Alec Douglas-Home

The Right Honourable Alexander Frederick Douglas-Home, Baron Home of the Hirsel, KT,1 PC (2 July 1903–9 October 1995), 14th Earl of Home from 1951 to 1963, was a British politician, and served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom for a year from October 1963 to October 1964. As such, he held a series of records: He was the last member of the House of Lords to be appointed Prime Minister, the only Prime Minister to resign from the Lords and contest a by-election to enter the House of Commons and, to date, the last Prime Minister to be personally chosen by a British monarch.

Defeat and opposition

Douglas-Home could point to few accomplishments in office. After the Profumo Affair and other problems, the government had been too badly damaged to survive. The October 1964 general election was won by the Labour Party under the new leadership of Harold Wilson, but by a much narrower margin than was expected. It was in this campaign that Home made his most famous remark. Wilson kept gibing that Home was not a man of a people as he was the 14th Earl of Home. Home's response: "As far as the 14th Earl is concerned I suppose that Mr. Wilson, when you come to think of it, is the 14th Mr. Wilson".

Related Topics:
Profumo Affair - October 1964 general election - Labour Party - Harold Wilson

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Home remained leader of the party until his resignation in July of the following year. The resulting leadership election was won by Edward Heath, who defeated Reginald Maudling and Enoch Powell. Over the following six years, Home was notably loyal to Heath, comparing those who questioned his position with impatient gardeners who would keep digging up a tree to gauge its progress by examining its roots. When, in 1970, Heath became prime minister, Home returned to the post of Foreign Secretary which was deemed to suit him so well.

Related Topics:
Edward Heath - Reginald Maudling - Enoch Powell - 1970

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In 1973 Home intimated his intention to retire from Parliament and government at the next general election, but was overtaken by the calling of a snap general election in February 1974. Following the defeat of the Heath government by that of Harold Wilson in 1974, Home retired from front-line politics, standing down from the Commons at the October 1974 election.

Related Topics:
1973 - Snap general election in February 1974 - Harold Wilson - 1974 - October 1974 election

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He was then restored to the House of Lords when he accepted a life peerage, becoming known as Baron Home of the Hirsel (The Hirsel being his family seat in Berwickshire), and continued to appear in the House of Lords into his nineties. To date, Home ranks as the third-longest-lived British Prime Minister, behind James Callaghan and Harold Macmillan. His autobiography, The Way The Wind Blows, was published in 1976. On his death, he was succeeded as Earl of Home by his son, David.

Related Topics:
Life peerage - Baron Home of the Hirsel - Berwickshire - Third-longest-lived British Prime Minister - James Callaghan - Harold Macmillan - 1976

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