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.