Anthony Eden

Anthony Eden (born June 12, 1897, Windlestone, Durham, England—died January 14, 1977, Alvediston, Wiltshire) was a British foreign secretary in 1935–38, 1940–45, and 1951–55 and prime minister from 1955 to 1957.

After combat service in World War I, Eden studied Oriental languages (Arabic and Persian) at Christ Church, Oxford. He was elected to the House of Commons in 1923 and was appointed undersecretary of state for foreign affairs in 1931, lord privy seal (with special responsibility for international relations) in 1934, and minister for League of Nations affairs (a cabinet office created for him) in June 1935. He became foreign secretary in December 1935 but resigned in February 1938 to protest Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain’s appeasement of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy.

On the outbreak of World War II in September 1939, Eden reentered Chamberlain’s government as dominions secretary. When Churchill became prime minister on May 10, 1940, Eden was named secretary of state for war, but from December 23, 1940, until the defeat of the Conservatives in July 1945, he served once more as foreign secretary. On October 27, 1951, after Churchill and the Conservative Party had been returned to power, Eden again became foreign secretary and also was designated deputy prime minister. In 1954 he helped to settle the Anglo-Iranian oil dispute, to resolve the quarrel between Italy and Yugoslavia over Trieste, to stop the Indochina War, and to establish the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO).

In 1953 he became seriously ill, and, although he underwent several operations, he never fully regained his health. Succeeding Churchill as prime minister on April 6, 1955, he attempted to relax international tension by welcoming to Great Britain the Soviet leaders Nikita Khrushchev and Nikolay Bulganin. His fall began on July 26, 1956, when Gamal Abdel Nasser, head of the Egyptian state, nationalized the Suez Canal Company, in which the British government had been a principal stockholder since 1875. This action led to an Anglo-French attack on Egypt on November 5, one week after an attack on Egypt by Israel.

British public opinion was more favourable to Eden’s show of force than the Labour and Liberal parties had expected; his supporters regretted, however, that he did not fulfill his intention of occupying the key positions of Port Said, Ismailia, and Suez. By December 22, partly through U.S. pressure, British and French forces had been supplanted by UN emergency units, but the canal was left in Egyptian hands rather than subjected to international control. The next month, on January 9, 1957, Eden resigned, giving ill health as his reason.

Eden was knighted (K.G.) in 1954 and created earl of Avon in 1961. Eden’s memoirs were issued in three volumes: Full Circle (1960), Facing the Dictators (1962), and The Reckoning (1965).