Macmillan, Harold

Macmillan, Harold

 in full Maurice Harold Macmillan, 1st earl of Stockton, Viscount Macmillan of Ovenden

(born Feb. 10, 1894, London, Eng.—died Dec. 29, 1986, Birch Grove, Sussex) British prime minister (1957–63). He served in the House of Commons (1924–29, 1931–64) and held posts in Winston Churchill's wartime coalition government. After the war he served as minister of housing (1951–54), minister of defense (1954), foreign secretary (1955), and chancellor of the Exchequer (1955–57). In 1957 he became prime minister and leader of the Conservative Party. He worked to improve relations with the U.S. and visited Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev in 1959. Domestically, Macmillan supported Britain's postwar social programs. His government began to lose popularity in 1961 because of a wage freeze and other deflationary measures and a Soviet espionage scandal involving John Profumo, secretary of state for war. He championed membership in the European Economic Community, though Britain's membership application was vetoed in 1963 by Charles de Gaulle. Demands for a new party leader led to his resignation in 1963. He wrote a series of memoirs (1966–75) and served as chair (1963–74) of his family's publishing house, Macmillan & Co.

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Macmillan, Harold 

Born Feb. 10, 1894, in London. British statesman. The son of a powerful publisher.

Macmillan was educated at Eton and at Oxford University. He commenced his political career in 1924, when he was elected as a member of the ConservativeParty to the House of Commons. From 1940 to 1945 he occupied a number of posts in the government of W. Churchill. When the Conservatives returned to power after the general election of 1951, he served as minister of housing (1951-54), defense (1954-55), foreign affairs (1955), and finance (1955-57). After the debacle of the Suez Crisis (in Russian, the Anglo-Franco-Israeli aggression against Egypt) and the retirement of A. Eden, he became prime minister in 1957, remaining in this post until 1963. In 1964, Macmillan left active politics and headed a major publishing firm.