Michael Leonard Graham Balfour (22 November 1908 — 16 September 1995) was an English historian and civil servant. He was born in

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 ...

, the son of Sir Graham Balfour. He was educated at

Rugby School Rugby School is a public school (English independent boarding school for pupils aged 13–18) in Rugby, Warwickshire, England. Founded in 1567 as a free grammar school for local boys, it is one of the oldest independent schools in Britain. ...

and Balliol College, Oxford, where he graduated with a first in history. He first visited Germany in 1930, where he became a friend of Helmuth James von Moltke. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

Balfour worked at the Ministry of Information and the Political Intelligence Department of the Foreign Office (the cover name for the

Political Warfare Executive During World War II, the Political Warfare Executive (PWE) was a British clandestine body created to produce and disseminate both white and black propaganda, with the aim of damaging enemy morale and sustaining the morale of countries occupied ...

). In 1944 he joined the

Psychological Warfare Division The Psychological Warfare Division of Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (PWD/SHAEF or SHAEF/PWD) was a joint Anglo-American organization set-up in World War II tasked with conducting (predominantly) white tactical psychological warf ...

of the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force and after the war he became Director of Public Relations and Information Services, Control Commission, in the British Zone of

Allied-occupied Germany Germany was already de facto occupied by the Allies from the real fall of Nazi Germany in World War II on 8 May 1945 to the establishment of the East Germany on 7 October 1949. The Allies (United States, United Kingdom, Soviet Union, and Franc ...

. He was Chief Information Officer at the Board of Trade from 1947 to 1964. He was then Professor of European History at the

University of East Anglia The University of East Anglia (UEA) is a public research university in Norwich, England. Established in 1963 on a campus west of the city centre, the university has four faculties and 26 schools of study. The annual income of the institution f ...

from 1966 to 1974. In 1934 he married Grizel Wilson (younger sister of his Balliol friend, the diplomat Duncan Wilson, and of philosopher

Mary Warnock Helen Mary Warnock, Baroness Warnock, (née Wilson; 14 April 1924 – 20 March 2019) was an English philosopher of morality, education, and mind, and a writer on existentialism. She is best known for chairing an inquiry whose report formed the ...

) and they had three daughters. Balfour died in the Oxfordshire town of

Witney Witney is a market town on the River Windrush in West Oxfordshire in the county of Oxfordshire, England. It is west of Oxford. The place-name "Witney" is derived from the Old English for "Witta's island". The earliest known record of it is as ...

nine-and-a-half weeks before his 87th birthday.

Works

*''States and Mind'' (1953). *''Four-Power Control in Germany and Austria 1945-46'' (1956). *''The Kaiser and His Times'' (1964). *''West Germany'' (1968). *''Helmuth von Moltke. A Leader against Hitler'' (1972) (co-author Julian Frisby). *''Propaganda in War 1939-45'' (1979). *''The Adversaries'' (1981). *''Britain and Joseph Chamberlain'' (1985). *''Withstanding Hitler in Germany 1933-45'' (1988).

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Balfour, Michael 1908 births 1995 deaths English civil servants Commanders of the Order of the British Empire People from Oxford Academics of the University of East Anglia 20th-century English historians People educated at Rugby School Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford