of a succession of
Liberal
Liberal or liberalism may refer to:
Politics
* a supporter of liberalism
** Liberalism by country
* an adherent of a Liberal Party
* Liberalism (international relations)
* Sexually liberal feminism
* Social liberalism
Arts, entertainment and m ...
Prime Ministers, starting with
Henry Campbell-Bannerman
Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman (né Campbell; 7 September 183622 April 1908) was a British statesman and Liberal politician. He served as the prime minister of the United Kingdom from 1905 to 1908 and leader of the Liberal Party from 1899 to 1 ...
, who came to power when Macmillan was only 11 years old, and then
H. H. Asquith
Herbert Henry Asquith, 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith, (12 September 1852 – 15 February 1928), generally known as H. H. Asquith, was a British statesman and Liberal Party politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom f ...
, whom he later described as having "intellectual sincerity and moral nobility", and particularly of Asquith's successor,
David Lloyd George
David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor, (17 January 1863 – 26 March 1945) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1916 to 1922. He was a Liberal Party politician from Wales, known for leading the United Kingdom during t ...
, whom he regarded as a "man of action", likely to accomplish his goals.
Macmillan went up to Balliol College in 1912, where he joined many political societies. His political opinions at this stage were an eclectic mix of moderate Conservatism, moderate Liberalism and Fabian Socialism. He read avidly about
Disraeli
Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, (21 December 1804 – 19 April 1881) was a British statesman and Conservative Party (UK), Conservative politician who twice served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He played a centr ...
, but was also particularly impressed by a speech by Lloyd George at the
Oxford Union Society
The Oxford Union Society, commonly referred to simply as the Oxford Union, is a debating society in the city of Oxford England, whose membership is drawn primarily from the University of Oxford. Founded in 1823, it is one of Britain's oldest ...
in 1913, where he had become a member and debater. Macmillan was a protégé of the Union President
Walter Monckton
Walter Turner Monckton, 1st Viscount Monckton of Brenchley, (17 January 1891 – 9 January 1965) was a British lawyer and politician.
Early years
Monckton was born in the village of Plaxtol in north Kent. He was the eldest child of paper m ...
, later a Cabinet colleague; as such, he became Secretary then Junior Treasurer (elected unopposed in March 1914, then an unusual occurrence) of the Union, and would in his biographers' view "almost certainly" have been
President
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
*President (education), a leader of a college or university
*President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Automobiles
* Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...
had the war not intervened. He obtained a First in ''Honours Moderations'', informally known as ''Mods'' (consisting of Latin and Greek, the first half of the four-year Oxford ''
Literae Humaniores'' course, informally known as ''Classics''), in 1914. With his final exams over two years away, he enjoyed an idyllic Trinity (summer) term at Oxford, just before the outbreak of the First World War.
War service
Volunteering as soon as war was declared, Macmillan was commissioned as a temporary
second lieutenant
Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces, comparable to NATO OF-1 rank.
Australia
The rank of second lieutenant existed in the military forces of the Australian colonies and Australian Army until ...
in the
King's Royal Rifle Corps
The King's Royal Rifle Corps was an infantry rifle regiment of the British Army that was originally raised in British North America as the Royal American Regiment during the phase of the Seven Years' War in North America known in the United St ...
on 19 November 1914. Promoted to lieutenant on 30 January 1915, he soon transferred to the
Grenadier Guards
"Shamed be whoever thinks ill of it."
, colors =
, colors_label =
, march = Slow: " Scipio"
, mascot =
, equipment =
, equipment ...
. He fought on the front lines in
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
, where the casualty rate was high, as was the probability of an "early and violent death". He served with distinction and was wounded on three occasions. Shot in the right hand and receiving a glancing bullet wound to the head in the
Battle of Loos
The Battle of Loos took place from 1915 in France on the Western Front, during the First World War. It was the biggest British attack of 1915, the first time that the British used poison gas and the first mass engagement of New Army units. Th ...
in September 1915, Macmillan was sent to Lennox Gardens in
Chelsea
Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to:
Places Australia
* Chelsea, Victoria
Canada
* Chelsea, Nova Scotia
* Chelsea, Quebec
United Kingdom
* Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames
** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...
for hospital treatment, then joined a reserve battalion at
Chelsea Barracks
Chelsea Barracks was a British Army barracks located in the City of Westminster, London, between the districts of Belgravia, Chelsea and Pimlico on Chelsea Bridge Road.
The barracks closed in the late 2000s, and the site is currently being redeve ...
from January to March 1916, until his hand had healed. He then returned to the front lines in France. Leading an advance platoon in the
Battle of Flers–Courcelette
The Battle of Flers–Courcelette (, 15 to 22 September 1916) was fought during the Battle of the Somme in France, by the French Sixth Army and the British Fourth Army and Reserve Army, against the German 1st Army, during the First World War. ...
(part of the
Battle of the Somme
The Battle of the Somme ( French: Bataille de la Somme), also known as the Somme offensive, was a battle of the First World War fought by the armies of the British Empire and French Third Republic against the German Empire. It took place bet ...
) in September 1916, he was severely wounded, and lay for over twelve hours in a shell hole, sometimes feigning death when Germans passed, and reading the classical playwright
Aeschylus
Aeschylus (, ; grc-gre, Αἰσχύλος ; c. 525/524 – c. 456/455 BC) was an ancient Greek tragedian, and is often described as the father of tragedy. Academic knowledge of the genre begins with his work, and understanding of earlier Greek ...
in the original Greek. Prime Minister Asquith's own son,
Raymond Asquith
Raymond Herbert Asquith (6 November 1878 – 15 September 1916) was an English barrister and eldest son of British prime minister H. H. Asquith. A distinguished Oxford scholar, he was a member of the fashionable group of intellectuals known as ...
, was a brother officer in Macmillan's regiment, and was killed that month.
Macmillan spent the final two years of the war in hospital undergoing a long series of operations. He was still on crutches on
Armistice Day
Armistice Day, later known as Remembrance Day in the Commonwealth and Veterans Day in the United States, is commemorated every year on 11 November to mark the armistice signed between the Allies of World War I and Germany at Compiègne, Fran ...
,
11 November 1918. His hip wound took four years to heal completely, and he was left with a slight shuffle to his walk and a limp grip in his right hand from his previous wound, which affected his handwriting.
Macmillan saw himself as both a "gownsman" and a "swordsman" and would later display open contempt for other politicians (e.g.
Rab Butler
Richard Austen Butler, Baron Butler of Saffron Walden, (9 December 1902 – 8 March 1982), also known as R. A. Butler and familiarly known from his initials as Rab, was a prominent British Conservative Party politician. ''The Times'' obituary c ...
,
Hugh Gaitskell,
Harold Wilson
James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, (11 March 1916 – 24 May 1995) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from October 1964 to June 1970, and again from March 1974 to April 1976. He ...
) who, often through no fault of their own, had not seen military service in either World War.
Canadian aide-de-campship
Of the 28 students who started at Balliol with Macmillan, only he and one other survived the war. As a result, he refused to return to
Oxford
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
to complete his degree, saying the university would never be the same; in later years he joked that he had been "sent down by
the Kaiser".
Owing to the impending contraction of the Army after the war, a regular commission in the Grenadiers was out of the question. However, at the end of 1918 Macmillan joined the Guards Reserve Battalion at Chelsea Barracks for "light duties". On one occasion he had to command reliable troops in a nearby park as a unit of Guardsmen was briefly refusing to reembark for France, although the incident was resolved peacefully. The incident prompted an inquiry from the War Office as to whether the Guards Reserve Battalion "could be relied on".
Macmillan then served in
Ottawa, Ontario
Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...
, Canada, in 1919 as
ADC
ADC may refer to:
Science and medicine
* ADC (gene), a human gene
* AIDS dementia complex, neurological disorder associated with HIV and AIDS
* Allyl diglycol carbonate or CR-39, a polymer
* Antibody-drug conjugate, a type of anticancer treatm ...
to
Victor Cavendish, 9th Duke of Devonshire, then
Governor General of Canada
The governor general of Canada (french: gouverneure générale du Canada) is the federal viceregal representative of the . The is head of state of Canada and the 14 other Commonwealth realms, but resides in oldest and most populous realm, t ...
, and his future father-in-law. The engagement of Captain Macmillan to the Duke's daughter Lady Dorothy was announced on 7 January 1920. He relinquished his commission on 1 April 1920. As was common for contemporary former officers, he continued to be known as 'Captain Macmillan' until the early 1930s and was listed as such in every General Election between 1923 and 1931. As late as his North African posting of 1942–43 he reminded Churchill that he held the rank of captain in the Guards reserve.
Macmillan Publishers
On his return to London in 1920 he joined the family publishing firm
Macmillan Publishers
Macmillan Publishers (occasionally known as the Macmillan Group; formally Macmillan Publishers Ltd and Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC) is a British publishing company traditionally considered to be one of the 'Big Five' English language publi ...
as a junior partner. In 1936, Harold and his brother Daniel took control of the firm, with the former focusing on the political and non-fiction side of the business. Harold resigned from the company on appointment to ministerial office in 1940. He resumed working with the firm from 1945 to 1951 when the party was in opposition.
Personal life
According to
Michael Bloch, there have long been rumours that Macmillan was expelled from Eton for homosexuality. Macmillan's biographer
D. R. Thorpe
D. R. (Richard) Thorpe (born 1943) is a historian and biographer who has written biographies of three British Prime Ministers of the mid 20th century, Sir Anthony Eden, Sir Alec Douglas-Home and Harold Macmillan.
Education and academic career
Th ...
is of the view that he was removed by his mother when she discovered that he was being "used" by older boys.
Dick Leonard
Richard Lawrence Leonard (12 December 1930 – 24 June 2021) was a British writer, journalist and Labour politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Romford from 1970 to 1974. He was a pro-European social democrat and had been a ...
reports that
Alistair Horne refers to "inevitable rumours" and that "he left for the 'usual reasons' for boys to be expelled from public schools".
Marriage
Macmillan married
Lady Dorothy Cavendish, the daughter of the
9th Duke of Devonshire, on 21 April 1920. Her great-uncle was
Spencer Cavendish, 8th Duke of Devonshire
Spencer Compton Cavendish, 8th Duke of Devonshire, (23 July 183324 March 1908), styled Lord Cavendish of Keighley between 1834 and 1858 and Marquess of Hartington between 1858 and 1891, was a British statesman. He has the distinction of having ...
, who was leader of the
Liberal Party
The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left.
__TOC__ Active liberal parties
This is a li ...
in the 1870s, and a close colleague of
William Ewart Gladstone
William Ewart Gladstone ( ; 29 December 1809 – 19 May 1898) was a British statesman and Liberal politician. In a career lasting over 60 years, he served for 12 years as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, spread over four non-conse ...
,
Joseph Chamberlain
Joseph Chamberlain (8 July 1836 – 2 July 1914) was a British statesman who was first a radical Liberal, then a Liberal Unionist after opposing home rule for Ireland, and eventually served as a leading imperialist in coalition with the C ...
and
Lord Salisbury
Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (; 3 February 183022 August 1903) was a British statesman and Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom three times for a total of over thirteen y ...
. Lady Dorothy was also descended from
William Cavendish, 4th Duke of Devonshire
William Cavendish, 4th Duke of Devonshire, (8 May 1720 – 2 October 1764), styled Lord Cavendish before 1729, and Marquess of Hartington between 1729 and 1755, was a British Whig statesman and nobleman who was briefly nominal 5th Prime Mini ...
, who served as Prime Minister from 1756 to 1757 in communion with
Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to:
*Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England
*Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England
*Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...
and
Pitt the Elder
William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham, (15 November 170811 May 1778) was a British statesman of the Whig group who served as Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1766 to 1768. Historians call him Chatham or William Pitt the Elder to distinguish ...
. Her nephew
William Cavendish, Marquess of Hartington
William John Robert Cavendish, Marquess of Hartington (10 December 1917 – 9 September 1944) was a British politician and British Army officer. He was the elder son of Edward Cavendish, 10th Duke of Devonshire, and therefore the heir to the du ...
, married
Kathleen Kennedy, a sister of
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination ...
.
In 1929, Lady Dorothy began a lifelong affair with the Conservative politician
Robert Boothby
Robert John Graham Boothby, Baron Boothby, (12 February 1900 – 16 July 1986), often known as Bob Boothby, was a British Conservative politician.
Early life
The only son of Sir Robert Tuite Boothby, KBE, of Edinburgh and a cousin of Rosalind ...
, an arrangement that scandalised high society but remained unknown to the general public. Philip Frere, a partner in Frere Cholmely solicitors, urged Macmillan not to divorce his wife, which at that time would have been fatal to a public career even for the "innocent party". Macmillan and Lady Dorothy lived largely separate lives in private thereafter. The stress caused by that may have contributed to Macmillan's nervous breakdown in 1931. He was often treated with condescension by his aristocratic in-laws and was observed to be a sad and isolated figure at
Chatsworth in the 1930s.
John Campbell suggests that Macmillan's humiliation was first a major cause of his odd and rebellious behaviour in the 1930s then, in subsequent decades, made him a harder and more ruthless politician than his rivals Eden and Butler.
The Macmillans had four children:
*
Maurice Macmillan, Viscount Macmillan of Ovenden (1921–1984)
*
Lady Caroline Faber
Lady (Ann) Caroline Faber (29 August 1923 – 14 September 2016) was the daughter of Harold Macmillan (created Earl of Stockton in 1984) and his wife, Lady Dorothy Macmillan. She was the second of their four children, and their last surviving ...
(1923–2016)
* Lady Catherine
Amery (1926–1991)
* Sarah Heath (1930–1970). A family rumour that Boothby was her natural father has been discounted by the most recent and detailed study.
Lady Dorothy died on 21 May 1966, aged 65, after 46 years of marriage.
In old age, Macmillan was a close friend of
Ava Anderson, Viscountess Waverley
Ava Anderson, Viscountess Waverley (formerly Wigram, née Bodley; 12 December 1895 – 22 December 1974), styled as Lady Anderson from 1941 until 1952, was an United Kingdom, English political and social hostess at the centre of government durin ...
, ''née'' Bodley (1896–1973), the widow of
John Anderson, 1st Viscount Waverley
John Anderson, 1st Viscount Waverley, (8 July 1882 – 4 January 1958) was a Scottish civil servant and politician who is best known for his service in the War Cabinet during the Second World War, for which he was nicknamed the "Home Front Pri ...
.
Eileen O'Casey
Eileen O'Casey (27 December 1900 - 9 April 1995) was an Irish actress, author, and wife of Sean O'Casey. She used the stage name Eileen Carey.
Early life
Eileen O'Casey was born Eileen Kathleen Reynolds in Dublin on 27 December 1900. She was the ...
, ''née'' Reynolds (1900–1995), the actress wife of Irish dramatist
Seán O'Casey
Seán O'Casey ( ga, Seán Ó Cathasaigh ; born John Casey; 30 March 1880 – 18 September 1964) was an Irish dramatist and memoirist. A committed socialist, he was the first Irish playwright of note to write about the Dublin working classes.
...
, was another female friend, Macmillan publishing her husband's plays. Although she is said to have replaced Lady Dorothy in Macmillan's affections, there is disagreement over how intimate they became after the deaths of their respective spouses, and whether he proposed.
Political career, 1924–1951
Member of Parliament (1924–1929)
Macmillan contested the depressed northern industrial constituency of
Stockton-on-Tees in
1923. The campaign cost him about £200-£300 out of his own pocket; at that time candidates were often expected to fund their own election campaigns. The collapse in the Liberal vote let him win in
1924. In 1927, four MPs, including Boothby and Macmillan, published a short book advocating radical measures. In 1928, Macmillan was described by his political hero, and now Parliamentary colleague, David Lloyd George, as a "born rebel".
Macmillan lost his seat in
1929 in the face of high regional unemployment. He almost became Conservative candidate for the safe seat of
Hitchin in 1931. However the sitting MP,
Guy Kindersley cancelled his retirement plans, in part because of his own association with the anti-Baldwin rebels and his suspicion of Macmillan's sympathy for
Oswald Mosley
Sir Oswald Ernald Mosley, 6th Baronet (16 November 1896 – 3 December 1980) was a British politician during the 1920s and 1930s who rose to fame when, having become disillusioned with mainstream politics, he turned to fascism. He was a member ...
's promises of radical measures to reduce unemployment. Instead, the resignation of the new candidate at Stockton allowed Macmillan to be re-selected there, and he returned to the
House of Commons
The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...
for his old seat in
1931
Events
January
* January 2 – South Dakota native Ernest Lawrence invents the cyclotron, used to accelerate particles to study nuclear physics.
* January 4 – German pilot Elly Beinhorn begins her flight to Africa.
* January 22 – Sir I ...
.
Member of Parliament (1931–1939)
Macmillan spent the 1930s on the backbenches. In March 1932 he published "The State and Industry" (not to be confused with his earlier pamphlet "Industry and the State"). In September 1932 he made his first visit to the USSR. Macmillan also published "The Next Step". He advocated cheap money and
state direction of investment. In 1933 he was the sole author of "Reconstruction: A Plea for a National Unity". In 1935 he was one of 15 MPs to write "Planning for Employment". His next publication, "The Next Five Years", was overshadowed by Lloyd George's proposed "New Deal" in 1935. Macmillan Press also published the work of the economist
John Maynard Keynes
John Maynard Keynes, 1st Baron Keynes, ( ; 5 June 1883 – 21 April 1946), was an English economist whose ideas fundamentally changed the theory and practice of macroeconomics and the economic policies of governments. Originally trained in ...
.
Macmillan resigned the government whip (but not the Conservative party one) in protest at the lifting of sanctions on Italy after her conquest of Abyssinia.
"Chips" Channon described him as the "unprepossessing, bookish, eccentric member for Stockton-on-Tees" and recorded (8 July 1936) that he had been sent a "frigid note" by Conservative Prime Minister
Stanley Baldwin
Stanley Baldwin, 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley, (3 August 186714 December 1947) was a British Conservative Party politician who dominated the government of the United Kingdom between the world wars, serving as prime minister on three occasions, ...
. Baldwin later mentioned that he had survived by steering a middle course between Harold Macmillan and
John Gretton
John Gretton, 1st Baron Gretton, (1 September 1867 – 2 June 1947) was a British businessman and Conservative politician. Gretton won two gold medals in the 1900 Olympic Games.
Life and career
Gretton was the eldest son of John Gretton of St ...
, an extreme right-winger.
The Next Five Years Group, to which Macmillan had belonged, was wound up in November 1937. His book ''The Middle Way'' appeared in June 1938, advocating a broadly centrist political philosophy both domestically and internationally. Macmillan took control of the magazine ''New Outlook'' and made sure it published political tracts rather than purely theoretical work.
In 1936, Macmillan proposed the creation of a cross-party forum of antifascists to create democratic unity but his ideas were rejected by the leadership of both the Labour and Conservative parties.
Macmillan supported Chamberlain's first flight for talks with
Hitler
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
at Berchtesgaden, but not his subsequent flights to Bad Godesberg and Munich. After
Munich
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...
he was looking for a "1931 in reverse", i.e. a Labour-dominated coalition in which some Conservatives would serve, the reverse of the Conservative-dominated coalition which had governed Britain since 1931. He supported the independent candidate,
Lindsay, at the
Oxford by-election. He wrote a pamphlet "The Price of Peace" calling for alliance between Britain, France and the USSR, but expecting Poland to make territorial "accommodation" to Germany (i.e. give up the
Danzig corridor
The Polish Corridor (german: Polnischer Korridor; pl, Pomorze, Polski Korytarz), also known as the Danzig Corridor, Corridor to the Sea or Gdańsk Corridor, was a territory located in the region of Pomerelia (Pomeranian Voivodeship, easter ...
). In "Economic Aspects of Defence", early in 1939, he called for a Ministry of Supply.
Phoney War (1939–1940)
Macmillan visited Finland in February 1940, then the subject of great sympathy in Britain as it was being attacked by the USSR, then
loosely allied to Nazi Germany. His last speech from the backbenches was to attack the government for not doing enough to help Finland. Britain was saved from a potentially embarrassing commitment when the
Winter War
The Winter War,, sv, Vinterkriget, rus, Зи́мняя война́, r=Zimnyaya voyna. The names Soviet–Finnish War 1939–1940 (russian: link=no, Сове́тско-финская война́ 1939–1940) and Soviet–Finland War 1 ...
ended in March 1940 (Finland would later
fight on the German side against the USSR).
Macmillan voted against the Government in the
Norway Debate
The Norway Debate, sometimes called the Narvik Debate, was a momentous debate in the British House of Commons from 7 to 9 May 1940, during the Second World War. The official title of the debate, as held in the ''Hansard'' parliamentary archive, ...
, helping to bring down
Neville Chamberlain as Prime Minister, and tried to join in with
Colonel Josiah Wedgwood singing "
Rule, Britannia!
"Rule, Britannia!" is a British patriotic song, originating from the 1740 poem "Rule, Britannia" by James Thomson and set to music by Thomas Arne in the same year. It is most strongly associated with the Royal Navy, but is also used by the ...
" in the House of Commons Chamber.
Parliamentary Secretary, Ministry of Supply (1940–1942)
Macmillan at last attained office by serving in the wartime coalition government as the
Parliamentary Secretary to the
Ministry of Supply from 1940. Channon commented (29 May 1940) that there was "some amusement over Harold Macmillan's so obvious enjoyment of his new position".
Macmillan's job was to provide armaments and other equipment to the
British Army
The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...
and
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...
. He travelled up and down the country to co-ordinate production, working with some success under
Lord Beaverbrook to increase the supply and quality of
armoured vehicles
Military vehicles are commonly armoured (or armored; see spelling differences) to withstand the impact of shrapnel, bullets, shells, rockets, and missiles, protecting the personnel inside from enemy fire. Such vehicles include armoured fight ...
.
Colonial Under-Secretary (1942)
![Harold Macmillan in 1942](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/03/Harold_Macmillan_in_1942.jpg)
Macmillan was appointed
Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies The Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies was a junior Ministerial post in the United Kingdom government, subordinate to the Secretary of State for the Colonies and, from 1948, also to a Minister of State.
Under-Secretaries of State for the Co ...
in 1942, in his own words "leaving a madhouse to enter a mausoleum". Though a junior minister he was a member of the
Privy Council
A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a state, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the mon ...
, and he spoke in the
House of Commons
The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...
for
Colonial Secretaries Lord Moyne
Walter Edward Guinness, 1st Baron Moyne, DSO & Bar, PC (29 March 1880 – 6 November 1944), was an Anglo-Irish politician and businessman. He served as the British minister of state in the Middle East until November 1944, when he was assass ...
and
Lord Cranborne. Macmillan was given responsibility for increasing colonial production and trade, and signalled the future policy direction when in June 1942 he declared:
Macmillan predicted that the Conservatives faced landslide defeat after the war, causing Channon to write (6 Sep 1944) of "the foolish prophecy of that nice ass Harold Macmillan". In October 1942
Harold Nicolson recorded Macmillan as predicting "extreme socialism" after the war. Macmillan nearly resigned when
Oliver Stanley
Major (Honorary Colonel, TA) Oliver Frederick George Stanley (4 May 1896 – 10 December 1950) was a prominent British Conservative politician who held many ministerial posts before his relatively early death.
Background and education
Stanley ...
was appointed Secretary of State in November 1942, as he would no longer be the spokesman in the Commons as he had been under Cranborne.
Brendan Bracken
Brendan Rendall Bracken, 1st Viscount Bracken, PC (15 February 1901 – 8 August 1958) was an Irish-born businessman, politician and a minister in the British Conservative cabinet. He is best remembered for supporting Winston Churchill durin ...
advised him not to quit.
Minister Resident in the Mediterranean (1942–1945)
After
Harry Crookshank
Harry Frederick Comfort Crookshank, 1st Viscount Crookshank, (27 May 1893 – 17 October 1961), was a British Conservative politician. He was Minister of Health between 1951 and 1952 and Leader of the House of Commons between 1951 and 1955.
B ...
had refused the job, Macmillan attained real power and
Cabinet
Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to:
Furniture
* Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers
* Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets
* Filing ...
rank late in 1942 as British Minister Resident at
Algiers
Algiers ( ; ar, الجزائر, al-Jazāʾir; ber, Dzayer, script=Latn; french: Alger, ) is the capital and largest city of Algeria. The city's population at the 2008 Census was 2,988,145Census 14 April 2008: Office National des Statistiques ...
in the Mediterranean, recently liberated in
Operation Torch
Operation Torch (8 November 1942 – Run for Tunis, 16 November 1942) was an Allies of World War II, Allied invasion of French North Africa during the Second World War. Torch was a compromise operation that met the British objective of secu ...
. He reported directly to the Prime Minister instead of to the
Foreign Secretary
The secretary of state for foreign, Commonwealth and development affairs, known as the foreign secretary, is a minister of the Crown of the Government of the United Kingdom and head of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. Seen as ...
,
Anthony Eden
Robert Anthony Eden, 1st Earl of Avon, (12 June 1897 – 14 January 1977) was a British Conservative Party politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1955 until his resignation in 1957.
Achieving rapid promo ...
.
Oliver Lyttelton
Oliver Lyttelton, 1st Viscount Chandos, (15 March 1893 – 21 January 1972) was a British businessman from the Lyttelton family who was brought into government during the Second World War, holding a number of ministerial posts.
Background, ed ...
had a similar job at Cairo, while
Robert Murphy Robert, Rob, Bob or Bobby Murphy may refer to:
Sports Ice hockey
*Robert Ronald Murphy or Ron Murphy (1933–2014), Canadian ice hockey player
* Bob Murphy (ice hockey) (born 1951), Canadian retired professional ice hockey player
* Rob Murphy (ice ...
was Macmillan's US counterpart. Macmillan built a rapport with US General
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; ; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, ...
, then Supreme Allied Commander in the Mediterranean (SACMED), which proved helpful in his career, and
Richard Crossman
Richard Howard Stafford Crossman (15 December 1907 – 5 April 1974) was a British Labour Party politician. A university classics lecturer by profession, he was elected a Member of Parliament in 1945 and became a significant figure among the ...
later recalled that Macmillan's "Greeks in the Roman Empire" metaphor dated from this time (i.e. that as the US replaced Britain as the world's leading power, British politicians and diplomats should aim to guide her in the same way that Greek slaves and freedmen had advised powerful Romans). Macmillan told Crossman: "We, my dear Crossman, are the Greeks in the American empire. You will find the Americans much as the Greeks found the Romans-great big, vulgar bustling people, more vigorous than we are and also more idle, with more unspoiled virtues, but also more corrupt. We must run AFHQ (
Allied Forces Headquarters
Allied Force Headquarters (AFHQ) was the headquarters that controlled all Allies of World War II, Allied operational forces in the Mediterranean and Middle East theatre of World War II, Mediterranean theatre of World War II from August 1942 unti ...
) as the Greek slaves ran the operations of the Emperor
Claudius
Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (; 1 August 10 BC – 13 October AD 54) was the fourth Roman emperor, ruling from AD 41 to 54. A member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, Claudius was born to Nero Claudius Drusus, Drusu ...
". At the
Casablanca Conference
The Casablanca Conference (codenamed SYMBOL) or Anfa Conference was held at the Anfa Hotel in Casablanca, French Morocco, from January 14 to 24, 1943, to plan the Allied European strategy for the next phase of World War II. In attendance were ...
Macmillan helped to secure US acceptance, if not recognition, of the
Free French
Free France (french: France Libre) was a political entity that claimed to be the legitimate government of France following the dissolution of the Third Republic. Led by French general , Free France was established as a government-in-exile ...
leader
Charles de Gaulle
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (; ; (commonly abbreviated as CDG) 22 November 18909 November 1970) was a French army officer and statesman who led Free France against Nazi Germany in World War II and chaired the Provisional Government ...
. Macmillan wrote in his diary during the Casablanca conference: "I christened the two personalities the Emperor of the East and the Emperor of the West and indeed it was rather like a meeting of the late Roman empire". For Macmillan, the "remarkable and romantic episodes" as President Roosevelt met Prime Minister Churchill in Casablanca convinced him that personal diplomacy was the best way to deal with Americans, which later influenced his foreign policy as prime minister.
Macmillan was badly burned in a plane crash, trying to climb back into the plane to rescue a Frenchman. He had to have a plaster cast put on his face. In his delirium he imagined himself back in a Somme casualty clearing station and asked for a message to be passed to his mother, now dead.
![Allied leaders in the Sicilian campaign](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ec/Allied_leaders_in_the_Sicilian_campaign.jpg)
Together with
Gladwyn Jebb
Hubert Miles Gladwyn Jebb, 1st Baron Gladwyn (25 April 1900 – 24 October 1996) was a prominent British civil servant, diplomat and politician who served as the acting secretary-general of the United Nations between 1945 and 1946.
Early ...
he helped to negotiate the Italian armistice in August 1943, between the
fall of Sicily and the
Salerno Landings
Operation Avalanche was the codename for the Allied landings near the port of Salerno, executed on 9 September 1943, part of the Allied invasion of Italy during World War II. The Italians withdrew from the war the day before the invasion, b ...
. This caused friction with Eden and the Foreign Office. He was based at
Caserta
Caserta () is the capital of the province of Caserta in the Campania region of Italy. It is an important agricultural, commercial, and industrial '' comune'' and city. Caserta is located on the edge of the Campanian plain at the foot of the Ca ...
for the rest of the war. He was appointed UK High Commissioner for the Advisory Council for Italy late in 1943. He visited London in October 1943 and again clashed with Eden. Eden appointed
Duff Cooper
Alfred Duff Cooper, 1st Viscount Norwich, (22 February 1890 – 1 January 1954), known as Duff Cooper, was a British Conservative Party politician and diplomat who was also a military and political historian.
First elected to Parliament in 19 ...
as Representative to the
Free French government in Algeria (after the
liberation of mainland France, he later continued as Ambassador to France from November 1944) and
Noel Charles
Sir Noel Hughes Havelock Charles, 3rd Baronet, (20 November 1891 – 8 September 1975) was a British diplomat.
Biography
Charles was the younger son of Sir Havelock Charles, 1st Baronet, Serjeant Surgeon to King George V. Educated at Rugby ...
as Ambassador to Italy to reduce Macmillan's influence. In May 1944 Macmillan infuriated Eden by demanding an early peace treaty with Italy (at that time a pro-Allied regime under
Badoglio
Pietro Badoglio, 1st Duke of Addis Abeba, 1st Marquess of Sabotino (, ; 28 September 1871 – 1 November 1956), was an Italian general during both World Wars and the first viceroy of Italian East Africa. With the fall of the Fascist regime ...
held some power in the southern, liberated, part of Italy), a move which Churchill favoured. In June 1944 he argued for a British-led thrust up the
Ljubljana Gap The Ljubljana Gap, less often the Ljubljana Gate ( sl, Ljubljanska vrata), is a geographical term for
the transition area between the Alps and Dinaric Alps that passes from southwest to northeast between Trieste and Ljubljana.
A strategically-vita ...
into Central Europe (Operation "Armpit") instead of the planned diversion of US and Free French forces to the South of France (
Operation Dragoon
Operation Dragoon (initially Operation Anvil) was the code name for the landing operation of the Allied invasion of Provence (Southern France) on 15August 1944. Despite initially designed to be executed in conjunction with Operation Overlord, th ...
). This proposal impressed Churchill and
General Alexander, but did not meet with American approval. Eden sent out Robert Dixon to abolish the job of Resident Minister, there being then no job for Macmillan back in the UK, but he managed to prevent his job being abolished. Churchill visited Italy in August 1944. On 14 September 1944 Macmillan was appointed Chief Commissioner of the Allied Central Commission for Italy (in succession to General Macfarlane). He continued to be British Minister Resident at Allied Headquarters and British political adviser to
"Jumbo" Wilson, now Supreme Commander, Mediterranean. On 10 November 1944 he was appointed Acting President of the Allied Commission (the Supreme Commander being President).
Macmillan visited Greece on 11 December 1944. As the Germans had withdrawn, British troops under
General Scobie had deployed to Athens, but there were concerns that the largely pro-communist Greek resistance,
EAM and its military wing
ELAS
The Greek People's Liberation Army ( el, Ελληνικός Λαϊκός Απελευθερωτικός Στρατός (ΕΛΑΣ), ''Ellinikós Laïkós Apeleftherotikós Stratós'' (ELAS) was the military arm of the left-wing National Liberat ...
, would take power (see
Dekemvriana
The ''Dekemvriana'' ( el, Δεκεμβριανά, "December events") refers to a series of clashes fought during World War II in Athens from 3 December 1944 to 11 January 1945. The conflict was the culmination of months of tension between the c ...
) or come into conflict with British troops. Macmillan rode in a tank and was under sniper fire at the British Embassy. Despite the hostility of large sections of British and American opinion, who were sympathetic to the guerillas and hostile to what was seen as imperialist behaviour, he persuaded a reluctant Churchill, who visited Athens later in the month, to accept
Archbishop Damaskinos
Archbishop Damaskinos Papandreou ( el, Αρχιεπίσκοπος Δαμασκηνός Παπανδρέου), born Dimitrios Papandreou ( el, Δημήτριος Παπανδρέου; 3 March 1891 – 20 May 1949) was the archbishop of Athen ...
as Regent on behalf of the exiled
King George II. A
truce
A ceasefire (also known as a truce or armistice), also spelled cease fire (the antonym of 'open fire'), is a temporary stoppage of a war in which each side agrees with the other to suspend aggressive actions. Ceasefires may be between state act ...
was negotiated in January 1945, enabling a pro-British regime to remain in power, as Churchill had demanded in the
Percentages agreement
The percentages agreement was a secret informal agreement between British prime minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin during the Fourth Moscow Conference in October 1944. It gave the percentage division of control over Ea ...
the previous autumn. In 1947 the US would take over Britain's role as "protector" of Greece and Turkey, to keep the Soviets out of the Mediterranean, the so-called "
Truman Doctrine
The Truman Doctrine is an American foreign policy that pledged American "support for democracies against authoritarian threats." The doctrine originated with the primary goal of containing Soviet geopolitical expansion during the Cold War. It wa ...
".
Macmillan was also the minister advising
General Keightley of
V Corps 5th Corps, Fifth Corps, or V Corps may refer to:
France
* 5th Army Corps (France)
* V Cavalry Corps (Grande Armée), a cavalry unit of the Imperial French Army during the Napoleonic Wars
* V Corps (Grande Armée), a unit of the Imperial French Ar ...
, the senior
Allied
An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...
commander in Austria responsible for
Operation Keelhaul, which included the forced repatriation of up to 70,000 prisoners of war to the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
and
Josip Broz Tito
Josip Broz ( sh-Cyrl, Јосип Броз, ; 7 May 1892 – 4 May 1980), commonly known as Tito (; sh-Cyrl, Тито, links=no, ), was a Yugoslav communist revolutionary and statesman, serving in various positions from 1943 until his deat ...
's
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...
in 1945. The deportations and Macmillan's involvement later became a source of controversy because of the harsh treatment meted out to
Nazi collaborators and anti-partisans by the receiving countries, and because in the confusion V Corps went beyond the terms agreed at
Yalta
Yalta (: Я́лта) is a resort city on the south coast of the Crimean Peninsula surrounded by the Black Sea. It serves as the administrative center of Yalta Municipality, one of the regions within Crimea. Yalta, along with the rest of Crimea ...
and
Allied Forces Headquarters
Allied Force Headquarters (AFHQ) was the headquarters that controlled all Allies of World War II, Allied operational forces in the Mediterranean and Middle East theatre of World War II, Mediterranean theatre of World War II from August 1942 unti ...
directives by repatriating 4000
White Russian troops and 11,000 civilian family members, who could not properly be regarded as Soviet citizens.
Air Secretary (1945)
Macmillan toyed with an offer to succeed
Duff Cooper
Alfred Duff Cooper, 1st Viscount Norwich, (22 February 1890 – 1 January 1954), known as Duff Cooper, was a British Conservative Party politician and diplomat who was also a military and political historian.
First elected to Parliament in 19 ...
as MP for the safe Conservative seat of
Westminster St George's
Westminster St George's, originally named St George's, Hanover Square, was a parliamentary constituency in Central London. It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by th ...
. Criticised locally for his long absence, he suggested that Lady Dorothy stand for Stockton in 1945, as she had been nursing the seat for five years. She was apparently willing. However, it was thought better for him to be seen to defend his seat, and Lord Beaverbrook had already spoken to Churchill to arrange that Macmillan be given another seat in the event of defeat.
Macmillan returned to England after the European war, feeling himself 'almost a stranger at home'. He was
Secretary of State for Air for two months in
Churchill's caretaker government, 'much of which was taken up in electioneering', there being 'nothing much to be done in the way of forward planning'.
Opposition (1945–1951)
Macmillan indeed lost Stockton in the landslide
Labour
Labour or labor may refer to:
* Childbirth, the delivery of a baby
* Labour (human activity), or work
** Manual labour, physical work
** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer
** Organized labour and the labour ...
victory of
July 1945, but returned to Parliament in the November 1945 by-election in
Bromley
Bromley is a large town in Greater London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley. It is south-east of Charing Cross, and had an estimated population of 87,889 as of 2011.
Originally part of Kent, Bromley became a market town, char ...
. In his diary
Harold Nicolson noted the feelings of the Tory backbenchers: "They feel that Winston is too old and Anthony (Eden) too weak. They want Harold Macmillan to lead them."
He was a member of the British delegation to the Consultative Assembly of the
Council of Europe
The Council of Europe (CoE; french: Conseil de l'Europe, ) is an international organisation founded in the wake of World War II to uphold European Convention on Human Rights, human rights, democracy and the Law in Europe, rule of law in Europe. ...
from 1949 t
1951 and played a prominent role - as a key aide and ally of Sir
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 Winston Churchill in the Second World War, dur ...
- in pressing for greater European integration as a bulwark against Soviet totalitarianism and to prevent a recurrence of the horrors of Nazi rule.
Although Macmillan played an important role in drafting the "
Industrial Charter" ("Crossbencher" in the ''
Sunday Express'' called it the second edition of ''The Middle Way'') he now, as MP for a safe seat, adopted a somewhat more right-wing public persona, defending private enterprise and fiercely opposing the Labour government in the House of Commons.
Political career, 1951–1957
Housing Minister (1951–1954)
With the Conservative victory in
1951 Macmillan became
Minister of Housing & Local Government under Churchill, who entrusted him with fulfilling the pledge to build 300,000 houses per year (up from the previous target of 200,000 a year), made in response to a speech from the floor at the 1950 Party Conference. Macmillan thought at first that Housing, which ranked 13 out of 16 in the Cabinet list, was a poisoned chalice, writing in his diary (28 October 1951) that it was "not my cup of tea at all ... I really haven't a clue how to set about the job". It meant obtaining scarce steel, cement and timber when the Treasury were trying to maximise exports and minimise imports. 'It is a gamble—it will make or mar your political career,' Churchill said, 'but every humble home will bless your name if you succeed.'
By July 1952 Macmillan was already criticising Butler (then Chancellor of the Exchequer) in his diary, accusing him of "dislik(ing) and fear(ing) him"; in fact there is no evidence that Butler regarded Macmillan as a rival at this stage. In April 1953 Beaverbrook encouraged Macmillan to think that in a future leadership contest he might emerge in a dead heat between Eden and Butler, as the young Beaverbrook (Max Aitken as he had been at the time) had helped
Bonar Law to do in 1911. In July 1953 Macmillan considered postponing his gall bladder operation in case Churchill, who had just suffered a serious stroke while Eden was also in hospital, had to step down.
Macmillan achieved his housing target by the end of 1953, a year ahead of schedule.
Defence Minister (1954–1955)
![Churchillcabinet1955](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1a/Churchillcabinet1955.png)
Macmillan was
Minister of Defence
A defence minister or minister of defence is a Cabinet (government), cabinet official position in charge of a ministry of defense, which regulates the armed forces in sovereign states. The role of a defence minister varies considerably from coun ...
from October 1954, but found his authority restricted by Churchill's personal involvement. In the opinion of ''
The Economist
''The Economist'' is a British weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Econo ...
'': 'He gave the impression that his own undoubted capacity for imaginative running of his own show melted way when an august superior was breathing down his neck.'
A major theme of his tenure at Defence was the ministry's growing reliance on the nuclear deterrent, in the view of some critics, to the detriment of conventional forces. The Defence White Paper of February 1955, announcing the decision to produce the
hydrogen bomb, received bipartisan support.
"It breaks my heart to see the lion-hearted Churchill begin to sink into a sort of
Petain", Macmillan wrote in his diary as the Prime Minister's mental and physical powers visibly decayed. Macmillan was one of the few ministers brave enough to tell Churchill to his face that it was time for him to retire. Petain, a successful French general in the First World War, had become senile while heading the pro-German
Vichy Regime
Vichy France (french: Régime de Vichy; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State ('), was the fascist French state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II. Officially independent, but with half of its ter ...
in the Second World War.
During the Second World War Macmillan's toothy grin, baggy trousers and rimless glasses had given him, as his biographer puts it, "an air of an early Bolshevik leader". By the 1950s he had had his teeth capped, grew his hair in a more shapely style, wore Savile Row suits and walked with the ramrod bearing of a former Guards officer, acquiring the distinguished appearance of his later career. Campbell writes "there has been no more startling personal reinvention in British politics". He very often wore either an Old Etonian or a Brigade of Guards tie. Campbell also suggests that Harold Wilson's image change during Macmillan's premiership from "boring young statistician into lovable Yorkshire comic" was made in conscious imitation of Macmillan.
Foreign Secretary (1955)
Macmillan was
Foreign Secretary
The secretary of state for foreign, Commonwealth and development affairs, known as the foreign secretary, is a minister of the Crown of the Government of the United Kingdom and head of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. Seen as ...
in April–December 1955 in the government of Anthony Eden, who had taken over as prime minister from the retiring Churchill. Returning from the
Geneva Summit of that year he made headlines by declaring: 'There ain't gonna be no war.' Of the role of Foreign Secretary Macmillan observed:
Chancellor of the Exchequer (1955–1957)
Budget
Macmillan was appointed
Chancellor of the Exchequer
The chancellor of the Exchequer, often abbreviated to chancellor, is a senior minister of the Crown within the Government of the United Kingdom, and head of His Majesty's Treasury. As one of the four Great Offices of State, the Chancellor is ...
in December 1955. He had enjoyed his eight months as Foreign Secretary and did not wish to move. He insisted on being "undisputed head of the home front" and that Eden's de facto deputy
Rab Butler
Richard Austen Butler, Baron Butler of Saffron Walden, (9 December 1902 – 8 March 1982), also known as R. A. Butler and familiarly known from his initials as Rab, was a prominent British Conservative Party politician. ''The Times'' obituary c ...
, whom he was replacing as Chancellor, not have the title "Deputy Prime Minister" and not be treated as senior to him. He even tried (in vain) to demand that Salisbury, not Butler, should preside over the Cabinet in Eden's absence. Macmillan later claimed in his memoirs that he had still expected Butler, his junior by eight years, to succeed Eden, but correspondence with
Lord Woolton
Frederick James Marquis, 1st Earl of Woolton, (23 August 1883 – 14 December 1964) was an English businessman and politician who served as chairman of the Conservative Party from 1946 to 1955.
In April 1940, he was appointed Minister of Food ...
at the time makes clear that Macmillan was very much thinking of the succession. As early as January 1956 he told Eden's press secretary
William D. Clark that it would be "interesting to see how long Anthony can stay in the saddle".
Macmillan planned to reverse the 6d cut in income tax which Butler had made a year previously, but backed off after a "frank talk" with Butler, who threatened resignation, on 28 March 1956. He settled for spending cuts instead, and himself threatened resignation until he was allowed to cut bread and milk subsidies, something the Cabinet had not permitted Butler to do.
One of his innovations at the
Treasury
A treasury is either
*A government department related to finance and taxation, a finance ministry.
*A place or location where treasure, such as currency or precious items are kept. These can be state or royal property, church treasure or i ...
was the introduction of
premium bonds, announced in his budget of 17 April 1956. Although the
Labour
Labour or labor may refer to:
* Childbirth, the delivery of a baby
* Labour (human activity), or work
** Manual labour, physical work
** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer
** Organized labour and the labour ...
Opposition initially decried them as a 'squalid raffle', they proved an immediate hit with the public, with £1,000 won in the first prize draw in June 1957.
A young
John Major
Sir John Major (born 29 March 1943) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 1990 to 1997, and as Member of Parliament ...
attended the presentation of the budget, and attributes his political ambitions to this event.
Suez
In November 1956, Britain invaded
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
in collusion with France and Israel in the
Suez Crisis
The Suez Crisis, or the Second Arab–Israeli war, also called the Tripartite Aggression ( ar, العدوان الثلاثي, Al-ʿUdwān aṯ-Ṯulāṯiyy) in the Arab world and the Sinai War in Israel,Also known as the Suez War or 1956 Wa ...
. According to Labour Shadow Chancellor
Harold Wilson
James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, (11 March 1916 – 24 May 1995) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from October 1964 to June 1970, and again from March 1974 to April 1976. He ...
, Macmillan was 'first in, first out': first very supportive of the invasion, then a prime mover in Britain's humiliating withdrawal in the wake of the financial crisis caused by pressure from the US government. Since the
Egyptian Revolution of 1952, relations between Britain and Egypt had deteriorated. The Egyptian government, which came to be dominated by
Gamal Abdel Nasser
Gamal Abdel Nasser Hussein, . (15 January 1918 – 28 September 1970) was an Egyptian politician who served as the second president of Egypt from 1954 until his death in 1970. Nasser led the Egyptian revolution of 1952 and introduced far-re ...
, was opposed to the British military presence in the
Arab World
The Arab world ( ar, اَلْعَالَمُ الْعَرَبِيُّ '), formally the Arab homeland ( '), also known as the Arab nation ( '), the Arabsphere, or the Arab states, refers to a vast group of countries, mainly located in Western A ...
. The Egyptian nationalisation of the
Suez Canal
The Suez Canal ( arz, قَنَاةُ ٱلسُّوَيْسِ, ') is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez and dividing Africa and Asia. The long canal is a popular ...
by Nasser on 26 July 1956 prompted the British government and the French government of
Guy Mollet to commence plans for invading Egypt, regaining the canal, and toppling Nasser. Macmillan wrote in his diary: "If Nasser 'gets away with it', we are done for. The whole Arab world will despise us ...
Nuri
Nuri is a place in modern Sudan on the west side of the Nile, near the Fourth Cataract. Nuri is situated about 15 km north of Sanam, and 10 km from Jebel Barkal.
Nuri is the second of three Napatan burial sites and the construction of ...
s-Said, British-backed Prime Minister of Iraqand our friends will fall. It may well be the end of British influence and strength forever. So, in the last resort, we must use force and defy opinion, here and overseas".
Macmillan threatened to resign if force was not used against Nasser. He was heavily involved in the secret planning of the invasion with France and Israel. It was he who first suggested collusion with Israel. On 5 August 1956 Macmillan met Churchill at
Chartwell
Chartwell is a country house near Westerham, Kent, in South East England. For over forty years it was the home of Winston Churchill. He bought the property in September 1922 and lived there until shortly before his death in January 1965. In t ...
, and told him that the government's plan for simply regaining control of the canal was not enough and suggested involving Israel, recording in his diary for that day: "Surely, if we landed we must seek out the Egyptian forces; destroy them; and bring down Nasser's government. Churchill seemed to agree with all this." Macmillan knew President Eisenhower well, but misjudged his strong opposition to a military solution. Macmillan met Eisenhower privately on 25 September 1956 and convinced himself that the US would not oppose the invasion, despite the misgivings of the British Ambassador, Sir
Roger Makins, who was also present. Macmillan failed to heed a warning from Secretary of State
John Foster Dulles
John Foster Dulles (, ; February 25, 1888 – May 24, 1959) was an American diplomat, lawyer, and Republican Party politician. He served as United States Secretary of State under President Dwight D. Eisenhower from 1953 to 1959 and was briefly ...
that whatever the British government did should wait until after the US presidential election on 6 November, and failed to report Dulles' remarks to Eden.
The treasury was his portfolio, but he did not recognise the financial disaster that could result from US government actions. Sterling was draining out of the Bank of England at an alarming rate, and it was getting worse. The canal was blocked by the Egyptians, and most oil shipments were delayed as tankers had to go around Africa. The US government refused any financial help until Britain withdrew its forces from Egypt. When he did realise this, he changed his mind and called for withdrawal on US terms, while exaggerating the financial crisis.
[Diane B. Kunz, ''The Economic Diplomacy of the Suez Crisis'' (1991) pp. 130–40] On 6 November Macmillan informed the Cabinet that Britain had lost $370m in the first few days of November alone. Faced with Macmillan's prediction of doom, the cabinet had no choice but to accept these terms and withdraw. The Canal remained in Egyptian hands, and Nasser's government continued its support of Arab and African national resistance movements opposed to the British and French presence in the region and on the continent.
In later life Macmillan was open about his failure to read Eisenhower's thoughts correctly and much regretted the damage done to Anglo-American relations, but always maintained that the Anglo-French military response to the nationalisation of the Canal had been for the best.
D. R. Thorpe
D. R. (Richard) Thorpe (born 1943) is a historian and biographer who has written biographies of three British Prime Ministers of the mid 20th century, Sir Anthony Eden, Sir Alec Douglas-Home and Harold Macmillan.
Education and academic career
Th ...
rejects the charge that Macmillan deliberately played false over Suez (i.e. encouraged Eden to attack in order to destroy him as Prime Minister), noting that Macmillan privately put the chances of success at 51–49.
Succession to Eden
Britain's humiliation at the hands of the US caused deep anger among Conservative MPs. After the ceasefire a motion on the Order Paper attacking the US for "gravely endangering the Atlantic Alliance" attracted the signatures of over a hundred MPs.
Macmillan tried, but failed, to see Eisenhower (who was also refusing to see Foreign Secretary
Selwyn Lloyd
John Selwyn Brooke Lloyd, Baron Selwyn-Lloyd, (28 July 1904 – 18 May 1978) was a British politician. Born and raised in Cheshire, he was an active Liberal as a young man in the 1920s. In the following decade, he practised as a barrister and ...
) behind Butler's and Eden's back. Macmillan had a number of meetings with
US Ambassador
Ambassadors of the United States are persons nominated by the president to serve as the country's diplomatic representatives to foreign nations, international organizations, and as ambassadors-at-large. Under Article II, Section 2 of the U.S ...
Winthrop Aldrich
Winthrop Williams Aldrich GBE (November 2, 1885February 25, 1974) was an American banker and financier, scion of a prominent and powerful political family, and US Ambassador to the United Kingdom.
Early years
Aldrich was born in Rhode Islan ...
, in which he said that if he were Prime Minister the US Administration would find him much more amenable. Eisenhower encouraged Aldrich to have further meetings. Macmillan and Butler met Aldrich on 21 November. Eisenhower spoke highly of Macmillan ("A straight, fine man, and so far as he is concerned, the outstanding one of the British he served with during the war").
On the evening of 22 November 1956 Butler, who had just announced British withdrawal, addressed the
1922 committee (Conservative backbenchers) with Macmillan. After Butler's downbeat remarks, ten minutes or so in length, Macmillan delivered a stirring thirty-five minute speech described by
Enoch Powell
John Enoch Powell, (16 June 1912 – 8 February 1998) was a British politician, classical scholar, author, linguist, soldier, philologist, and poet. He served as a Conservative Member of Parliament (1950–1974) and was Minister of Health (1 ...
as "one of the most horrible things that I remember in politics ... (Macmillan) with all the skill of the old
actor manager succeeded in false-footing Rab. The sheer devilry of it verged upon the disgusting." He expounded on his metaphor that henceforth the British must aim to be "Greeks in the Roman Empire", and according to
Philip Goodhart
Sir Philip Carter Goodhart (3 November 1925 – 5 July 2015) was a British Conservative Party (UK), Conservative politician, the son of Arthur Lehman Goodhart.
Biography
Goodhart attended the Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, Connecticut. He co ...
's recollection almost knocked Butler off his chair with his expansive arm gestures. Macmillan wrote "I held the Tory Party for the weekend, it was all I intended to do". Macmillan had further meetings with Aldrich and Winston Churchill after Eden left for Jamaica (23 November) while briefing journalists (disingenuously) that he planned to retire and go to the Lords. He was also hinting that he would not serve under Butler.
Butler later recorded that during his period as acting Head of Government at Number Ten, he noticed constant comings and goings of ministers to Macmillan's study in Number 11 next door—and that those who attended all seemed to receive promotions when Macmillan became Prime Minister. Macmillan had opposed Eden's trip to Jamaica and told Butler (15 December, the day after Eden's return) that younger members of the Cabinet wanted Eden out. Macmillan argued at Cabinet on 4 January that Suez should be regarded as a "strategic retreat" like
Mons
Mons (; German and nl, Bergen, ; Walloon and pcd, Mont) is a city and municipality of Wallonia, and the capital of the province of Hainaut, Belgium.
Mons was made into a fortified city by Count Baldwin IV of Hainaut in the 12th century. T ...
or
Dunkirk
Dunkirk (french: Dunkerque ; vls, label=French Flemish, Duunkerke; nl, Duinkerke(n) ; , ;) is a commune in the department of Nord in northern France.[the Queen
In the English-speaking world, The Queen most commonly refers to:
* Elizabeth II (1926–2022), Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 1952 until her death
The Queen may also refer to:
* Camilla, Queen Consort (born 1947), ...]
appointed Macmillan Prime Minister after taking advice from
Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from 1 ...
and
the Marquess of Salisbury, who had asked the Cabinet individually for their opinions, all but two or three opting for Macmillan. This surprised some observers who had expected that Eden's deputy
Rab Butler
Richard Austen Butler, Baron Butler of Saffron Walden, (9 December 1902 – 8 March 1982), also known as R. A. Butler and familiarly known from his initials as Rab, was a prominent British Conservative Party politician. ''The Times'' obituary c ...
would be chosen. The political situation after Suez was so desperate that on taking office on 10 January he told the Queen he could not guarantee his government would last "six weeks"—though ultimately he would be in charge of the government for more than six years.
Prime Minister (1957–1963)
First government, 1957–1959
From the start of his premiership, Macmillan set out to portray an image of calm and style, in contrast to his excitable predecessor. He silenced the klaxon on the Prime Ministerial car, which Eden had used frequently. He advertised his love of reading
Anthony Trollope
Anthony Trollope (; 24 April 1815 – 6 December 1882) was an English novelist and civil servant of the Victorian era. Among his best-known works is a series of novels collectively known as the '' Chronicles of Barsetshire'', which revolves ar ...
and
Jane Austen
Jane Austen (; 16 December 1775 – 18 July 1817) was an English novelist known primarily for her six major novels, which interpret, critique, and comment upon the British landed gentry at the end of the 18th century. Austen's plots of ...
, and on the door of the Private Secretaries' room at Number Ten he hung a quote from ''
The Gondoliers
''The Gondoliers; or, The King of Barataria'' is a Savoy Opera, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It premiered at the Savoy Theatre on 7 December 1889 and ran for a very successful 554 performances (at that time the ...
'': "Quiet, calm deliberation disentangles every knot".
Macmillan filled government posts with 35 Old Etonians, seven of them in Cabinet. He was also devoted to family members: when
Andrew Cavendish, 11th Duke of Devonshire
Andrew Robert Buxton Cavendish, 11th Duke of Devonshire, (2 January 1920 – 3 May 2004), styled Lord Andrew Cavendish until 1944 and Marquess of Hartington from 1944 to 1950, was a British Conservative and later Social Democratic Party politic ...
was later appointed (Minister for Colonial Affairs from 1963 to 1964 among other positions) he described his uncle's behaviour as "the greatest act of nepotism ever". Macmillan's Defence Minister,
Duncan Sandys
Edwin Duncan Sandys, Baron Duncan-Sandys (; 24 January 1908 – 26 November 1987), was a British politician and minister in successive Conservative governments in the 1950s and 1960s. He was a son-in-law of Winston Churchill and played a key r ...
, wrote at the time: "Eden had no gift for leadership; under Macmillan as PM everything is better, Cabinet meetings are quite transformed".
[Goodlad & Pearce, 2013 p.169] Many ministers found Macmillan to be more decisive and brisk than either Churchill or Eden had been.
Another of Macmillan's ministers,
Charles Hill, stated that Macmillan dominated Cabinet meetings "by sheer superiority of mind and of judgement".
[Goodlad & Pearce, 2013 p.170] Macmillan frequently made allusions to history, literature and the classics at cabinet meetings, giving him a reputation as being both learned and entertaining, though many ministers found his manner too authoritarian.
Macmillan had no "inner cabinet", and instead maintained one-on-one relationships with a few senior ministers such as Rab Butler who usually served as acting prime minister when Macmillan was on one of his frequent visits abroad.
Selwyn Lloyd described Macmillan as treating most of his ministers like "junior officers in a unit he commanded".
Lloyd recalled that Macmillan: "regarded the Cabinet as an instrument to play upon, a body to be molded to his will...very rarely did he fail to get his way"
Macmillan generally allowed his ministers much leeway in managing their portfolios, and only intervened if he felt something had gone wrong.
Macmillan was especially close to his three private secretaries, Tom Bligh, Freddie Bishop and
Philip de Zulueta
Sir Philip Francis de Zulueta (2 January 1925 – 15 April 1989) was a British diplomat and businessman who served as Private Secretary for Foreign Affairs to the Prime Minister, private secretary for foreign affairs to three successive prime mini ...
, who were his favourite advisers.
Many cabinet ministers often complained that Macmillan took the advice of his private secretaries more seriously than he did their own.
He was nicknamed "
Supermac
The SuperMac was a line of Macintosh clones produced by UMAX Technologies from 1996 to 1998. Their models included the SuperMac S900/S910, J700, C500 and C500e/i/LT, C600e/v/LT/x and Aegis 200. The C500 was marketed as the Apus 2000 in Europe. T ...
" in 1958 by the cartoonist "Vicky" (
Victor Weisz
Victor Weisz (25 April 1913 in Berlin, Germany – 23 February 1966 in London, England) was a German-British political cartoonist, drawing under the name of Vicky.
Biography
Weisz was born in Berlin, Germany, to Hungarian-Jewish parents. He stu ...
), who intended to suggest that Macmillan was trying set himself up as a "Superman" figure.
It was intended as mockery but backfired, coming to be used in a neutral or friendly fashion. Vicky tried to label him with other names, including "Mac the Knife" at the time of widespread
cabinet changes in 1962, but none caught on.
Economy
Besides foreign affairs, the economy was Macmillan's other prime concern. His
One Nation approach to the economy was to seek high or full employment, especially with a general election looming. This contrasted with the Treasury ministers who argued that support of sterling required spending cuts and, probably, a rise in unemployment. Their advice was rejected and in January 1958 the three Treasury ministers—
Peter Thorneycroft
George Edward Peter Thorneycroft, Baron Thorneycroft, (26 July 1909 – 4 June 1994) was a British Conservative Party politician. He served as Chancellor of the Exchequer between 1957 and 1958.
Early life
Born in Dunston, Staffordshire, Thorn ...
, the
Chancellor of the Exchequer
The chancellor of the Exchequer, often abbreviated to chancellor, is a senior minister of the Crown within the Government of the United Kingdom, and head of His Majesty's Treasury. As one of the four Great Offices of State, the Chancellor is ...
,
Nigel Birch,
Economic Secretary to the Treasury
The Economic Secretary to the Treasury is the sixth-most senior ministerial post in His Majesty's Treasury, after the First Lord of the Treasury, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, the Paymaster-General and the ...
, and
Enoch Powell
John Enoch Powell, (16 June 1912 – 8 February 1998) was a British politician, classical scholar, author, linguist, soldier, philologist, and poet. He served as a Conservative Member of Parliament (1950–1974) and was Minister of Health (1 ...
, the
Financial Secretary to the Treasury
The financial secretary to the Treasury is a mid-level ministerial post in His Majesty's Treasury. It is nominally the fifth most significant ministerial role within the Treasury after the first lord of the Treasury, the chancellor of the Excheq ...
and seen as their intellectual ringleader—resigned. D. R. Thorpe argues that this, coming after the resignations of Labour ministers
Aneurin Bevan,
John Freeman and
Harold Wilson
James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, (11 March 1916 – 24 May 1995) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from October 1964 to June 1970, and again from March 1974 to April 1976. He ...
in April 1951 (who had wanted ''higher'' expenditure), and the cuts made by Butler and Macmillan as Chancellors in 1955–56, was another step in the development of "stop-go" economics, as opposed to prudent medium-term management. Macmillan, away on a tour of the
Commonwealth, brushed aside this incident as "a little local difficulty". He bore no grudge against Thorneycroft and brought him and Powell, of whom he was more wary, back into the government in 1960.
This period also saw the first stirrings of more active
monetary policy
Monetary policy is the policy adopted by the monetary authority of a nation to control either the interest rate payable for very short-term borrowing (borrowing by banks from each other to meet their short-term needs) or the money supply, often a ...
.
Official bank rate
In the United Kingdom, the official bank rate is the rate that the Bank of England charges banks and financial institutions for loans with a maturity of 1 day. It is the British Government's key interest rate for enacting monetary policy. It is ...
, which had been kept low since the 1930s, was hiked in September 1958. The change in bank rate prompted rumours in the City of London, City that some financiers – who were Bank of England directors with senior positions in private firms – took advantage of advance knowledge of the rate change in what resembled insider trading. Political pressure mounted on the Government, and Macmillan agreed to the 1957 Bank Rate Tribunal. Hearing evidence in the winter of 1957 and reporting in January 1958, this inquiry exonerated all involved in what some journalists perceived to be a whitewashing (censorship), whitewash.
Domestic policies
During his time as prime minister, average living standards steadily rose while numerous social reforms were carried out. The Clean Air Act 1956 was passed during his time as Chancellor; his premiership saw the passage of the Housing Act 1957, the Offices Act 1960, the Noise Abatement Act 1960, and the Factories Act 1961; the introduction of a graduated pension scheme to provide an additional income to retirees, the establishment of a Child's Special Allowance for the orphaned children of divorced parents, and a reduction in the standard work week from 48 to 42 hours.
Foreign policy
![International Diplomacy](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/de/International_Diplomacy.jpg)
Macmillan took close control of foreign policy. He worked to narrow the post-Suez Crisis, Suez Crisis (1956) rift with the United States, where his wartime friendship with Dwight D. Eisenhower, Eisenhower was key; the two had a productive conference in Bermuda as early as March 1957.
In February 1959, Macmillan visited the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
. Talks with Nikita Khrushchev eased tensions in east–west relations over West Berlin and led to an agreement in principle to stop nuclear tests and to hold a further summit meeting of NATO, Allied and Soviet heads of government.
In the Middle East, faced by the 1958 collapse of the Baghdad Pact and the spread of Soviet influence, Macmillan acted decisively to restore the confidence of Persian Gulf allies, using the
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...
and Special Air Service, special forces to defeat a revolt backed by Saudi Arabia and
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
against the Sultan of Oman, Said bin Taimur, in July 1957; deploying airborne battalions to defend Jordan against United Arab Republic, United Arab Republican subversion in July 1958; and deterring Iraqi demands of Kuwait by landing a brigade group in june 1961 during Operation Vantage, iraqi-kuwaiti crisis 1961 .
Macmillan was a major proponent and architect of decolonisation. The Gold Coast (British colony), Gold Coast was granted independence as Ghana, and the Federation of Malaya achieved independence within the Commonwealth of Nations in 1957.
Nuclear weapons
![OperationGrappleXmasIslandHbomb](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/08/OperationGrappleXmasIslandHbomb.jpg)
In April 1957, Macmillan reaffirmed his strong support for the Nuclear weapons and the United Kingdom, British nuclear weapons programme. A succession of prime ministers since the Second World War had been determined to persuade the United States to revive Special Relationship (US-UK)#Nuclear weapons development, wartime co-operation in the area of nuclear weapons research. Macmillan believed that one way to encourage such co-operation would be for the United Kingdom to speed up the development of its own Teller–Ulam design, hydrogen bomb, which was Grapple X, successfully tested on 8 November 1957.
Macmillan's decision led to increased demands on the Windscale#The Windscale Piles, Windscale and (subsequently) Calder Hall nuclear power station, Calder Hall nuclear plants to produce Plutonium#Explosives, plutonium for military purposes. As a result, safety margins for radioactive materials inside the Windscale reactor were eroded. This contributed to the Windscale fire on the night of 10 October 1957, which broke out in the plutonium plant of Pile No. 1, and nuclear contaminants travelled up a chimney where the filters blocked some, but not all, of the contaminated material. The radioactive cloud spread to south-east England and fallout reached mainland Europe. Although scientists had warned of the dangers of such an accident for some time, the government blamed the workers who had put out the fire for 'an error of judgement', rather than the political pressure for fast-tracking the megaton bomb.
Concerned that public confidence in the nuclear programme might be shaken and that technical information might be misused by opponents of defence co-operation in the United States Congress, US Congress, Macmillan withheld all but the summary of a report into the fire prepared for the Atomic Energy Authority by William Penney, Baron Penney, Sir William Penney, director of the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment. Subsequently released files show that 'Macmillan's cuts were few and covered up few technical details', and that even the full report found no danger to public health, but later official estimates acknowledged that the release of polonium-210 may have led directly to 25 to 50 deaths, and anti-nuclear groups linked it to 1,000 fatal cancers.
On 25 March 1957, Macmillan acceded to Eisenhower's request to base 60 Thor missile, Thor IRBMs in England under joint control to replace the nuclear bombers of the Strategic Air Command, which had been stationed under joint control since 1948 and were approaching obsolescence. Partly as a consequence of this favour, in late October 1957 the US McMahon Act was eased to facilitate nuclear co-operation between the two governments, initially with a view to producing cleaner weapons and reducing the need for duplicate testing. The 1958 US-UK Mutual Defence Agreement, Mutual Defence Agreement followed on 3 July 1958, speeding up British ballistic missile development, notwithstanding unease expressed at the time about the impetus co-operation might give to Nuclear proliferation, atomic proliferation by arousing the jealousy of France and other allies.
Macmillan saw an opportunity to increase British influence over the United States with the launching of the Soviet satellite Sputnik, which caused a severe crisis of confidence in the United States as Macmillan wrote in his diary: "The Russian success in launching the satellite has been something equivalent to Pearl Harbour. The American cockiness is shaken....President is under severe attack for the first time...The atmosphere is now such that almost anything might be decided, however revolutionary". The "revolutionary" change that Macmillan sought was a more equal Anglo-American partnership as he used the Sputnik "crisis" to press Eisenhower to in turn press Congress to repeal the 1946 MacMahon Act, which forbade the United States to share nuclear technology with foreign governments, a goal accomplished by the end of 1957. In addition, Macmillan succeeded in having Eisenhower to agree to set up Anglo-American "working groups" to examine foreign policy problems and for what he called the "Declaration of Interdependence" (a title not used by the Americans who called it the "Declaration of Common Purpose"), which he believed marked the beginning of a new era of Anglo-American partnership. Subsequently, Macmillan was to learn that neither Eisenhower nor Kennedy shared the assumption that he applied to the "Declaration of Interdependence" that the American president and the British Prime Minister had equal power over the decisions of war and peace. Macmillan believed that the American policies towards the Soviet Union were too rigid and confrontational, and favoured a policy of détente with the aim of relaxing Cold War tensions.
1959 general election
Macmillan led the Conservatives to victory in the 1959 United Kingdom general election, 1959 general election, increasing his party's majority from 60 to 100 seats. The campaign was based on the economic improvements achieved as well as the low unemployment and improving standard of living; the slogan "Life's Better Under the Conservatives" was matched by Macmillan's own 1957 remark, "indeed let us be frank about it—most of our people have never had it so good," usually paraphrased as "You've never had it so good." Such rhetoric reflected a new reality of working-class affluence; it has been argued that "the key factor in the Conservative victory was that average real pay for industrial workers had risen since Churchill's 1951 victory by over 20 per cent". The scale of the victory meant that not only had the Conservatives won three successive general elections, but they had also increased their majority each time. It sparked debate as to whether Labour (now led by
Hugh Gaitskell) could win a general election again. The standard of living had risen enough that workers could participate in a consumer economy, shifting the working class concerns away from traditional Labour Party views.
Second government, 1959–1963
Economy
Britain's balance of payments problems led Chancellor
Selwyn Lloyd
John Selwyn Brooke Lloyd, Baron Selwyn-Lloyd, (28 July 1904 – 18 May 1978) was a British politician. Born and raised in Cheshire, he was an active Liberal as a young man in the 1920s. In the following decade, he practised as a barrister and ...
to impose a seven-month wage freeze in 1961
and, amongst other factors, this caused the government to lose popularity and a List of elections in 1962#United Kingdom, series of by-elections in March 1962, of which the most famous was 1962 Orpington by-election, Orpington on 14 March. Butler leaked to the ''Daily Mail'' on 11 July 1962 that a major reshuffle was imminent. Macmillan feared for his own position and later (1 August) claimed to Lloyd that Butler, who sat for Saffron Walden (UK Parliament constituency), a rural East Anglian seat likely to suffer from Common Agricultural Policy, EEC agricultural protectionism, had been planning to split the party over EEC entry (there is no evidence that this was so).
In the 1962 cabinet reshuffle known as the Night of the Long Knives (1962), 'Night of the Long Knives', Macmillan sacked eight Ministers, including
Selwyn Lloyd
John Selwyn Brooke Lloyd, Baron Selwyn-Lloyd, (28 July 1904 – 18 May 1978) was a British politician. Born and raised in Cheshire, he was an active Liberal as a young man in the 1920s. In the following decade, he practised as a barrister and ...
. The Cabinet changes were widely seen as a sign of panic, and the young
Liberal
Liberal or liberalism may refer to:
Politics
* a supporter of liberalism
** Liberalism by country
* an adherent of a Liberal Party
* Liberalism (international relations)
* Sexually liberal feminism
* Social liberalism
Arts, entertainment and m ...
MP Jeremy Thorpe said of Macmillan's dismissals 'greater love hath no man than this, than to lay down his friends for his life'. Macmillan was openly criticised by his predecessor Anthony Eden, Lord Avon, an almost unprecedented act.
Macmillan supported the creation of the National Economic Development Council (NEDC, known as "Neddy"), which was announced in the summer of 1961 and first met in 1962. However, the National Incomes Commission (NIC, known as "Nicky"), set up in October 1962 to institute controls on income as part of his growth-without-inflation policy, proved less effective. This was largely due to employers and the Trades Union Congress (TUC) boycotting it.
A further series of subtle indicators and controls was introduced during his premiership.
The report ''The Reshaping of British Railways'' (or Beeching I report) was published on 27 March 1963. The report starts by quoting the brief provided by the Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, from 1960, "First, the industry must be of a size and pattern suited to modern conditions and prospects. In particular, the railway system must be modelled to meet current needs, and the modernisation plan must be adapted to this new shape",
[#RB1963a, RB(1963a), p. 1.] and with the premise that the railways should be run as a profitable business.
[#RB1963a, RB(1963a), p. 2. "It is, of course the responsibility of the British Railways Board so to shape and operate the railways as to make them pay."] This led to the notorious Beeching Axe, destroying many miles of permanent way and severing towns from the railway network.
Foreign policy
![Harold-Macmillan-in-Finland-1961](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6d/Harold-Macmillan-in-Finland-1961.jpg)
In the age of jet aircraft Macmillan travelled more than any previous Prime Minister, apart from Lloyd George who made many trips to conferences in 1919–22. Macmillan planned an important role in setting up a four power summit in Paris to discuss the Berlin crisis that was supposed to open in May 1960, but which Khrushchev refused to attend owing to the U-2 incident. Macmillan pressed Eisenhower to apologise to Khrushchev, which the president refused to do. Macmillan's failure to make Eisenhower "say sorry" to Khrushchev forced him to reconsider his "Greeks and Romans" foreign policy as he privately conceded that could no "longer talk usefully to the Americans". The failure of the Paris summit changed Macmillan's attitude towards the European Economic Community, which he started to see as a counterbalance to American power. At the same time, the Anglo-American "working groups", which Macmillan attached such importance to turned out to be largely ineffective as the Americans did not wish to have their options limited by a British veto; by in-fighting between agencies of the U.S. government such as the State Department, Defense Department, etc.; and because of the Cambridge Five, Maclean-Burgess affair of 1951 the Americans believed the British government was full of Soviet spies and thus could not be trusted.
Relations with the United States
The special relationship with the United States continued after the election of President
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination ...
, whose sister Kathleen Cavendish, Marchioness of Hartington, Kathleen Cavendish had married
William Cavendish, Marquess of Hartington
William John Robert Cavendish, Marquess of Hartington (10 December 1917 – 9 September 1944) was a British politician and British Army officer. He was the elder son of Edward Cavendish, 10th Duke of Devonshire, and therefore the heir to the du ...
, the nephew of Macmillan's wife. Macmillan initially was concerned that the Irish-American Catholic Kennedy might be an Anglophobe, which led Macmillan, who knew of Kennedy's special interest in the Third World, to suggest that Britain and the United States spend more money on aid to the Third World. The emphasis on aid to the Third World also coincided well with Macmillan's "one nation conservatism" as he wrote in a letter to Kennedy advocating reforms to capitalism to ensure full employment: "If we fail in this, Communism will triumph, not by war or even by subversion but by seemingly to be a better way of bringing people material comforts".
Macmillan was scheduled to visit the United States in April 1961, but with the Pathet Lao winning a series of victories in the Laotian civil war, Macmillan was summoned on what he called the "Laos dash" for an emergency summit with Kennedy in Key West on 26 March 1961. Macmillan was strongly opposed to the idea of sending British troops to fight in Laos, but was afraid of damaging relations with the United States if he did not, making him very apprehensive as he set out for Key West, especially as he had never met Kennedy before. Macmillan was especially opposed to intervention in Laos as he had been warned by his Chiefs of Staff on 4 January 1961 that if Western troops entered Laos, then China would probably intervene in Laos as Mao Zedong had made it quite clear he would not accept Western forces in any nation that bordered China. The same report stated that a war with China in Laos would "be a bottomless pit in which our limited military resources would rapidly disappear". Kennedy for his part wanted Britain to commit forces to Laos if the United States did for political reasons. Kennedy wanted to avoid the charge that the United States would be acting unilaterally in Southeast Asia if it did intervene in Laos and because Britain was a member of Southeast Asia Treaty Organization, SEATO and he would face domestic criticism if the United States was the only SEATO member to fight in Laos. For these reasons, Kennedy was adamant that if the United States intervened in Laos, then he expected the United Kingdom to likewise do so. The meeting in Key West was very tense as Macmillan was heard to mutter "He's pushing me hard, but I won't give way". However, Macmillan did reluctantly agree if the Americans intervened in Laos, then so too would Britain. The Laos crisis had a major crisis in Anglo-Thai relations as the Thais pressed for armed forces of all SEATO members to brought to "Charter Yellow", a state of heightened alert that the British representative to SEATO vetoed. The Thais wanted to change the voting procedure for SEATO from requiring unanimous consent to a three-quarter majority, a measure that Britain vetoed, causing the Thais to lose interest in SEATO.
The failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion in April 1961 made Kennedy distrust the hawkish advice he received from the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the CIA, and he ultimately decided against intervention in Laos, much to Macmillan's private relief. Macmillan's second meeting with Kennedy in April 1961 was friendlier and his third meeting in London in June 1961 after Kennedy had been bested by Khrushchev at a summit in Vienna even more so. It was at his third meeting in London that Macmillan started to assume the mantle of an elder statesman, who offered Kennedy encouragement and his experience that formed a lasting friendship. Believing that personal diplomacy was the best way to influence Kennedy, Macmillan appointed David Ormsby-Gore, 5th Baron Harlech, David Ormsby-Gore as his ambassador in Washington as he was a long-time friend of the Kennedy family, whom he had known since the 1930s when Kennedy's father had served as the American ambassador in London.
He was supportive throughout the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 and Kennedy consulted him by telephone every day. The Ambassador David Ormsby-Gore, 5th Baron Harlech, David Ormsby-Gore was a close family friend of the President and actively involved in White House discussions on how to resolve the crisis. About the Congo crisis, Macmillan clashed with Kennedy as he was against having United Nations forces put an end to the secessionist regime of Katanga backed by Belgium and the Western mining companies, which he claimed would destabilise the Central African Federation. By contrast, Kennedy felt that the regime of Katanga was a Belgian puppet state and its mere existence was damaging to the prestige of the West in the Third World. Over Macmillan's objections, Kennedy decided to have the United Nations forces to evict the white mercenaries from Katanga and reintegrate Katanga into the Congo. For his part, Kennedy pressed Macmillan unsuccessfully to have Britain join the American economic embargo against Cuba. Macmillan told his Foreign Secretary, Lord Home "there is no reason for us to help the Americans with Cuba".
Macmillan was a supporter of the nuclear test ban treaty of 1963, and in the first half of 1963 he had Ormsby-Gore quietly apply pressure on Kennedy to resume the talks in the spring of 1963 when negotiations became stalled. Feeling that the Secretary of State, Dean Rusk, was being obstructionist, Macmillan telephoned Kennedy on 11 April 1963 to suggest a joint letter to Khrushchev to break the impasse. Through Khrushchev's reply to the Macmillan-Kennedy letter was mostly negative, Macmillan pressed Kennedy to take up the one positive aspect in his reply, namely that if a senior Anglo-American team would arrive in Moscow, he would welcome them to discuss how best to proceed about a nuclear test ban treaty. The two envoys who arrived in Moscow were W. Averell Harriman representing the United States and Quintin Hogg, Baron Hailsham of St Marylebone, Lord Hailsham representing the United Kingdom. Through Lord Hailsham's role was largely that of an observer, the talks between Harriman and the Soviet foreign minister Andrei Gromyko resulted in the breakthrough that led to the nuclear test ban treaty of 1963, banning all above ground nuclear tests. Macmillan had a pressing domestic reasons for the nuclear test ban treaty. Newsreel footage of Soviet and American nuclear tests throughout the 1950s had terrified segments of the British public who were highly concerned about the possibility of weapons with such awesome destructive power be used against British cities, and led to the foundation of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), whose rallies in the late 1950s-early 1960s calling for British nuclear disarmament were well attended. Macmillan believed in the value of nuclear weapons both as a deterrent against the Soviet Union and to maintain Britain's claim to be great power, but he was also worried about the popularity of the CND. For Macmillan, banning above ground nuclear tests which generated film footage of the ominous mushroom clouds raising far above the earth was the best way to dent the appeal of the CND, and in this the Partial Nuclear Ban Treaty of August 1963 was successful.
Wind of Change
![The National Archives UK - CO 1069-1-17](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/18/The_National_Archives_UK_-_CO_1069-1-17.jpg)
Macmillan's first government had seen the first phase of the sub-Saharan African independence movement, which accelerated under his second government. The most problematic of the colonies was the Central African Federation, which had united Northern Rhodesia, Southern Rhodesia and Nyasaland together in 1953 largely out of the fear that the white population of Southern Rhodesia (modern Zimbabwe) might want to join South Africa, which had since 1948 had been led by Afrikaner nationalists distinctly unfriendly to Britain.
[Goodlad & Pearce, 2013 p.176] Through the Central African Federation had been presented as a multi-racial attempt to develop the region, the federation had been unstable right from the start with the black population charging that the whites had been given a privileged position.
Macmillan felt that if the costs of holding onto a particular territory outweighed the benefits then it should be dispensed with. During the Mau Mau Emergency, Kenyan Emergency, the British authorities tried to protect the Kikuyu population from the Mau Mau guerrillas (who called themselves the “Land and Freedom Army”) by interning the Kikuyu in camps. A scandal erupted when the guards at the Hola camp Hola massacre, publicly beat 11 prisoners to death on 3 March 1959, which attracted much adverse publicity as the news filtered out from Kenya to the United Kingdom.
Many in the British media compared the living conditions in the Kenyan camps to the concentration camps of Nazi Germany, saying that the people in the camps were emaciated and sickly. The report of the Devlin Commission in July 1959 concerning the suppression of demonstrators in Nyasaland (modern-day Malawi) called Nyasaland "a police state".
In the aftermath of criticism about colonial policies in Kenya and Nyasland, Macmillan from 1959 onward started to see the African colonies as a liability, arguing at cabinet meetings that the level of force required to hang onto them would result in more domestic criticism, international opprobrium, costly wars, and would allow the Soviet Union to establish influence in the Third World by supporting self-styled "liberation" movements that would just make things worse.
After securing a third term for the Conservatives in 1959 he appointed Iain Macleod as Colonial Secretary. Macleod greatly accelerated decolonisation and by the time he was moved to Conservative Party chairman and Leader of the Commons in 1961 he had made the decision to give independence to Nigeria, Tanganyika (1961–1964), Tanganyika, Kenya, Nyasaland (as Malawi) and Northern Rhodesia (as Zambia). Macmillan embarked on his "Wind of Change" tour of Africa, starting in Ghana on 6 January 1960. He made the famous Wind of Change (speech), 'wind of change' speech in Cape Town on 3 February 1960. It is considered a landmark in the process of decolonisation.
Nigeria, the Southern Cameroons and British Somaliland were granted independence in 1960, Sierra Leone and Tanganyika in 1961, Trinidad and Tobago and Uganda in 1962, and Kenya in 1963. Zanzibar merged with Tanganyika to form Tanzania in 1963. All remained within the
Commonwealth except British Somaliland, which merged with Italian Somaliland to form Somalia.
Macmillan's policy overrode the hostility of white minorities and the Conservative Monday Club. South Africa left the multiracial Commonwealth in 1961 and Macmillan acquiesced to the dissolution of the Central African Federation by the end of 1963.
In Southeast Asia, British Malaya, Malaya, Sabah (Crown Colony of North Borneo, British North Borneo), Sarawak and Singapore became independent as Malaysia in 1963. Because Singapore with its ethnic Chinese majority was the largest and wealthiest city in the region, Macmillan was afraid that a federation of Malaya and Singapore together would result in a Chinese majority state, and insisted on including Sarawak and British North Borneo into the federation of Malaysia to ensure the new state was a Malay majority state. During the Malaya Emergency, the majority of the Communist guerrillas were ethnic Chinese, and British policies tended to favour the Muslim Malays whose willingness to follow their sultans and imams made them more anti-communist. Southeast Asia was a region where racial-ethno-religious politics predominated, and the substantial Chinese minorities in the region were widely disliked on the account of their greater economic success. Macmillan wanted Britain to retain military bases in the new state of Malaysia to ensure that Britain was a military power in Asia and thus he wanted the new state of Malaysia to have a pro-Western government. This aim was best achieved by having the same Malay elite who had worked with the British colonial authorities serve as the new elite in Malaysia, hence Macmillan's desire to have a Malay majority who would vote for Malay politicians. Macmillan especially wanted to keep the British base at Singapore, which he like other prime ministers saw as the linchpin of British power in Asia.
The Indonesian president Sukarno strongly objected to the new federation, claiming on somewhat dubious grounds that all of Malaysia should be included in Indonesia. On 8 December 1962, Indonesia sponsored a rebellion in the British protectorate of Brunei, leading to Macmillan to dispatch Gurkhas to put down the rebellion against the sultan. In January 1963 Sukarno started a policy of ''konfrontasi'' ("confrontation") with Britain. Macmillan detested Sukarno, partly because he had been a Japanese collaborator in World War Two, and partly because of his fondness for elaborate uniforms despite never having personally fought in a war offended the World War I veteran Macmillan, who had a strong contempt for any man who had not seen combat. In his diary, Macmillan called Sukarno "a cross between Liberace and Little Lord Fauntleroy". Macmillan felt that giving in to Sukarno's demands would be "appeasement" and clashed with Kennedy over the issue. Sukarno was the leader of the most populous nation in Southeast Asia and though officially neutral in the Cold War, tended to take anti-Western positions, and Kennedy favoured accommodating him to bring him closer to the West; for example, supporting Indonesia's claim to Dutch New Guinea even through the Netherlands was a NATO ally. Macmillan feared the expenses of an all-out war with Indonesia, but also felt to give in to Sukarno would damage British prestige, writing on 5 August 1963 that Britain's position in Asia would be "untenable" if Sukarno were to triumph over Britain in the same manner he had over the Dutch in New Guinea. To help reduce the expenses of the war, Macmillan appealed to the Australian Prime Minister Sir Robert Menzies to send troops to defend Malaysia. On 25 September 1963, Sukarno announced in a speech that Indonesia would ''"ganyang Mayaysia"'' ("gobble Malaysia raw") and on the same day a mob burned down the British embassy in Jakarta. The result was the Indonesian Confrontation, an undeclared war between Britain vs. Indonesia that began in 1963 and continued to 1966.
The speedy transfer of power maintained the goodwill of the new nations but critics contended it was premature. In justification Macmillan quoted Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay, Lord Macaulay in 1851:
Skybolt crisis
Macmillan cancelled the Blue Streak missile, Blue Streak ballistic missile in April 1960 over concerns about its vulnerability to a pre-emptive attack, but continued with the development of the air-launched Blue Steel (missile), Blue Steel stand-off missile, which was about to enter trials. For the replacement for Blue Steel he opted for Britain to join the American GAM-87 Skybolt, Skybolt missile project. From the same year Macmillan permitted the United States Navy, US Navy to station UGM-27 Polaris, Polaris submarines at Holy Loch#US Navy, Holy Loch, Scotland, as a replacement for Thor. When Skybolt was unilaterally cancelled by United States Secretary of Defense, US Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, Macmillan negotiated with President John F. Kennedy, Kennedy the purchase of Polaris missiles under the Nassau agreement in December 1962.
Europe
Macmillan worked with states outside the European Communities (EC) to form the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), which from 3 May 1960 established a free-trade area. As the EEC proved to be an economic success, membership of the EEC started to look more attractive compared to the EFTA.
[Goodlad & Pearce, 2013 p.178] A report from Sir Frank Lee of the Treasury in April 1960 predicated that the three major power blocs in the decades to come would be those headed by the United States, the Soviet Union and the EEC, and argued to avoid isolation Britain would to have decisively associate itself with one of the power blocs.
Macmillan wrote in his diary about his decision to apply to join the EEC: "Shall we be caught between a hostile (or at least less and less friendly) America and a boastful, powerful 'Carolingian Empire, Empire of Charlemagne'-now under French, but later bound to come under German control?...It's a grim choice".
Through Macmillan had decided upon joining the EEC in 1960, he waited until July 1961 to formally make the application as he feared the reaction of the Conservative Party backbenchers, the farmers' lobby and the populist newspaper chain owned by the right-wing Canadian millionaire Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook, Lord Beaverbrook, who saw Britain joining the EEC as a betrayal of the British empire.
As expected, the Beaverbrook newspapers whose readers tended to vote Conservative offered up ferocious criticism of Macmillan's application to join the EEC, accusing him of betrayal. Negotiations to join the EEC were complicated by Macmillan's desire to allow Britain to continue its traditional policy of importing food from the Commonwealth nations of Australia, New Zealand and Canada, which led the EEC nations, especially France, to accuse Britain of negotiating in bad faith.
Macmillan also saw the value of rapprochement with the EEC, to which his government sought belated entry, but Britain's application was vetoed by French president
Charles de Gaulle
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (; ; (commonly abbreviated as CDG) 22 November 18909 November 1970) was a French army officer and statesman who led Free France against Nazi Germany in World War II and chaired the Provisional Government ...
on 29 January 1963. De Gaulle was always strongly opposed to British entry for many reasons. He sensed the British were inevitably closely linked to the Americans. He saw the European Communities as a continental arrangement primarily between France and Germany, and if Britain joined, France's role would diminish.
Partial Test Ban Treaty (1963)
Macmillan's previous attempt to create an agreement at the May 1960 summit in Paris had collapsed due to the 1960 U-2 incident. He was a force in the negotiations leading to the signing of the 1963 Partial Test Ban Treaty by the United Kingdom, the United States and the Soviet Union. He sent Quintin Hogg, Baron Hailsham of St Marylebone, Lord Hailsham to negotiate the Test Ban Treaty, a sign that he was grooming him as a potential successor.
President Kennedy visited Macmillan's country home, Birch Grove, on 29–30 June 1963, for talks about the planned Multilateral Force. They never met again, and this was to be Kennedy's last visit to the UK. He was Assassination of John F. Kennedy, assassinated in November, shortly after the end of Macmillan's premiership.
End of premiership
By the early 1960s, many were starting to find Macmillan's courtly and urbane Edwardian manners anachronistic, and satirical journals such as ''Private Eye'' and the television show ''That Was the Week That Was'' mercilessly mocked him as a doddering, clueless leader.
[Goodlad & Pearce, 2013 p.179] Macmillan's handling of the Vassall Tribunal, Vassall affair – in which an Admiralty clerk, John Vassall, was convicted in October 1962 of passing secrets to the Soviet Union – undermined his "Super-Mac" reputation for competence.
D. R. Thorpe writes that from January 1963 "Macmillan's strategy lay in ruins", leaving him looking for a "graceful exit". The Vassall affair turned the press against him. In the same month, opposition leader
Hugh Gaitskell died suddenly at the age of 56. With a general election due before the end of the following year, Gaitskell's death threw the future of British politics into fresh doubt. In the following month
Harold Wilson
James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, (11 March 1916 – 24 May 1995) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from October 1964 to June 1970, and again from March 1974 to April 1976. He ...
was elected as the new Labour leader, and he proved to be a popular choice with the public.
Profumo affair
The Profumo affair of 1963 permanently damaged the credibility of Macmillan's government. The revelation of the affair between John Profumo (Secretary of State for War) and an alleged call-girl, Christine Keeler, who was simultaneously sleeping with the Soviet naval attache Captain Yevgeny Ivanov (spy), Yevgeny Ivanov made it appear that Macmillan had lost control of his government and of events in general.
[Goodlad & Pearce, 2013 p.180] In the ensuing Parliamentary debate he was seen as a pathetic figure, while Nigel Birch, Baron Rhyl, Nigel Birch declared, in the words of Robert Browning, Browning on Wordsworth, that it would "Never (be) Glad Confident Morning Again". On 17 June 1963, he survived a Parliamentary vote with a majority of 69, one fewer than had been thought necessary for his survival, and was afterwards joined in the smoking-room only by his son and son-in-law, not by any Cabinet minister. However, Butler and Reginald Maudling (who was very popular with backbench MPs at that time) declined to push for his resignation, especially after a tide of support from Conservative activists around the country. Many of the salacious revelations about the sex lives of "Establishment" figures during the Profumo affair damaged the image of "the Establishment" that Macmillan was seen as a part of, giving him the image by 1963 of a "failing representative of a decadent elite".
Resignation
By the summer of 1963 Chairman of the Conservative Party, Conservative Party Chairman Oliver Poole, 1st Baron Poole, Lord Poole was urging the ageing Macmillan to retire. The full Alfred Denning, Baron Denning, Denning report into the Profumo Scandal was published on 26 September 1963.
Macmillan had a meeting with Butler on 11 September and was careful to keep his options open (retire now, retire in the New Year, or fight the next election). He talked the matter over with his son Maurice and other senior ministers. Over lunch with Philip Cunliffe-Lister, 1st Earl of Swinton, Lord Swinton on 30 September he favoured stepping down, but only if Hailsham could be shoehorned in as his successor. He saw Butler on the morning of 7 October and told him he planned to stay on to lead the Conservatives into the next General Election, then was struck down by prostate problems on the night of 7–8 October, on the eve of the Conservative Party conference.
Macmillan was operated on at 11.30 am on Thursday 10 October. Although it is sometimes stated that he believed himself to have inoperable prostate cancer, he in fact knew it was benign before the operation. Macmillan was almost ready to leave hospital within ten days of the diagnosis and could easily have carried on, in the opinion of his doctor Sir John Richardson. His illness gave him a way out.
Succession
While recovering in hospital, Macmillan wrote a memorandum (dated 14 October) recommending the process by which "soundings" would be taken of party opinion to select his successor, which was accepted by the Cabinet on 15 October. This time backbench MPs and junior ministers were to be asked their opinion, rather than just the Cabinet as in 1957, and efforts would be made to sample opinion amongst peers and constituency activists.
Enoch Powell claimed that it was wrong of Macmillan to seek to monopolise the advice given to the Queen in this way. In fact, this was done at the Palace's request, so that the Queen was not being seen to be involved in politics as had happened in January 1957, and had been decided as far back as June when it had looked as though the government might fall over the Profumo scandal. Ben Pimlott later described this as the "biggest political misjudgement of her reign".
Macmillan was succeeded by Foreign Secretary Alec Douglas-Home in a controversial move; it was alleged that Macmillan had pulled strings and utilised the party's grandees, nicknamed 'The Magic Circle', who had slanted their "soundings" of opinion among MPs and Cabinet Ministers to ensure that Butler was (once again) not chosen.
He finally resigned, receiving the Queen from his hospital bed, on 18 October 1963, after nearly seven years as prime minister. He felt privately that he was being hounded from office by a backbench minority:
Retirement, 1963–1986
![The Queen in Downing Street in 1985 to mark the 250th anniversary of Robert Walpole's occupancy of No](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2e/The_Queen_in_Downing_Street_in_1985_to_mark_the_250th_anniversary_of_Robert_Walpole%27s_occupancy_of_No.10_%28cropped%29.jpeg)
Macmillan initially refused a peerage and retired from politics in September 1964, a month before the 1964 United Kingdom general election, 1964 election, which the Conservatives narrowly lost to Labour, now led by
Harold Wilson
James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, (11 March 1916 – 24 May 1995) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from October 1964 to June 1970, and again from March 1974 to April 1976. He ...
. His service in the House of Commons totalled 37 years.
Oxford chancellor (1960–1986)
Macmillan had been elected Chancellor of the University of Oxford in 1960, in a campaign masterminded by Hugh Trevor-Roper, and held this office for the rest of his life, frequently presiding over college events, making speeches and tirelessly raising funds. According to Sir Patrick Neill, Baron Neill of Bladen, Patrick Neill QC, the vice-chancellor, Macmillan "would talk late into the night with eager groups of students who were often startled by the radical views he put forward, well into his last decade."
Return to Macmillan Publishers
In retirement Macmillan took up the chairmanship of his family's publishing house,
Macmillan Publishers
Macmillan Publishers (occasionally known as the Macmillan Group; formally Macmillan Publishers Ltd and Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC) is a British publishing company traditionally considered to be one of the 'Big Five' English language publi ...
, from 1964 to 1974. The Macmillan Publishers, publishing firm remained in family hands until a majority share was purchased in 1995 by the Holtzbrinck Publishing Group; the imprint, however, persists.
Macmillan brought out a six-volume autobiography:
# ''Winds of Change, 1914–1939'' (1966)
# ''The Blast of War, 1939–1945'' (1967)
# ''Tides of Fortune, 1945–1955'' (1969)
# ''Riding the Storm, 1956–1959'' (1971)
# ''Pointing the Way, 1959–1961'' (1972)
# ''At the End of the Day, 1961–1963'' (1973)
Macmillan's biographer acknowledges that his memoirs were considered "heavy going". Reading these volumes was said by Macmillan's political enemy
Enoch Powell
John Enoch Powell, (16 June 1912 – 8 February 1998) was a British politician, classical scholar, author, linguist, soldier, philologist, and poet. He served as a Conservative Member of Parliament (1950–1974) and was Minister of Health (1 ...
to induce 'a sensation akin to that of chewing on cardboard'. Butler wrote in his review of ''Riding the Storm'': "Altogether this massive work will keep anybody busy for several weeks."
Macmillan's wartime diaries were better received.
* ''War Diaries: Politics and War in the Mediterranean, January 1943 – May 1945'' (London: St. Martin's Press, 1984)
Since Macmillan's death, his diaries for the 1950s and 1960s have also been published, both edited by Pippa Catterall, Peter Catterall:
* ''The Macmillan Diaries: The Cabinet Years 1950–57'' (London: Macmillan, 2003)
* ''The Macmillan Diaries Vol II: Prime Minister and After: 1957–1966'' (London: Macmillan, 2011)
Macmillan burned his diary for the climax of the Suez Affair, supposedly at Eden's request, although in Campbell's view more likely to protect his own reputation.
London clubs
Macmillan was a member of many clubs. On his first evening as Prime Minister he made a public show of taking the Chief Whip of the Conservative Party, Chief Whip Edward Heath for oysters at the Turf Club (Gentlemen's Club), Turf Club.
He became President of the Carlton Club in 1977 and would often stay at the club when he had to stay in London overnight. Within a few months of becoming President he merged the Carlton and Junior Carlton Club, Junior Carlton. He was also a member of Buck's Club, Buck's, Pratt's, the Turf Club (gentlemen's club), Turf Club and Beefsteak Club. He also once commented that White's was 75% gentlemen and 25% crooks, the perfect combination for a club.
Political interventions
Macmillan made occasional political interventions in retirement. Responding to a remark made by Labour Prime Minister
Harold Wilson
James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, (11 March 1916 – 24 May 1995) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from October 1964 to June 1970, and again from March 1974 to April 1976. He ...
about not having boots in which to go to school, Macmillan retorted: 'If Mr Wilson did not have boots to go to school that is because he was too big for them.'
Macmillan accepted the Order of Merit (Commonwealth), Order of Merit in 1976. In October of that year he called for 'a Government of National Unity' including all parties, which could command the public support to resolve 1976 Sterling crisis, the economic crisis. Asked who could lead such a coalition, he replied: "William Ewart Gladstone, Mr Gladstone formed his last Government when he was eighty-three. I'm only eighty-two. You mustn't put temptation in my way." He discussed the idea with Eden, but the IMF loan saved the country and the Labour government.
Macmillan still travelled widely, visiting China in October 1979, where he held talks with senior Vice-Premier Deng Xiaoping.
Relations with Margaret Thatcher
![Thatcher-loc](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/ff/Thatcher-loc.jpg)
Macmillan found himself drawn more actively into politics after Margaret Thatcher became Conservative leader in February 1975. After she ended Labour's five-year rule and became Prime Minister in 1979 United Kingdom general election, May 1979, he told Nigel Fisher (his biographer, and himself a Conservative MP): "Ted [Heath] was a very good No2 not a leader . Now, you have a ''real'' leader. Whether she's leading you in the right direction ..."
The record of Macmillan's own premiership came under attack from the Monetarism, monetarists in the party, whose theories Thatcher supported.
In a celebrated speech he wondered aloud where such theories had come from:
Macmillan was one of several people who advised Thatcher to set up a small War Cabinet#Falklands War, 1982, War Cabinet to manage the Falklands War. On his advice she excluded the
Treasury
A treasury is either
*A government department related to finance and taxation, a finance ministry.
*A place or location where treasure, such as currency or precious items are kept. These can be state or royal property, church treasure or i ...
from this body.
Having first inquired whether Argentina was known to have atomic weapons, Macmillan's advice was to appoint a senior military advisor, as Hastings Ismay, 1st Baron Ismay, Pug Ismay had been in the Second World War (in the event Terence Lewin, Admiral Lewin, Chief of the Defence Staff (United Kingdom), Chief of Defence Staff, performed this role). She had already received advice to exclude the Treasury from Frank Cooper (civil servant), Frank Cooper (the Permanent secretary, Permanent Under-Secretary for Defence), not least because of Macmillan's own behaviour, as Chancellor, in demanding a halt to the Suez operation. She later recalled: 'I never regretted following Harold Macmillan's advice. We were never tempted to compromise the security of our forces for financial reasons. Everything we did was governed by military necessity.'
With hereditary peerages again being created under Thatcher, Macmillan requested the earldom that had been customarily bestowed to departing prime ministers, and on 24 February 1984 he was created Earl of Stockton and Viscount Macmillan of Ovenden. He is the last Prime Minister to have been given an hereditary peerage. He took the title from his former parliamentary seat on the edge of the County Durham, Durham coalfields, and in his maiden speech in the
House of Lords
The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the Bicameralism, upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by Life peer, appointment, Hereditary peer, heredity or Lords Spiritual, official function. Like the ...
he criticised Thatcher's handling of the UK miners' strike (1984–85), coal miners' strike and her characterisation of striking miners as 'the enemy within'.
He received an unprecedented standing ovation for his oration, which included the words:
As Chancellor of Oxford University, Macmillan condemned its refusal in February 1985 to award Thatcher an honorary degree. He noted that the decision represented a break with tradition, and predicted that the snub would rebound on the university.
Macmillan is widely supposed to have likened Thatcher's policy of Privatization, privatisation to 'selling the family silver'. His precise quote, at a dinner of the Tory Reform Group at the Royal Over-Seas League, Royal Overseas League on 8 November 1985, was on the subject of the sale of assets commonplace among individuals or states when they encountered financial difficulties: 'First of all the Georgian era, Georgian silver goes. And then all that nice furniture that used to be in the Drawing room, salon. Then the Canalettos go.' Profitable parts of the steel industry and the railways had been privatised, along with BT Group, British Telecom: 'They were like two Rembrandts still left.'
Macmillan's speech was much commented on, and a few days later he made a speech in the
House of Lords
The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the Bicameralism, upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by Life peer, appointment, Hereditary peer, heredity or Lords Spiritual, official function. Like the ...
, referring to it:
Death and funeral
![St Giles' Church, Horsted Keynes (Macmillan Family Grave)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f9/St_Giles%27_Church%2C_Horsted_Keynes_%28Macmillan_Family_Grave%29.JPG)
Macmillan had often play-acted being an old man long before real old age set in. As early as 1948 Humphry Berkeley wrote of how "he makes a show of being feeble and decrepit", mentioning how he had suddenly stopped shambling and sprinted for a train. Nigel Fisher tells an anecdote of how Macmillan initially greeted him to his house leaning on a stick, but later walked and climbed steps perfectly well, twice acting lame again and fetching his stick when he remembered his "act". However, in genuine old age he became almost blind, causing him to need sticks and a helping arm.
Macmillan died at Birch Grove, the Macmillan family mansion on the edge of Ashdown Forest near Chelwood Gate in East Sussex, four days after Christmas in 1986. His age was 92 years and 322 days—the greatest age attained by a British Prime Minister until surpassed by James Callaghan, Lord Callaghan on 14 February 2005. His grandson and heir Alexander Macmillan, 2nd Earl of Stockton, Alexander, Viscount Macmillan of Ovenden, said: "In the last 48 hours he was very weak but entirely reasonable and intelligent. His last words were, 'I think I will go to sleep now'."
On receiving the news, Thatcher hailed him as "a very remarkable man and a very great patriot", and said that his dislike of "selling the family silver" had never come between them. He was "unique in the affection of the British people".
Tributes came from around the world. US President Ronald Reagan said: "The American people share in the loss of a voice of wisdom and humanity who, with eloquence and gentle wit, brought to the problems of today the experience of a long life of public service."
Outlawed African National Congress president Oliver Tambo sent his condolences: 'As South Africans we shall always remember him for his efforts to encourage the apartheid regime to bow to the Wind of Change (speech), winds of change that continue to blow in South Africa.'
Commonwealth Secretary-General Sir Shridath Ramphal affirmed: "His own leadership in providing from Britain a worthy response to African national consciousness shaped the post-war era and made the modern
Commonwealth possible."
A private funeral was held on 5 January 1987 at St Giles' Church, Horsted Keynes, St Giles' Church, Horsted Keynes, West Sussex, where he had regularly worshipped and read the lesson.
Two hundred mourners attended,
including 64 members of the Macmillan family, Thatcher and former premiers Alec Douglas-Home, Lord Home and Edward Heath, as well as Quintin Hogg, Baron Hailsham of St Marylebone, Lord Hailsham,
and "scores of country neighbours".
The Charles, Prince of Wales, Prince of Wales sent a wreath "in admiring memory".
He was buried beside his wife and next to his parents and his son Maurice Macmillan, Maurice, who had died in 1984.
The House of Commons paid its tribute on 12 January 1987, with much reference made to his book ''The Middle Way (Harold Macmillan book), The Middle Way''.
Thatcher said: "In his retirement Harold Macmillan occupied a unique place in the nation's affections", while Labour leader Neil Kinnock struck a more critical note: "Death and distance cannot lend sufficient enchantment to alter the view that the period over which he presided in the 1950s, while certainly and thankfully a period of rising affluence and confidence, was also a time of opportunities missed, of changes avoided. Harold Macmillan was, of course, not solely or even pre-eminently responsible for that. But we cannot but record with frustration the fact that the vigorous and perceptive attacker of the status quo in the 1930s became its emblem for a time in the late 1950s before returning to be its critic in the 1980s."
A public memorial service, attended by the Elizabeth II, Queen and thousands of mourners, was held on 10 February 1987 in Westminster Abbey. Macmillan's estate was assessed for probate on 1 June 1987, with a value of £51,114 (equivalent to £ in ).
Honours, awards and legacy
Macmillan was an elected Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1962.
In 1976 he received the Order of Merit. In 1984 he received the Four Freedoms Award#Freedom Medal, Freedom medal from the Roosevelt Study Center.
Macmillan's archives are located at Oxford University's Bodleian Library.
Macmillan was awarded a number of honorary degrees, including:
* 1956 – Indiana University
* 1958 – DePauw University
* 1958 – Johns Hopkins University, together with Eisenhower
* 1961 – Cambridge University
Historians' assessments of Macmillan's premiership
C. P. Snow wrote to Macmillan that his reputation would endure as, like Churchill, he was "psychologically interesting".
An early biographer George Hutchinson called him "The Last Edwardian at Number Ten" (1980), mistakenly in the view of Nigel Fisher. Fisher described him as "complex, almost chameleon". At times he portrayed himself as the descendant of a Scottish crofter, as a businessman, aristocrat, intellectual and soldier. Labour leader Harold Wilson wrote that his "role as a poseur was itself a pose". Wilson also argued that behind the public nonchalance lay a real professional. Fisher also wrote that he "had a talent for pursuing progressive policies but presenting them tactfully in a Conservative tone of voice".
Historian John Vincent explores the image Macmillan crafted of himself for his colleagues and constituents:
Alistair Horne, his official biographer, concedes that after his re-election in 1959 Macmillan's premiership suffered a series of major setbacks.
Campbell writes that: "a late developer who languished on the back benches ... in the 1930s, Macmillan seized his opportunity when it came with flair and ruthlessness, and [until about 1962] filled the highest office with compelling style". However, he argues that Macmillan is remembered as having been "a rather seedy conjuror", famous for Premium Bonds, Beeching's cuts to the railways and the Profumo Scandal. He is also remembered for "stop-go" economics: first expansion despite the opposition of Thorneycroft and his team, then Selwyn Lloyd's Pay Pause, and then finally the Maudling boom, with Britain's relative economic decline, especially compared to the EEC, becoming clear despite perceptions of consumer "affluence" in the late 1950s. In the 1980s the aged Macmillan was seen as "a revered but slightly pathetic figure".
Dominic Sandbrook writes that Macmillan's final weeks were typical of his premiership, "devious, theatrical and self-seeking" although not without droll wit and intelligence. Macmillan is best remembered for the "affluent society", which he inherited rather than created in the late 1950s, but chancellors came and went and by the early 1960s economic policy was "nothing short of a shambles", while his achievements in foreign policy made little difference to the lives of the public. By the time he left office, largely unlamented at the time, he was associated not with prosperity but with "anachronism and decay".
D. R. Thorpe writes that by the early 1960s Macmillan was seen as "the epitome of all that was wrong with anachronistic Britain. This was an unfair charge." "The essence of his persona was as elusive as mercury." He was not a member of "the Establishment"—in fact he was a businessman who had ''married into'' the aristocracy and a rebel Chancellor of Oxford. "He had style in abundance, (and) was a star on the world stage". Thorpe argues that despite his 1960 "Winds of Change" speech, he was largely pushed into rapid independence for African countries by Maudling and Macleod.
Richard Lamb argues that Macmillan was "by far the best of Britain's postwar Prime Ministers, and his administration performed better than any of their successors". Lamb argues that it is unfair to blame Macmillan for excessively quick African independence (resulting in many former colonies becoming dictatorships), or for the Beeching Plan (which was accepted by Labour in 1964, although Macmillan himself had reservations and had asked civil servants to draw up plans for extra road-building), and argues that had he remained in power Macmillan would never have allowed inflation to get as far out of hand as it did in the 1970s.
Cabinets (1957–1963)
January 1957 – October 1959
* Harold Macmillan: Prime Minister
* David Maxwell Fyfe, 1st Earl of Kilmuir, Lord Kilmuir: Lord Chancellor
* Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 5th Marquess of Salisbury, Lord Salisbury: Lord President of the Council
*
Rab Butler
Richard Austen Butler, Baron Butler of Saffron Walden, (9 December 1902 – 8 March 1982), also known as R. A. Butler and familiarly known from his initials as Rab, was a prominent British Conservative Party politician. ''The Times'' obituary c ...
: Lord Privy Seal and Secretary of State for the Home Department
*
Peter Thorneycroft
George Edward Peter Thorneycroft, Baron Thorneycroft, (26 July 1909 – 4 June 1994) was a British Conservative Party politician. He served as Chancellor of the Exchequer between 1957 and 1958.
Early life
Born in Dunston, Staffordshire, Thorn ...
:
Chancellor of the Exchequer
The chancellor of the Exchequer, often abbreviated to chancellor, is a senior minister of the Crown within the Government of the United Kingdom, and head of His Majesty's Treasury. As one of the four Great Offices of State, the Chancellor is ...
*
Selwyn Lloyd
John Selwyn Brooke Lloyd, Baron Selwyn-Lloyd, (28 July 1904 – 18 May 1978) was a British politician. Born and raised in Cheshire, he was an active Liberal as a young man in the 1920s. In the following decade, he practised as a barrister and ...
: Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs
* Alan Lennox-Boyd: Secretary of State for the Colonies
* Alec Douglas-Home, Lord Home: Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations
* Sir David Eccles, 1st Viscount Eccles, David Eccles: President of the Board of Trade
*
Charles Hill: Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
* Quintin Hogg, Baron Hailsham of St Marylebone, Lord Hailsham: Minister of Education
* John Scott Maclay, 1st Viscount Muirshiel, John Scott Maclay: Secretary of State for Scotland
* Derick Heathcoat Amory: Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Minister of Agriculture
* Iain Macleod: Secretary of State for Employment, Minister of Labour and National Service
* Harold Watkinson, 1st Viscount Watkinson, Harold Arthur Watkinson: Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation
* Duncan Edwin Sandys: Minister of Defence (UK), Minister of Defence
* Percy Herbert Mills, 1st Baron Mills, Lord Mills: Minister of Power
* Henry Brooke, Baron Brooke of Cumnor, Henry Brooke: Minister of Housing and Local Government and Welsh Affairs
Change
* March 1957 – Lord Home succeeds Lord Salisbury as Lord President, remaining Commonwealth Relations Secretary.
* September 1957 – Lord Hailsham succeeds Lord Home as Lord President, Home remaining Commonwealth Relations Secretary. Geoffrey William Lloyd, Geoffrey Lloyd succeeds Hailsham as Minister of Education. The Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Reginald Maudling, enters the Cabinet.
* January 1958 – Derick Heathcoat Amory succeeds Peter Thorneycroft as Chancellor of the Exchequer. John Hare, 1st Viscount Blakenham, John Hare succeeds Amory as Minister of Agriculture.
October 1959 – July 1960
* Harold Macmillan: Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Prime Minister
* David Patrick Maxwell Fyfe, 1st Earl of Kilmuir, Lord Kilmuir: Lord Chancellor
* Alec Douglas-Home, Lord Home: Lord President of the Council and Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations
* Quintin Hogg, Baron Hailsham of St Marylebone, Lord Hailsham: Lord Privy Seal and Minister of Science
* Derick Heathcoat Amory:
Chancellor of the Exchequer
The chancellor of the Exchequer, often abbreviated to chancellor, is a senior minister of the Crown within the Government of the United Kingdom, and head of His Majesty's Treasury. As one of the four Great Offices of State, the Chancellor is ...
*
Rab Butler
Richard Austen Butler, Baron Butler of Saffron Walden, (9 December 1902 – 8 March 1982), also known as R. A. Butler and familiarly known from his initials as Rab, was a prominent British Conservative Party politician. ''The Times'' obituary c ...
: Secretary of State for the Home Department
*
Selwyn Lloyd
John Selwyn Brooke Lloyd, Baron Selwyn-Lloyd, (28 July 1904 – 18 May 1978) was a British politician. Born and raised in Cheshire, he was an active Liberal as a young man in the 1920s. In the following decade, he practised as a barrister and ...
: Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs
* Iain Macleod: Secretary of State for the Colonies
* Reginald Maudling: President of the Board of Trade
*
Charles Hill: Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
* David Eccles, 1st Viscount Eccles, Sir David Eccles: Secretary of State for Education, Minister of Education
* Percy Herbert Mills, 1st Viscount Mills, Lord Mills: Secretary to the Treasury, Chief Secretary to the Treasury
* Ernest Marples: Secretary of State for Transport, Minister of Transport
* Duncan Edwin Sandys: Minister of Aviation
* Harold Watkinson, 1st Viscount Watkinson, Harold Arthur Watkinson: Minister of Defence (UK), Minister of Defence
* John Scott Maclay, 1st Viscount Muirshiel, John Scott Maclay: Secretary of State for Scotland
* Edward Heath: Secretary of State for Employment, Minister of Labour and National Service
* John Hare, 1st Viscount Blakenham, John Hare: Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Minister of Agriculture
* Henry Brooke, Baron Brooke of Cumnor, Henry Brooke: Minister of Housing and Ministry of Housing and Local Government, Local Government and Welsh Affairs
July 1960 – October 1961
* Harold Macmillan: Prime Minister
* David Patrick Maxwell Fyfe, 1st Earl of Kilmuir, Lord Kilmuir: Lord Chancellor
* Quintin Hogg, Baron Hailsham of St Marylebone, Lord Hailsham: Lord President of the Council and Minister of Science
* Edward Heath: Lord Privy Seal
*
Selwyn Lloyd
John Selwyn Brooke Lloyd, Baron Selwyn-Lloyd, (28 July 1904 – 18 May 1978) was a British politician. Born and raised in Cheshire, he was an active Liberal as a young man in the 1920s. In the following decade, he practised as a barrister and ...
:
Chancellor of the Exchequer
The chancellor of the Exchequer, often abbreviated to chancellor, is a senior minister of the Crown within the Government of the United Kingdom, and head of His Majesty's Treasury. As one of the four Great Offices of State, the Chancellor is ...
*
Rab Butler
Richard Austen Butler, Baron Butler of Saffron Walden, (9 December 1902 – 8 March 1982), also known as R. A. Butler and familiarly known from his initials as Rab, was a prominent British Conservative Party politician. ''The Times'' obituary c ...
: Secretary of State for the Home Department
* Alec Douglas-Home, Lord Home: Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs
* Iain Macleod: Secretary of State for the Colonies
* Duncan Edwin Sandys: Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations
* Reginald Maudling: President of the Board of Trade
*
Charles Hill: Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
* David Eccles, 1st Viscount Eccles, Sir David Eccles: Secretary of State for Education, Minister of Education
* Quintin Hogg, Baron Hailsham of St Marylebone, Lord Hailsham: Minister of Science
* Percy Herbert Mills, 1st Viscount Mills, Lord Mills: Secretary to the Treasury, Chief Secretary to the Treasury
* Ernest Marples: Minister of Transport
*
Peter Thorneycroft
George Edward Peter Thorneycroft, Baron Thorneycroft, (26 July 1909 – 4 June 1994) was a British Conservative Party politician. He served as Chancellor of the Exchequer between 1957 and 1958.
Early life
Born in Dunston, Staffordshire, Thorn ...
: Minister of Aviation
* Harold Watkinson, 1st Viscount Watkinson, Harold Arthur Watkinson: Minister of Defence (UK), Minister of Defence
* John Scott Maclay, 1st Viscount Muirshiel, John Scott Maclay: Secretary of State for Scotland
* John Hare, 1st Viscount Blakenham, John Hare: Secretary of State for Employment, Minister of Labour and National Service
* Christopher Soames: Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Minister of Agriculture
* Henry Brooke, Baron Brooke of Cumnor, Henry Brooke: Minister of Housing and Local Government and Welsh Affairs
October 1961 – July 1962
* Harold Macmillan: Prime Minister
* David Patrick Maxwell Fyfe, 1st Earl of Kilmuir, Lord Kilmuir: Lord Chancellor
* Quintin Hogg, Baron Hailsham of St Marylebone, Lord Hailsham: Lord President of the Council and Minister of Science
* Edward Heath: Lord Privy Seal
*
Selwyn Lloyd
John Selwyn Brooke Lloyd, Baron Selwyn-Lloyd, (28 July 1904 – 18 May 1978) was a British politician. Born and raised in Cheshire, he was an active Liberal as a young man in the 1920s. In the following decade, he practised as a barrister and ...
:
Chancellor of the Exchequer
The chancellor of the Exchequer, often abbreviated to chancellor, is a senior minister of the Crown within the Government of the United Kingdom, and head of His Majesty's Treasury. As one of the four Great Offices of State, the Chancellor is ...
*
Rab Butler
Richard Austen Butler, Baron Butler of Saffron Walden, (9 December 1902 – 8 March 1982), also known as R. A. Butler and familiarly known from his initials as Rab, was a prominent British Conservative Party politician. ''The Times'' obituary c ...
: Secretary of State for the Home Department
* Alec Douglas-Home, Lord Home: Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs
* Reginald Maudling: Secretary of State for the Colonies
* Duncan Edwin Sandys: Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations
* Frederick James Erroll, 1st Baron Erroll of Hale, Frederick Erroll: President of the Board of Trade
* Iain Macleod: Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
* David Eccles, 1st Viscount Eccles, Sir David Eccles: Secretary of State for Education, Minister of Education
* Henry Brooke, Baron Brooke of Cumnor, Henry Brooke: Secretary to the Treasury, Chief Secretary to the Treasury
* Ernest Marples: Minister of Transport
*
Peter Thorneycroft
George Edward Peter Thorneycroft, Baron Thorneycroft, (26 July 1909 – 4 June 1994) was a British Conservative Party politician. He served as Chancellor of the Exchequer between 1957 and 1958.
Early life
Born in Dunston, Staffordshire, Thorn ...
: Minister of Aviation
* Harold Watkinson, 1st Viscount Watkinson, Harold Arthur Watkinson: Minister of Defence (UK), Minister of Defence
* John Scott Maclay, 1st Viscount Muirshiel, John Scott Maclay: Secretary of State for Scotland
* John Hare, 1st Viscount Blakenham, John Hare: Secretary of State for Employment, Minister of Labour and National Service
* Christopher Soames: Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Minister of Agriculture
*
Charles Hill: Minister of Housing and Local Government and Welsh Affairs
* Percy Herbert Mills, 1st Viscount Mills, Lord Mills: Minister without Portfolio
July 1962 – October 1963
''Note:'' In a radical reshuffle dubbed "Night of the Long Knives (1962), The Night of the Long Knives", Macmillan sacked a third of his Cabinet and instituted many other changes.
* Harold Macmillan: Prime Minister
*
Rab Butler
Richard Austen Butler, Baron Butler of Saffron Walden, (9 December 1902 – 8 March 1982), also known as R. A. Butler and familiarly known from his initials as Rab, was a prominent British Conservative Party politician. ''The Times'' obituary c ...
: Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Deputy Prime Minister and First Secretary of State
* Reginald Edward Manningham-Buller, 1st Viscount Dilhorne, Lord Dilhorne: Lord Chancellor
* Quintin Hogg, Baron Hailsham of St Marylebone, Lord Hailsham: Lord President of the Council and Minister of Science
* Edward Heath: Lord Privy Seal
* Reginald Maudling:
Chancellor of the Exchequer
The chancellor of the Exchequer, often abbreviated to chancellor, is a senior minister of the Crown within the Government of the United Kingdom, and head of His Majesty's Treasury. As one of the four Great Offices of State, the Chancellor is ...
* Henry Brooke, Baron Brooke of Cumnor, Henry Brooke: Secretary of State for the Home Department
* Alec Douglas-Home, Lord Home: Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs
* Duncan Edwin Sandys: Secretary of State for the Colonies and Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations
* Frederick James Erroll, 1st Baron Erroll of Hale, Frederick Erroll: President of the Board of Trade
* Iain Macleod: Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
* Edward Boyle, Baron Boyle of Handsworth, Sir Edward Boyle: Secretary of State for Education, Minister of Education
* John Boyd-Carpenter: Secretary to the Treasury, Chief Secretary to the Treasury
* Ernest Marples: Minister of Transport
* Julian Amery: Minister of Aviation
*
Peter Thorneycroft
George Edward Peter Thorneycroft, Baron Thorneycroft, (26 July 1909 – 4 June 1994) was a British Conservative Party politician. He served as Chancellor of the Exchequer between 1957 and 1958.
Early life
Born in Dunston, Staffordshire, Thorn ...
:
Minister of Defence
A defence minister or minister of defence is a Cabinet (government), cabinet official position in charge of a ministry of defense, which regulates the armed forces in sovereign states. The role of a defence minister varies considerably from coun ...
* Michael Noble, Baron Glenkinglas, Michael Noble: Secretary of State for Scotland
* John Hare, 1st Viscount Blakenham, John Hare: Secretary of State for Employment, Minister of Labour and National Service
* Christopher Soames: Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Minister of Agriculture
* Keith Joseph, Sir Keith Joseph: Minister of Housing and Local Government and Welsh Affairs
*
Enoch Powell
John Enoch Powell, (16 June 1912 – 8 February 1998) was a British politician, classical scholar, author, linguist, soldier, philologist, and poet. He served as a Conservative Member of Parliament (1950–1974) and was Minister of Health (1 ...
: Minister of Health
* Bill Deedes, William Deedes: Minister without Portfolio
Cultural depictions
Notes
References
Cited texts
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*
*
* (contains an essay on Macmillan and Butler)
* Dell, Edmund. ''The Chancellors: A History of the Chancellors of the Exchequer, 1945–90'' (HarperCollins, 1997) pp. 207–22, covers his term as Chancellor.
*
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*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
* Theatre Record (1997 for Hugh Whitemore's ''A Letter of Resignation''; 2008 for Howard Brenton's ''Never So Good'')
*
*
Further reading
* Aldous, Richard, and Sabine Lee, eds. ''Harold Macmillan and Britain’s world role'' (Springer, 2016).
* Ball, Simon. ''The Guardsmen: Harold Macmillan, Three Friends and the World They Made'' (Harper Perennial, London 2005).
* Betts, Lewis David. "Harold Macmillan and appeasement: implications for the future study of Macmillan as a foreign policy actor." ''Contemporary British History'' 32.2 (2018): 169–189.
* Butler, Larry, and Sarah Stockwell, eds. ''The Wind of Change: Harold Macmillan and British Decolonization'' (Springer, 2013).
* Richard Davenport-Hines, Davenport-Hines, Richard. ''An English Affair: Sex, Class and Power in the Age of Profumo'' HarperCollins, London 2013.
* Edmonds, Anthony O. and E. Bruce Geelhoed, ''Eisenhower, Macmillan and Allied Unity 1957–61'' Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke 2003. .
* Evans, Brendan. "The oratory of Harold Macmillan." in ''Conservative Orators from Baldwin to Cameron'' (Manchester University Press, 2016).
* Grant, Matthew. "Historians, the Penguin Specials and the 'State-of-the-Nation' Literature, 1958–64." ''Contemporary British History'' (2003) 17#3 pp29–54, focus on decline of Britain.
* Peter Hennessy, Baron Hennessy of Nympsfield, Hennessy, Peter. ''Having It So Good: Britain In The Fifties'' Penguin Books, London 2006. .
* Hodge, Alan. "The Macmillan Years." ''History Today'' (Dec 1963), 13#12 pp 848–851 covers 1931 to 1963.
* Emrys Hughes, Hughes, Emrys. ''Macmillan: Portrait of a Politician'', Allen & Unwin, 1962.
* Hutchinson, George. ''The Last Edwardian at No.10: An Impression of Harold Macmillan'', Quartet Books, London 1980. .
* James, Elizabeth. ''Macmillan A Publishing Tradition'' London 2002.
* Merk, Dorothea, and Rüdiger Ahrens. "'Suspicious Federal Chancellor' Versus 'Weak Prime Minister': Konrad Adenauer and Harold Macmillan in the British and West German Quality Press during the Berlin Crisis (1958 to 1962). A Critical Discourse Analysis." in ''Europe in Discourse: Identity, Diversity, Borders'' (2016) pp 101–11
online* Ovendale, Ritchie. "Macmillan and the wind of change in Africa, 1957–1960." ''Historical Journal'' (1995) 38#2 pp 455–77.
* Rooke, Patrick J. ''The Wind of Change in Africa'' (1968
online* Sampson, Anthony. ''Macmillan: A Study in Ambiguity'' (A&C Black, 2012).
* Christopher Sandford (biographer), Sandford, Christopher. ''Harold and Jack: The Remarkable Friendship of Prime Minister Macmillan and President Kennedy'' (Prometheus Books, 2014)
* Tolstoy, Nikolai. ''The Minister and the Massacres'' (London, 1986),
* Torreggiani, Valerio. "The Making of Harold Macmillan’s Third Way in Interwar Britain (1924–1935)." in ''New Political Ideas in the Aftermath of the Great War'' (Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, 2017) pp. 67–85.
*
Britannica Online about Harold Macmillan
Primary sources
* Macmillan, Harold. ''The Macmillan Diaries: vol II, Prime Minister and after 1957–1966'' (Pan, 2011).
External links
Annotated Bibliography for Harold Macmillan from the Alsos Digital Library for Nuclear Issues
*
BBC Harold Macmillan obituary* President of the friends of Roquetaillade associatio
8 June 1958 speech on "Interdependence" at DePauw UniversityMore about Harold Macmillanon the Downing Street website
1968 – Britain's Harold Macmillan Makes Return Visit to DePauw, Calls for New Rapprochement
RootsAndLeaves.com Cavendish family genealogy
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