Eden, (Robert) Anthony

Eden, (Robert) Anthony (1897–1977),British Conservative politician who became foreign secretary in Churchill's coalition government in December 1940.

Eden fought in the First World War, ending it as the youngest brigade major in the British Army. In 1923 he became MP for Warwick and Leamington, a seat he held until 1957 when, as prime minister, he resigned and was subsequently raised to the peerage as the Earl of Avon.

A man of great charm and elegance, Eden was also extremely hardworking and his political ability soon brought him high office. In December 1935 he became foreign secretary in Baldwin's third government. However, when Chamberlain succeeded Baldwin in 1937 Eden soon found that while they both agreed that Hitler and Mussolini had to be appeased, in the sense of ‘bringing peace, settling strife, etc.’, he was not in accord with Chamberlain's methods or timing. In February 1938 he resigned, and in the House of Commons debate which followed the Munich agreement that September abstained from voting. But though Churchill was later to link their names together as if they had been pursuing a common cause, Eden was not at that time a supporter of Churchill—indeed, they were rivals as possible candidates for the prime ministership had Chamberlain been forced to step down at that time.

In September 1939 Eden was made secretary of state for the Dominions without a seat in the cabinet. When Churchill became prime minister in May 1940, he was appointed secretary of state for war, a post which carried cabinet rank but no seat in the war cabinet. Nevertheless, Eden's influence was considerable and during that critical year he made many decisions which, if they had been wrong, could have been catastrophic. He was a strong supporter of Dill, Brooke, and Wavell, when Churchill was less certain of their talents as generals. Wavell's early victories in the Middle East were a personal vindication of Eden's judgement and when, in December 1940, he became foreign secretary with a seat in the war cabinet it was soon accepted that if anything happened to Churchill it would be Eden who would succeed him. During the war he travelled widely, visiting Moscow several times and he accompanied Churchill to all the major conferences with the exception of Casablanca (see SYMBOL), where foreign secretaries were excluded.

Despite the cordiality of their remarks about one another in their respective memoirs, the relationship between Eden and Churchill was not always a harmonious one. They clashed in particular over the Polish government-in-exile and de Gaulle and the Free French, Eden championing the former against the USSR and the latter against the Americans. He objected strongly to the Morgenthau Plan, a stance which led to a public row with his prime minister; and on one occasion, in 1942, it seems that he seriously considered trying to oust Churchill. But after the war Churchill said that Eden had always been his mainstay. See also diplomacy.

Bibliography

Barker, E. , Churchill and Eden at War (London, 1978).
Eden, A. , Memoirs: The Reckoning (London, 1965).
James, R. R. , Anthony Eden (London, 1987).