born June 12, 1897, Windlestone, Durham, Eng.
died Jan. 14, 1977, Alvediston, Wiltshire
British politician.
After combat service in World War I, he was elected to the House of Commons in 1923. He became foreign secretary in 1935 but resigned in 1938 to protest Neville Chamberlain 's policy of appeasement. He held the post again in 194045 and in 195155, and he helped to settle the Anglo-Iranian oil dispute and arranged an armistice in Indochina. Succeeding Winston Churchill as prime minister in 1955, he attempted to ease international tension by welcoming to Britain Nikita Khrushchev and Nikolay A. Bulganin of the Soviet Union. His fall began when Egypt seized the Suez Canal and he supported an Anglo-French intervention in Egypt (see Suez Crisis ). He resigned in 1957, citing ill health.
Eden, photograph by Yousuf Karsh
© Karsh from Rapho/Photo Researchers