Halifax, Lord

Halifax, Lord (1881–1959),British Conservative politician born the Hon. Edward Wood, fourth son of the second viscount Halifax. He became Lord Irwin on his appointment as Viceroy of India (1926–31) and inherited his father's title in 1934. He supported appeasement and tried to forward it when he met Hitler (and Goebbels, to whom he took a liking) in November 1937, and he continued to pursue it when he became foreign secretary in February 1938. But in September his attitude changed, and to Chamberlain's consternation he opposed Hitler's Bad Godesberg terms (seeMunich agreement). Later he described the Munich agreement as a ‘hideous choice of evils’, supported rearmament, and negotiated the guarantee of Poland (see Poland, Guarantee of). Such was his stature that he was Chamberlain's—and King George VI's—first choice as prime minister in May 1940. But he refused the post: he was no military strategist and probably calculated he could restrain the impulsive Churchill better by serving under him. In December 1940 Churchill, politically strengthened by early victories in the Western Desert campaigns, was able to remove him, and he was appointed British ambassador to Washington, though he remained a member of the war cabinet. Initially, the Americans did not care for his aristocratic mien, nor his self-confessed anti-Semitism, but once the USA was at war he became both popular and successful. He was granted an earldom in 1944 and remained at his post until 1946.

Bibliography

Roberts, A. , The Holy Fox: A Biography of Lord Halifax (London, 1991).