Alec Douglas-Home
Alec Douglas-Home, also known as Sir Alec Douglas-Home, was a British Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from October 1963 to October 1964. He was known for his efforts to modernize the Conservative Party and for his role in foreign affairs, particularly during the Cold War era. His brief tenure as Prime Minister was marked by efforts to address economic challenges and international relations.
3 Key excerpts on "Alec Douglas-Home"
eBook - ePub- Robert Pearce, Graham Goodlad(Authors)
- 2013(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...13 Alec Douglas-Home (1903–1995) Prime Minister: October 1963–October 1964 ‘Lord Home is clearly a man who represents the old, governing class at its best … He is not ambitious in the sense of wanting to scheme for power, although not foolish enough to resist honour when it comes to him.’ Harold Macmillan, memorandum on his successor, 15 October 1963. 1 With the solitary exception of Arthur Balfour, Sir Alec Douglas-Home was the only twentieth-century Prime Minister to occupy a more junior Cabinet post after leaving Number 10. He served as Foreign Secretary in 1970–74 under Edward Heath, who had once been a member of his own Cabinet. Heath later recalled inviting Douglas-Home to attend the funeral of the former French President, Charles de Gaulle, along with Anthony Eden, Harold Macmillan and Harold Wilson. ‘“Oh, I don’t think so, thank you,” he replied. “With all those former Prime Ministers you won’t need your Foreign Secretary.” “But you are a former Prime Minister yourself, you know,” I reminded him. He laughed, almost giggled, as he said: “Oh, so I am. I’d quite forgotten.”’ 2 Although there is no need to take Douglas-Home’s apparent memory lapse seriously, the story illustrates his essential modesty and charm. It also hints at the brevity of his premiership – just two days short of a year – and the unexpected nature of his elevation to the highest office. He was the most surprising post-war occupant of Downing Street: an aristocrat who, according to the discontented former minister, Iain Macleod, reached Number 10 as the result of shadowy manipulation by a tightly knit ‘magic circle’ of Old Etonian Tory grandees. Widely derided as out of touch with the modern world, Douglas-Home’s overriding concern was with preparations for the 1964 general election, in which he was narrowly defeated by Harold Wilson’s Labour Party. The rise to the premiership Douglas-Home was the heir to substantial estates in the Scottish border country...
- Keith Layborn(Author)
- 2002(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...Sir Alec (Alexander Frederick) Douglas Home 1903–1995 Sir Alec Douglas Home, the fourteenth Earl of Home, became Prime Minister in 1963 by virtue of the fact that the Peerage Act, which only became law on 3 July 1963, permitted him to renounce his title and contest a seat for the House of Commons. Home’s premiership was a brief transition period between the resignation of Harold Macmillan and the emergence of Edward Heath as Leader of the Conservative Party, and represented the last throw of the old ‘grouse-moor image’ of the Conservative Party against the new more radical and modern type of Conservative leader who was to emerge. The Earls of Home (pronounced Hume) owned substantial estates based upon their mansion at Hirsel, near Coldstream in Scotland. Alec Douglas Home was born on 2 July 1903, the eldest son of the thirteenth Earl of Home and Lady Lilian Lambton. He was educated at Ludgrove before entering Eton (at the same time as George Orwell) and then at Christ Church, Oxford. He graduated with a third-class degree in History but distinguished himself at cricket, touring South Africa and Argentina. He had become Lord Dunglass in 1918. For two years from 1927 he spent his time managing the family estates, shooting and fishing. Then he contested and won the South Lanark seat in 1931, representing it from 1931 to 1945, and again from 1950 to 1951, when his father’s death raised him to the House of Lords as the fourteenth Earl of Home. In 1936 he married Elizabeth Alington, the daughter of the headmaster of Eton, later Dean of Durham. By the late 1930s, Home had begun to attract political attention. From 1937 to 1940, he was Parliamentary Private Secretary to Neville Chamberlain, the Prime Minister, and accompanied him to the famous Munich meeting with Hitler in 1939, which led to Hitler securing parts of Czechoslovakia...
eBook - ePub- Mark Dunton(Author)
- 2021(Publication Date)
- Pen & Sword History(Publisher)
...SIR Alec Douglas-Home Born: 2 July 1903 Died: 9 October 1995 Dates in Office: 19 October 1963 – 16 October 1964 Party: Conservative In December 1963, Sir Michael Fraser, Director of the Conservative Research Department asked the Prime Minister, Sir Alec Douglas-Home, if he could let him have some notes on his general philosophy, as these could be helpful for speech writing purposes. Sir Alec duly obliged, and an extract is shown above. What comes across from reading this statement is that the outlook of this Prime Minister was straightforward and inspired by a strong sense of duty and fundamental decency, reflecting clear-sighted thinking. And by common consensus, these were qualities that Douglas-Home, the 14th Earl of Home (who renounced his hereditary title in 1963 so he could sit in the House of Commons) had in strong measure. This is an assessment at variance with the out-of-touch, grouse moor loving, aristocratic caricature which the Leader of the Opposition Harold Wilson was able to pin on him. The only Prime Minister to have held office for less time than Douglas-Home was Andrew Bonar Law. Does this make him another candidate for the unfortunate epithet ‘the least remembered Prime Minister of the twentieth century’? He is certainly in the running for this. However, although he had limited time to make an impression, he had his share of achievements. Sir Alec successfully backed the abolition of resale price maintenance (fixed prices for products) – a significant domestic reform which led to cheaper prices for goods through increased competition. However, his greatest strength was foreign policy (he had served as Commonwealth Secretary and Foreign Secretary before becoming Prime Minister)...
