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Eden’s first experience with politics came in the November 1922
General Election when he contested a seat he had no chance of
winning. When another general election was called in December
1923, Eden was elected Member of Parliament for Warwick and
Leamington as a Conservative at the young age of 26.
In the 1924-29 Conservative government, Eden was Parliamentary
Private Secretary to the Home Secretary, Sir William Joynson Hicks,
and from 1926 held the same position to the Foreign Secretary Sir
Austen Chamberlain.
In 1931, Eden held his first ministerial office as Undersecretary
for Foreign Affairs. Under Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, Anthony
Eden was appointed Lord Privy Seal and Minister for the League of
Nations.
Anthony Eden became Foreign Secretary at a time when Britain was
having to adjust its foreign policy to face the rise of fascist
powers. Eden did not protest when Britain and France failed to
oppose Hitler’s reoccupation of the Rhineland in 1936,
but firmly ruled out any military assistance to France. In
February 1938, Eden resigned as Foreign Secretary, which was
largely attributed to his opposition to Neville Chamberlain’s
policy of appeasement.
In September 1939, on the outbreak of the Second World War, Eden
had briefly returned to the Army with the rank of major, he also
returned to Chamberlain’s government as Secretary of State for
Dominion Affairs; he was not however, a member of the War Cabinet.
As a result of being excluded from the War Cabinet, Eden was not a
candidate for premiership when Chamberlain resigned; this job went
to Winston Churchill.
Churchill did appoint Eden Secretary of State for War, and at the
end of 1940, he was back in the Foreign Office; in this role, he
became a member of the Executive Committee of the Political Warfare
Executive in 1941. During the war, Eden’s eldest son, Pilot Officer
Simon Gascoigne Eden went missing in action, and was later declared
deceased while serving as a navigator in the RAF in Burma.
In the post war general election, Labour came out on top,and the
Conservatives became the opposition party. Eden became Deputy
leader of the Conservatives, and many thought that Churchill should
resign and allow Eden to become leader; this however was out of the
question for Churchill.
As early as Spring 1946, Eden openly asked Churchill to retire from
the party. When the Conservatives came back to power in 1951 with
Churchill once again at the helm, Eden became Foreign Secretary for
the third time as well as Deputy Prime Minister. Eden had an
effective control on British foreign policy for the first time, as
the Empire declined and the Cold War intensified. It was during his
third term as Foreign Secretary that Eden was made a Knight of the
Garter, and became Sir Anthony Eden.
In April 1955, Sir Winston Churchill resigned, and Sir Anthony Eden
took up office as Prime Minister, the second prime minister so
far in Queen Elizabeth II’s short reign. On taking office,
Eden immediately called a general election for 26th May 1955 at
which he increased the Conservative majority from seventeen to
sixty, a majority which broke a ninety-year record for any UK
government. Sir Anthony Eden had the distinction of being the
British Prime Minister to oversee the lowest unemployment figures
of the post World War II era with unemployment standing at just
over 215,000 in July 1955, barely 1% of the workforce.
The biggest political event to occur during Eden’s tenure as Prime
Minister was the Suez Crisis. The crisis began on July 26th 1956
when Egyptian President Abdul Nasser nationalised the Suez Canal
Company, which had been run by the French, with the British
Government as the largest single shareholder.
The canal was dubbed the ‘lifeline of the Empire’. It was an
absolutely vital conduit for oil. If Nasser blocked the precious
flow, it could cripple the British economy.
Just as critical, Nasser’s dramatic gesture came during the midst
of the Cold War while Britain and France were struggling to
maintain their influence in the Middle East and North Africa, as
well as their own sense of relevance. For Sir Anthony Eden, the
crisis was an echo of his own struggle during the 1930’s and 40’s
to confront Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini.
The British Cabinet conceded that Nasser’s actions were legal,
especially as he promised to reimburse the shareholders. London and
Paris both felt though that they could not suffer this insult to
their pride and prestige, and so, both began making plans for a
military strike. US President Dwight Eisenhower urged Eden to avoid
using force; Eden, however, refused to back down.
The Suez Crisis was arguably the worst break in UK/US relations in
the 20th century. When Israel invaded Egypt, Britain and France
took their guise as peacekeepers and began bombing Egyptian
positions: both countries were condemned by the United Nations
and the Commonwealth was split along racial lines; the Western
Alliance was ripped apart.
On November 4th 1956, the General Assembly overwhelmingly supported
Lester Pearson’s proposal for the world’s first peacekeeping force.
Within two weeks, advance units arrived in Egypt and bowing to
international pressure and the arrival of UNEF, British and French
forces completed their withdrawal from Egypt by the end of
1956.
The Suez Crisis led to much speculation about The Queen’s views,
and what she knew about unfolding events. Eden believed that
informing The Queen was of supreme importance, and all the Suez
papers were sent to her, the first time she was to be shown secret
government documents. Their relationship was one of impeccable
constitutional propriety and confidences were maintained. The
crisis damaged, in many peoples eyes, Eden’s reputation for
statesmanship and led to a breakdown in his health. The crisis is
widely taken as marking the end of Britain’s status as a
‘superpower’.
Sir Anthony Eden resigned on 9th January 1957 after doctors warned
him his life was at stake if he continued in office. A survey of
the Cabinet taken for The Queen showed that Harold Macmillan was
the nearly unanimous choice to be Eden’s successor. He became Prime
Minister on 10th January 1957.
Eden maintained much of his personal popularity in England. In
1961, he was made Earl of Avon, and entered the House of
Lords. After his retirement from politics, Eden spent most of his
time quietly with his second wife Clarissa at their home near the
banks of the River Ebble in Wiltshire.
On a trip to
the Unites States for Christmas and New Year 1976-77, Eden’s health
rapidly deteriorated. At his family’s request, James Callahan
arranged for an RAF plane that was already in America to divert to
Miami to fly the former prime minister home. Sir Anthony Eden died
from liver cancer in Salisbury on 14th January 1977 at the age of
79, thus he was born in the year of Queen Victoria’s Diamond
Jubilee, and died in the year of Queen Elizabeth II’s Silver
Jubilee. Eden was buried at St Mary’s churchyard at Alvediston,
just three miles upstream from his former home.
Sir Anthony Eden was hugely popular throughout his political
career, however many contemporaries felt he was merely a
superficial person lacking any deeper convictions. That view was
enforced by his very pragmatic approach to politics. Too often in
his career, his parliamentary performances disappointed many of his
followers, and that is why Eden is ranked among the least
successful prime ministers of the 20th century.
As for Eden’s relationship with his monarch, it appears that it was
amicable. The Queen found Eden a sympathetic listener to her
concerns, dominating their early meetings was the discussion of
Princess Margaret’s possible marriage to Group Captain Peter
Townsend. Eden was however the first prime minister to have
divorced, and was therefore in no position to take the lead in the
decision as to whether the two should marry.
As for the Suez Crisis, we can only speculate what was spoken about
during the weekly audiences. All we know is that The Queen would be
able to draw on these meetings with Eden with her meetings,
nearly 30 years later, with Margaret Thatcher during the Falklands
War.
One question that has been asked many times since 1956, is did The
Queen know about Eden’s secret collusion with the French and
Israeli’s over Suez, which was concealed from the world, and lied
about in Parliament? This is a question that has had people split
for nearly sixty years; yes, Her Majesty did sign the document
approving the call up of Army reserves in the summer; however did
she really approve of the operation? This is something that only
few know the answer to. The Suez failure represented a huge dent in
the national image and to the British pride nurtured by the Second
World War.
It does bring something to mind that I once heard though, and that
stuck with me, ‘Prime ministers come and go, a monarch is there for
life.’ Sir Anthony Eden’s time in office may have damaged his
reputation and Britain’s for a time; it didn’t, however, damage
Queen Elizabeth II’s – she is still our queen.
photo credit: blacque_jacques , Blue Mountains Local
Studies and Bradford Timeline via
photopin cc]]>
