BC-MS

Title: Harold Macmillan fonds. -- 1952. -- 0.5 cm of textual material

Biographical Sketch: Maurice Harold Macmillan was born on February 10, 1894 in London, England, son of an American-born mother and the grandson of a founder of the London publishing house of Macmillan & Co. He was educated at Balliol College, Oxford. During World War I, Macmillan distinguished himself in combat and after the war he entered politics. He sat in the House of Commons from 1924 to 1929 and from 1931 to 1964. When Winston Churchill formed his World War II coalition government (May 1940), Macmillan was appointed parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Supply.

At the end of the war in Europe, Macmillan was Secretary of State for Air in Churchill's "caretaker" government (May-July 1945). After the Conservatives regained power in 1951, he was appointed Minister of Housing and Local Government (October 1951) and Minister of Defence (October 1954) by Churchill and then served as Foreign Secretary (April-December 1955) and Chancellor of the Exchequer (1955-1957) under Sir Anthony Eden. Macmillan was appointed prime minister on January 10, 1957, following the resignation of Eden, and was elected leader of the Conservative Party 12 days later. He led the Conservative Party to a resounding victory in the 1959 general election by effectively contrasting Britain's prewar unemployment with its postwar full employment under the slogan "You've never had it so good."

On October 18, 1963 Macmillan resigned as prime minister of Great Britain. In September 1964 Macmillan resigned from the House of Commons. He then began producing his memoirs: Winds of Change, 1914-1939 (1966); The Blast of War, 1939-1945 (1967); Tides of Fortune, 1945-1955 (1969); Riding the Storm, 1956-1959 (1971); Pointing the Way, 1959-1961 (1972); At the End of the Day, 1961-63 (1973); and The Past Masters: Politics and Politicians, 1906-1939 (1975). Macmillan was created an earl in 1984. On December 29, 1986 Macmillan died in Birch Grove, Sussex.

Source: Britannica Online.

Scope and Content: This fonds consists of a letter dated December 23, 1952 from Harold Macmillan to Lord Beaverbrook thanking him for his support in the newspapers.

Notes:

Title: Title based on name of creator.

Access: Unrestricted.


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