Liberal prime minister who led Britain in the later war and argued for moderation towards Germany at the peace conference
Born in Manchester to Welsh parents, he made his name as a radical Liberal orator. As chancellor of the exchequer he introduced the 1909 People’s Budget and the National Insurance Act, laying foundations of the welfare state. After serving as minister of munitions and secretary for war he became prime minister in December 1916. At the Paris Peace Conference he opposed reparations that would wreck the German economy and sought to check French dominance. In 1921 he concluded the Anglo-Soviet Trade Agreement and negotiated the creation of the Irish Free State, but resigned in 1922 when the Conservatives left the coalition. In 1936 he met Hitler and praised him. He died in 1945.
Career timeline
- 1890MP for Caernarvon Boroughs
- 1908–1915Chancellor of the Exchequer
- 1915–1916Minister of Munitions
- 1916Secretary of State for War
- 1916–1922Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
- 1919British representative at the Paris Peace Conference
A British diplomat of war and decolonisation
At the 1945 San Francisco Conference, the foreign ministers of the four sponsoring Allied powers took turns chairing the plenary sessions, with Eden among them.
Anthony Eden was a British Conservative statesman whose First World War service reinforced his commitment to the League of Nations and collective security. He served three times as foreign secretary amid the rise of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, and during the Second World War acted as Winston Churchill’s principal diplomatic lieutenant in negotiations with the Soviet Union and the other Allies over the postwar order. Representing Britain at Yalta and at the 1945 San Francisco Conference, he helped shape the emerging international institutions, yet as prime minister he pursued the Suez invasion, exposing both the limits of British imperial power and Britain’s dependence on the United States.
Career timeline
- 1915–1919British Army officer, Western Front
- 1923–1957MP for Warwick and Leamington
- 1931–1934Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs
- 1935–1938Foreign Secretary
- 1940–1945Foreign Secretary and War Cabinet minister
- 1945British representative at Yalta and the San Francisco Conference
- 1951–1955Foreign Secretary
- 1955–1957Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Conservative Party leader
