Anthony Eden
Anthony Eden was a Conservative politician, member of the Parliament, and prime minister of the United Kingdom.
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History
Eden volunteered for the British Army during World War 1. He was promoted into the officer corp and, by war's end, held the title of brigade major.
In 1922, he unsuccessfully ran for a seat in the Parliament as a Conservative. He however did win a seat in the December 1923 snap elections.
Eden first entered government in 1931, as part of the MacDonald coalition government. He then served as Baldwin's foreign secretary. Under Chamberlain however, he and the foreign office were often circumvented to enact a foreign policy of appeasement. Eden resigned in protest of the re-establishment of normal diplomatic relations with Italy, and in the context that Chamberlain had decided to not intervene in the Anschluss.
Churchill briefly appointed Eden as secretary of state for war in 1940, but soon after restored him to the foreign office. After the Conservatives lost the June 1945 general elections, Eden emerged as Churchill's preferred successor. Eden however remained as his deputy throughout the Conservative opposition and into Churchill's second government, until Churchill finally resigned in 1955.
Eden was toppled by the Suez Crisis. American and UN diplomatic pressure forced him to halt the invasion of Egypt. In particular, the U.S. barred the IMF from granting the UK a loan and furthermore threatened to sell off all holdings in pound sterling. Eden resigned both as PM and from his seat in the Parliament.
Eden was created earl of Avon in 1961 and entered the House of Lords.
He died in 1977.