biography
| name: |
Home of the Hirsel, Baron
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formerly Sir Alec Douglas-Home, originally Alexander Frederick Douglas-Home, 14th Earl of Home
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pronunciation:
[hyoom]
| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1903–95)
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| biography:
| British statesman and prime minister (1963–4), born in London, UK. He studied at Oxford, became a Conservative MP in 1931, and was Chamberlain's secretary during the negotiations with Hitler and beyond (1937–40). He became minister of state at the Scottish Office (1951–5), succeeded to the peerage as 14th Earl (1951), and was Commonwealth Relations secretary (1955–60) and foreign secretary (1960–3). After Macmillan's resignation, he astonished everyone by emerging as premier. He made history by renouncing his peerage and fighting a by-election, during which, although premier, he was technically a member of neither House. After the 1964 defeat by the Labour Party, he was leader of the Opposition until replaced in 1965 by Edward Heath, in whose 1970–4 government he was foreign secretary. In 1974 he was made a life peer. |
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