“Shall we be caught between a hostile (or at least less and less friendly) America and a boastful, powerful”
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Harold Macmillan
Maurice Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton was a British statesman and Conservative politician who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1957 to 1963. Nicknamed "Supermac", he was known for his pragmatism, wit, and unflappability.
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politics · Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1957 to 1963 · politician · diplomat · military personnel · leader · also Harold Macmillan, Maurice Harold Macmillan, Lord Stockton, Earl of Stockton, 1st Earl of Stockton, Supermac
Born 10 February 1894 · Died 29 December 1986 · Q128985
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2026· 8 entries
“there is no reason for us to help the Americans with Cuba”
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“The Russian success in launching the satellite has been something equivalent to Pearl Harbour. The American cockiness is shaken....President is under severe attack for the first time...The atmosphere is now such that almost anything might be decided, however revolutionary”
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“I held the Tory Party for the weekend, it was all I intended to do”
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“s mental and physical powers visibly decayed. Macmillan was one of the few ministers brave enough to tell Churchill to his face that it was time for him to retire. Philippe Pétain, a successful French general in the First World War, had become senile while heading the pro-German Vichy Regime. During the Second World War Macmillan”
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“I christened the two personalities the Emperor of the East and the Emperor of the West and indeed it was rather like a meeting of the late Roman empire”
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“We, my dear Crossman, are the Greeks in the American empire. You will find the Americans much as the Greeks found the Romans—great big, vulgar bustling people, more vigorous than we are and also more idle, with more unspoiled virtues, but also more corrupt. We must run AFHQ (Allied Forces Headquarters) as the Greek slaves ran the operations of the Emperor Claudius”
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Public attention spiked: 4,706 Wikipedia readers in one day, 3.2× the usual 1,483, with 1 article edits. Editors noted: External links Added portal
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2018· 1 entry
The Guardian: Hugh Gaitskell widow criticised Harold Macmillan in letter
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1995· 1 entry
By the Holtzbrinck Publishing Group; the imprint persists
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1986· 6 entries
Died 1986-12-29.
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Awarded Grand Cross of the Order of Isabella the Catholic (1986).
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“So what did they do? They solemnly asked Parliament, not to approve or disapprove, but to 'take note' of our decision. Perhaps some of the older ones among you will remember that popular song: 'She didn't say "Yes", she didn't say "No". She didn't say "stay", she didn't say "go". She wanted to climb, but dreaded to fall, she bided her time and clung to the wall.”
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“I rather enjoy patronage. I take a lot of trouble over it. At least it makes all those years of reading Trollope seem worthwhile.”
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“I cannot forget the twenty-five years when I sat for a Tees-side constituency. I cannot forget those terrible times when some 17,000 out of 25,000 able-bodied men in my constituency walked the streets looking for jobs.”
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“The only answer to Socialism was to build up by every means a property-owning democracy. Socialism promised to build up a great pauper State by its schemes for State relief, nationalization and doles, while the Conservative Party promised to build up a great property-owning, thrifty, and industrious State.”
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1984· 2 entries
Won Four Freedoms Award – Freedom Medal in Middelburg (1984).
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Received the Freedom medal from the Roosevelt Study Center
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1980· 1 entry
“The Last Edwardian at Number Ten”
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1977· 1 entry
And would often stay at the club when he had to stay in London overnight
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1976· 1 entry
Won Benjamin Franklin Medal (1976).
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1964· 1 entry
Although Macmillan himself had reservations and had asked civil servants to draw up plans for extra road building), and argues that had he remained in power Macmillan would never have allowed inflation to get as far out
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1961· 3 entries
And, amongst other factors, this caused the government to lose popularity and a series of by-elections in March 1962, of which the most famous was Orpington on 14 March
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Had made the decision to give independence to Nigeria, Tanganyika, Kenya, Nyasaland (as Malawi) and Northern Rhodesia (as Zambia)
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And Macmillan acquiesced to the dissolution of the Central African Federation by the end of 1963
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1960· 4 entries
Waited until July 1961 to formally make the application, for he feared the reaction of the Conservative Party backbenchers, the farmers' lobby and the populist newspaper chain owned by the right-wing Canadian milliona
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Career landmark: Chancellor of the University of Oxford (1960–1987).
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Sierra Leone and Tanganyika in 1961, Trinidad and Tobago and Uganda in 1962, and Kenya in 1963
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In a campaign masterminded by Hugh Trevor-Roper, and held this office for the rest of his life, frequently presiding over college events, making speeches and tirelessly raising funds
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1959· 4 entries
Appointed Iain Macleod as Colonial Secretary
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Career landmark: member of the 42nd Parliament of the United Kingdom (1959–1964).
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Campaign: 1959 general election.
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Macmillan's premiership suffered a series of major setbacks
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1958· 1 entry
By the cartoonist Victor Weisz, who intended to suggest that Macmillan was trying set himself up as a "Superman" figure
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1957· 4 entries
And efforts would be made to sample opinion amongst peers and constituency activists
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Career landmark: Leader of the Conservative Party (1957–1963).
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Career landmark: Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1957–1963).
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Following the Suez Crisis, Macmillan succeeded him as prime minister and Leader of the Conservative Party
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1955· 3 entries
Career landmark: Chancellor of the Exchequer (1955–1957).
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Career landmark: Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (1955–1955).
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Career landmark: member of the 41st Parliament of the United Kingdom (1955–1959).
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1954· 2 entries
Career landmark: Minister of Defence (1954–1955).
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Career landmark: Secretary of State for Defence (1954–1955).
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1953· 1 entry
Largely out of the fear that the white population of Southern Rhodesia (modern Zimbabwe) might want to join South Africa, which had since 1948 had been led by Afrikaner nationalists distinctly unfriendly to Britain
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1951· 3 entries
Macmillan became Minister of Housing & Local Government under Churchill, who entrusted him with fulfilling the pledge to build 300,000 houses per year (up from the previous target of 200,000 a year), made in response to
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Was unable to have children of her own and the couple adopted two sons
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Career landmark: member of the 40th Parliament of the United Kingdom (1951–1955).
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1950· 1 entry
Career landmark: member of the 39th Parliament of the United Kingdom (1950–1951).
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1949· 1 entry
Career landmark: Representative of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (1949–1951).
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1947· 1 entry
The US would take over Britain's role as "protector" of Greece and Turkey, to keep the Soviets out of the Mediterranean, the so-called "Truman Doctrine"
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1945· 3 entries
Career landmark: Secretary of State for Air (1945–1945).
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As she had been nursing the seat for five years
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Career landmark: member of the 38th Parliament of the United Kingdom (1945–1950).
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1942· 3 entries
Career landmark: Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies (1942–1942).
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As British Minister Resident at Algiers in the Mediterranean, recently liberated in Operation Torch
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In his own words "leaving a madhouse to enter a mausoleum"
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1936· 2 entries
Macmillan proposed the creation of a cross-party forum of antifascists to create democratic unity but his ideas were rejected by the leadership of both the Labour and Conservative parties
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Harold and his brother Daniel took control of the firm, with the former focusing on the political and non-fiction side of the business
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1935· 2 entries
Career landmark: member of the 37th Parliament of the United Kingdom (1935–1945).
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Was one of 15 MPs to write "Planning for Employment"
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1933· 1 entry
Was the sole author of "Reconstruction: A Plea for a National Unity"
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1931· 2 entries
Career landmark: member of the 36th Parliament of the United Kingdom (1931–1935).
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The stress caused by that may have contributed to Macmillan's nervous breakdown in 1931.
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1929· 3 entries
Lady Dorothy began a lifelong affair with the Conservative politician Robert Boothby, an arrangement that scandalised high society but remained unknown to the general public
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In the face of high regional unemployment
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Regained it in 1931, soon after which he spoke out against the high rate of unemployment in Stockton
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1928· 1 entry
Macmillan was described by his political hero, and now Parliamentary colleague, David Lloyd George, as a "born rebel"
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1927· 1 entry
Four MPs, including Boothby and Macmillan, published a short book advocating radical measures
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1924· 1 entry
Career landmark: member of the 34th Parliament of the United Kingdom (1924–1929).
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1920· 1 entry
Joined the family publishing firm Macmillan Publishers as a junior partner
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1919· 1 entry
As aide-de-camp (ADC) to Victor Cavendish, 9th Duke of Devonshire, then Governor General of Canada, and his future father-in-law
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1912· 1 entry
Where he joined many political societies
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1894· 2 entries
Born 1894-02-10.
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Maurice Harold Macmillan was born on 10 February 1894 at 52 Cadogan Place in Belgravia, London, to Maurice Crawford Macmillan, a publisher, and the former Helen (Nellie) Artie Tarleton Belles, an artist and socialite from Spencer, Indiana.
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1860· 1 entry
“I have long realised that the great figures in my old party have long ago given up Toryism and have adopted Manchester Liberalism of about 1860.”
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1851· 1 entry
Many politicians of our time are in the habit of laying it down as a self-evident proposition that no people ought to be free until they are fit to use their freedom
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