Everything about Anthony Eden totally explained
Robert Anthony Eden, 1st Earl of Avon,
KG,
MC,
PC (
12 June 1897 –
14 January 1977) was a
British politician who was
Foreign Secretary for three periods between 1935 and 1955, including
World War II and
Prime Minister from 1955 to 1957.
His world-wide reputation as a "Man of Peace" and skilled diplomat was severely damaged by his conduct of the
Suez Crisis in
1956, which was considered disastrous for
Britain and a decisive sign of the decline of the
British Empire.
In the post-war years, Eden was a protagonist of the change in British policy about war criminal trials, maybe best symbolised by his signature under the pardon conceded to the German Field Marshal
Albert Kesselring on
24 October 1952.
He
is generally ranked among the least successful British Prime Ministers of the 20th century, although two broadly sympathetic biographies (in 1986 and 2003) have gone some way to redressing the balance of opinion .
Early career
Eden was born in
West Auckland,
County Durham,
England, into a very conservative landed gentry family, and attended
Eton. He was a younger son of Sir William Eden,
baronet, from an
old titled family. His mother, Sybil Frances Grey, was a member of the famous Grey family of
Northumberland (see below). This was perhaps the meaning of
Rab Butler's later gibe that Eden - in later life a handsome but ill-tempered man - was "half mad baronet, half beautiful woman". He had an elder brother called Timothy and a younger brother, Nicholas, who was killed when the
battlecruiser HMS Indefatigable blew up and sank at the
Battle of Jutland in 1916.
During the
First World War, Eden serving with the King's Royal Rifle Corps reached the rank of captain, received a
Military Cross, and at the age of twenty-one became the youngest brigade-major in the British Army; at a conference in the early 1930s he and Hitler observed that they'd probably fought on opposite sides of the trenches in the Ypres sector. After the war he studied at
Christ Church, Oxford, where he graduated in
Oriental Languages. (He was fluent in French, German and Persian and also spoke Russian and Arabic). After fighting a hopeless seat in the November 1922 General Election, Captain Eden, as he was still known, was elected
Member of Parliament for
Warwick and Leamington in the December 1923 General Election, as a
Conservative. In that year also he married Beatrice Beckett. They had two sons (as well as a third who died in infancy), but the marriage wasn't a success and broke up under the strain of Eden's political career.
During the 1924-1929 Conservative Government, Eden was first
Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Home Secretary, Sir William Joynson Hicks, and then in 1926 to the Foreign Secretary Sir Austen Chamberlain. In 1931 he held his first ministerial office as
Under-Secretary for
Foreign Affairs. In 1934 he was appointed
Lord Privy Seal and Minister for the
League of Nations in
Stanley Baldwin's Government. Like many of his generation who had served in the First World War, Eden was strongly
anti-war and strove to work through the League of Nations to preserve European peace. He was however among the first to recognise that peace couldn't be maintained by
appeasement of
Nazi Germany and
fascist Italy. He privately opposed the policy of the Foreign Secretary,
Sir Samuel Hoare, of trying to appease
Italy during its
invasion of Abyssinia (
Ethiopia) in 1935. When Hoare resigned after the failure of the
Hoare-Laval Pact, Eden succeeded him as Foreign Secretary.
At this stage in his career Eden was considered as something of a leader of fashion. He regularly wore a
Homburg hat (similar to a trilby but more rigid), which became known in Britain as an "
Anthony Eden".
Foreign Secretary and resignation (1935-38)
Eden became Foreign Secretary at a time when Britain was having to adjust its
foreign policy to face the rise of the fascist powers. He supported the policy of non-interference in the
Spanish Civil War, and supported
Neville Chamberlain in his efforts to preserve peace through reasonable concessions to Germany. He didn't protest when Britain and France failed to oppose
Hitler's reoccupation of the Rhineland in 1936. His resignation in February 1938 was largely attributed to growing dissatisfaction with
Chamberlain`s policy of
Appeasement. That is, however, disputed by new research; it wasn't the question if there should be negotiations with Italy but only when they should start and how far they should be carried. Although Churchill claimed to have lost sleep the night of Eden's resignation (later recounted in his wartime memoirs (
The Gathering Storm, 1948), they were not allies, and didn't see eye to eye until Churchill became Prime Minister. There was much speculation that Eden would become a rallying point for all the disparate opponents of Chamberlain, but instead he maintained a low profile, avoiding confrontation though he opposed the
Munich Agreement and abstained in the vote on it in the House of Commons. As a result Eden's position declined heavily amongst politicians, though he remained popular in the country at large - in later years he was often wrongly supposed to have resigned in protest at the Munich Agreement.
Second World War (1939-45)
In September 1939, on the outbreak of war, Eden, who had briefly rejoined the army with the rank of major, returned to Chamberlain's government as
Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs, but wasn't in the
War Cabinet. As a result he wasn't a candidate for the Premiership when Chamberlain resigned after Germany invaded
France in May 1940 and Churchill became Prime Minister. Churchill appointed Eden
Secretary of State for War.
At the end of 1940 Eden returned to the Foreign Office, and in this role became a member of the executive committee of the
Political Warfare Executive in 1941. Although he was one of Churchill's closest confidants, his role in wartime was restricted because Churchill conducted the most important negotiations, with
Franklin D. Roosevelt and
Joseph Stalin, himself, but Eden served loyally as Churchill's lieutenant. Nevertheless he was in charge of handling much of the relations between Britain and
de Gaulle during the last years of the war. Eden was often critical of the emphasis Churchill put on the
Special Relationship with the US, often disappointed by their treatment of their British allies .
In these opposition years, however, he developed some knowledge about domestic affairs and created the idea of a
"property-owning-democracy", which was only realized by the
Thatcher government decades later. His domestic agenda is overall considered centre-left following a policy focused on
Anti-Communism and the emerging
Cold War. This policy had been discreetly pursued at least since
1947, when Churchill and
Harold Alexander had pressured
Clement Attlee to commute the death sentence on the German Field Marshal
Albert Kesselring for atrocities perpetrated in
Italy during the
Second World War handed down by a British Military Court in
Venice on
May 6 1947. Kesselring had been called to account for more than 1,400 innocent civilians massacred in a series of violent reprisals, including the
Ardeatine massacre.
In December
1951 Eden introduced to the Cabinet a cleverly drafted policy according to which pre-trial custody should be counted against sentences inflicted upon war criminals, so effectively reducing them. The policy - apparently aimed only to promote an equitable principle - exploited a loophole which - in certain instances - was effectively used to double a prison reduction already in effect, as for example, in the case of the German Field Marshal
Erich von Manstein.
Von Manstein was mainly accused of orders equating Partisans to Jews, thus aiming at their indiscriminate extermination. Churchill donated money to von Manstein's defence and openly branded the trial against the German Field Marshal as yet another effort by the then ruling Attlee government to
appease the
Soviets.
Anticipating an extensive interpretation of the pre-trial custody reduction, the Tribunal that condemned von Manstein on
December 19 1949 explicitly stated in its ruling that "
The period during which the accused has been in custody has been taken into account".
Nevertheless, Eden pushed ahead with the idea that it was legitimate to subtract the pre-trial custody time from the period decreed by judicial decision even in cases such as von Manstein's.
The pressure on Eden and the government to resolve the war criminals issue as quickly as possible increased during the summer of
1952, coinciding with the looming question of the ratification of the European Defence Community Treaty by
West Germany.
A lobby that included
Harold Alexander - then
Minister of Defence - and
Basil Liddell Hart strove to this end, echoing the calls in the same direction coming from the
German Chancellor,
Konrad Adenauer and the press campaign orchestrated in West Germany for the pardoning of most war criminals. Alexander in particular had gone to considerable lengths to justify their release in a way or another, tactically and falsely emphasising health issues and, almost incredibly, the "melancholy" experienced by jailed war criminals.
Under Eden, who as Foreign Minister had taken over responsibility after the withdrawal of the British High Commission from the
International Military Tribunal, with the clear approval of Churchill, and based on the tactics suggested by Alexander - which included adequately priming prison doctors on which medical aspects concentrate on - both Kesselring (July) and Manstein (August) were released from prison under medical pretexts during the summer of
1952, allegedly because they needed urgent hospitalization for treating, respectively, an "exploratory operation" on a throat cancer, and cataracts. Following their operations, both were conveniently left in liberty for an indefinite convalescence period, and were not to set again foot in jail or, as the German press proclaimed, in a "dungeon"..
Jeane Kirkpatrick, promoter of the
Kirkpatrick Doctrine advocating Anti-Communism worldwide, swiftly suggested that Adenauer propose the application of the same principal to the US High Commission, which helped West Germany not to misunderstand the real significance of the "medical" release of the Field Marshals, and the policy pursued by both the British and the US governments.
To make the path taken by the British government towards the war criminals clear to German public opinion however, a more explicit gesture was deemed to be necessary. Therefore, on
24 October 1952 Eden signed an act of clemency in favour of the German war criminal Field Marshal
Albert Kesselring. Kesselring - officially pardoned in consideration of his allegedly cancerous throat - addressed a rally of veterans immediately after his release (including the fanatic
Green Devils who had fought under his command at
Monte Cassino and a number of Nazi former leaders), calling for the wholesale liberation of all war criminals.
Afterwards he lived an active public life for another eight years - he died in July 1960 - mostly rallying ex-Nazis as leader of the neo-Nazi organisation
Stahlhelm, Bund der Frontsoldaten, at the head of which had been elected while still in prison.
Thus Eden - albeit with some reluctance and attention for legal stricture - had put his signature upon a policy commenced by Churchill which, by means of a broad campaign of rehabilitation of
Nazi military personalities, was aimed at re-establishing a strong Army in what was then
West Germany, as a central part of the
NATO front line at the height of
Cold War.
When Churchill took over the Foreign Office due to Eden's serious health problems in
1953, the plan for liberating the war criminals was brought to it logical conclusion, without any further scruples.
Selwyn Lloyd, the Minister of State in the Foreign Office with responsibility for German Affairs, was given
carte-blanche to resolve the issue of war criminals, now seen as no more than embarrassing. On
May 6 1953 Manstein was pardoned and in
1956 he returned to service upon Adenauer's call, assuming an important official role in the resurrection of the German Army.
Prime Minister (1955-57)
In April 1955 Churchill finally retired, and Sir Anthony succeeded him as Prime Minister. Eden was a very popular figure, as a result of his long wartime service and his famous good looks and charm. On taking office he immediately called a
general election, at which the Conservatives were returned with an increased majority. But Sir Anthony had never held a domestic portfolio and had little experience in economic matters. He left these areas to his lieutenants such as
Rab Butler, and concentrated largely on foreign policy, forming a close alliance with
U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower. His famous words "Peace comes first, always" added to his already substantial popularity.
Suez (1956)
This alliance proved illusory, however, when in 1956 Sir Anthony, in conjunction with France, tried to prevent
Gamal Abdel Nasser, President of
Egypt, from nationalising the
Suez Canal, which had been owned since the 19th century by British and French shareholders in the Suez Canal Company. Eden, drawing on his experience in the 1930s, saw Nasser as another
Mussolini, considering the two men aggressive nationalist "socialists" determined to invade other countries. Sir Anthony even responded by plotting to assassinate Nasser by enlisting
Miles Copeland's "assistance" since he was-apparently-a close friend of Nasser's. Others believed that Nasser was acting from legitimate patriotic concerns.
In October 1956, after months of negotiation and attempts at mediation had failed to dissuade Nasser, Britain and France, in conjunction with
Israel, invaded Egypt and occupied the Suez Canal Zone. But Eisenhower was an advocate of
decolonisation, and he immediately and strongly opposed the invasion. Eden, who faced domestic pressure from his party to take action as well as thought terms of stopping the decline of British influence in the
Middle East and, following the
Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990, asked, "who can now claim that Eden was wrong?" . Such arguments turned mostly on whether, as a matter of policy, the Suez operation was fundamentally flawed or whether, as such "revisionists" thought, the lack of American support conveyed the impression that the West was divided and weak.
Anthony Nutting, who resigned as a Foreign Office Minister over Suez, expressed the former view in 1967, the year of the Arab-Israeli
Six-Day War, when he wrote that "we had sown the wind of bitterness and we were to reap the whirlwind of revenge and rebellion" . Conversely,
D. R. Thorpe, another of Eden's biographers, suggested that had the Suez venture succeeded, "there would almost certainly have been no Middle East war in 1967, and probably no
Yom Kippur War in 1973 also" .
Health Issues
A medical mishap would change the course of Eden’s life forever. During an operation in 1953 to remove Eden’s gallstones, the surgeon damaged his bile duct. This blunder made Eden vulnerable to recurrent infections and attacks of violent pain and fevers. To overcome this weakness Eden was prescribed the wonder drug of the 1950s -
Benzedrine. Regarded by doctors in the 1950s as a harmless
stimulant, it belongs to the family of drugs called
amphetamines – the illegal drug we now call speed. During this time amphetamines were prescribed and used in a very casual way. Among the
side effects of Benzedrine are
Insomnia, restlessness and mood swings, all of which Eden actually suffered during the Suez Crisis. His health condition is now commonly agreed to have been a part of the reason for the Prime Minister's ill judgment This was a similar offer, in reverse, to that made by Churchill (drawing on a plan devised by
Leo Amery ) in June 1940 . The offer by
Guy Mollet was referred to by Sir
John Colville, Churchill's former private secretary, in his collected diaries,
The Fringes of Power (1985), his having gleaned the information in 1957 from Air Chief Marshal Sir
William Dickson during an air flight (and, according to Colville, after several whiskies and soda) . Mollet's request for Union with Britain was rejected by Eden, but the additional possibility of France joining the
British Commonwealth was considered, although similarly rejected. Colville noted, in respect of Suez, that Eden and his Foreign Secretary
Selwyn Lloyd "felt still more beholden to the French on account of this offer" From 1945–1973, Eden was
Chancellor of the
University of Birmingham,
England.
On a trip to the United States in 1976-1977 to spend Christmas and New Year with
Averell and
Pamela Harriman, his health rapidly deteriorated. At his family's request,
James Callaghan arranged for an
RAF plane that was already in America to divert to
Miami to fly him home. The Earl of Avon died from
liver cancer in
Salisbury in 1977 at the age of 79; born in the year of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee, he thus died in the year of Queen Elizabeth II's Silver Jubilee. Eden's papers are housed at the
University of Birmingham Special Collections
(External Link
)
Eden's surviving son,
Nicholas Eden (1930–1985), known as Viscount Eden until 1977, was also a politician and was a minister in the
Thatcher government until his premature death from
AIDS at the age of 54.
Anthony Eden is buried in the country churchyard at Alvediston, just 3 miles upstream from 'Rose Bower' at the source of the River Ebble.
Character and speaking style
Anthony Eden was always a particularly cultured appearance, well-mannered and good-looking. This gave him huge popular support throughout his political life, but some contemporaries felt that he was merely a superficial person lacking any deeper convictions. That view was enforced by his very
pragmatic appproach to politics.
Sir Oswald Mosley, for example, said that he never understood why Eden was so strongly pushed by the
Tory party, while he felt that Eden´s abilities were very much inferior to those of
Harold Macmillan and
Oliver Stanley. Also,
Secretary of State Dean Acheson regarded him as a quite old-fashioned amateur in politics typical of the
British Establishment. only to regain his temper within a few minutes
.
Eden in popular culture
As Secretary of State for War in 1940, Eden authorised the setting-up of the
Local Defence Volunteers (soon renamed the Home Guard). In the film of the TV sitcom
Dad's Army, the (fictional) Walmington-on-Sea platoon is formed in response to Eden's radio broadcast. The debonair
Sergeant Wilson is often said to resemble Eden, something he takes enormous pride in.
Eden appears as a character in
James P. Hogan's science-fiction novel
The Proteus Operation.
Eden appears as a character in the 2008 play
Never So Good – portrayed as a hysterical, pill-addicted wreck. He is shown being overwhelmed by the chaos of the
Suez Crisis and eventually forced out of office by his
Conservative Party colleagues, at the urging of the
American government.
Eden is mentioned in the 1993 film
The Remains of the Day when
Anthony Hopkins´s character mentions that Eden has also been a guest at Darlington Hall.
Eden is also mentioned in a song by
The Kinks, "She's Bought a Hat Like Princess Marina" from the 1969 album
Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire).
The Eden Government
Changes
December 1955 - Rab Butler succeeds Harry Crookshank as Lord Privy Seal and Leader of the House of Commons. Harold Macmillan succeeds Butler as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Selwyn Lloyd succeeds Macmillan as Foreign Secretary. Sir Walter Monckton succeeds Lloyd as Minister of Defence. Iain Macleod succeeds Monckton as Minister of Labour and National Service. Lord Selkirk succeeds Lord Woolton as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. The Minister of Public Works, Patrick Buchan-Hepburn, enters the Cabinet. The Minister of Pensions and National Insurance leaves the Cabinet upon Peake's retirement.
October 1956: Sir Walter Monckton becomes Paymaster-General. Antony Henry Head succeeds Monckton as Minister of Defence.
Eden's initial cabinet is remarkable for the fact that 10 out of the original 18 members were Old Etonians: Eden, Salisbury, Crookshank, Macmillan, Home, Stuart, Thorneycroft, Heathcoat Amory, Sandys and Peake were all educated at Eton.
The Grey-Eden connection
Charles Grey, 1st Earl Grey = Elizabeth Grey
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Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey William Grey
Prime Minister = Maria Shireff
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Georgina Plowden = Sir William Grey
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Sir William Eden = Sybil Grey
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Anthony Eden
Prime Minister
Further Information
Get more info on 'Anthony Eden'.
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