Douglas-Home, Sir Alexander Frederick, 14th Earl of Home, Baron Home of the Hirsel

Douglas-Home, Sir Alexander Frederick, 14th Earl of Home, Baron Home of the Hirsel (b. 2 July 1903, d. 9 Oct. 1995). British Prime Minister 1963–4 Born in London, educated at Eton and Oxford. He was elected as Conservative MP for South Lanark in 1931, and, in 1937, became Neville Chamberlain's Parliamentary Private Secretary. He accompanied Chamberlain on the visit to Hitler which led to the Munich Agreement. He lost his seat in 1945, regained it in 1950, but left the House of Commons in 1951 for the House of Lords, to succeed his father as Earl of Home. In 1951–5, he was Secretary of State for Scotland, presenting the Conservative case for union against the growing strength of nationalism there. In 1955, under Eden, he became Secretary of State for Commonwealth relations, holding the post until he was made Foreign Secretary by Macmillan in 1960.

In 1963, he was a surprise choice to succeed Macmillan as Prime Minister, partly because the latter wanted to prevent Butler from succeeding him. It was considered inappropriate for the Prime Minister to be in the House of Lords, so he renounced his peerage and was elected to the Commons again, an act that had only recently become possible following a campaign by Tony Benn. His short government is remembered for its policy of monetary expansion, under Reginald Maudling as Chancellor of the Exchequer, and for accepting the Robbins Report on the expansion of higher education. He took over the leadership of the Conservative Party when it was tired from twelve years in office and suffered from bad opinion-poll ratings. He managed to increase the party's prospects considerably, yet ultimately his old-fashioned, aristocratic appearance stood little chance against the appeal of the young and innovative profile of the Labour leader, Harold Wilson. He served again in the Cabinet, as Heath's Foreign Secretary (1970–4), and then returned to the House of Lords.