Alec Douglas-Home

Alexander Frederick Douglas-Home, Baron Home of the Hirsel,  (; 2 July 1903 – 9 October 1995) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1963 to 1964. He was better known as Alec Douglas-Home.The word ""Home" in his name is pronounced "Hume".

Home was a Member of Parliament and a junior official (a Parliamentary Private Secretary) when Neville Chamberlain went to Munich to meet Adolf Hitler in 1938. He was present at the main meetings between Hitler and Chamberlain. Later in life, he was appointed by Harold Macmillan as Foreign Secretary in 1960–1963, and again in Edward Heath's government from 1970 to 1974.

Home's name and title changed a few times during his life. Born as Alexander Frederick Douglas-Home, he became Lord Dunglass when his father became the Earl of Home. Dunglass is a junior title, that is, a lower title which is held by the eldest son. When his father died Alec became the 14th Earl of Home. He also became Baron Douglas in the peerage of the United Kingdom (that was also a junior title).

 Leader of Party and Prime Minister 
When he was chosen as Leader of the Conservative Party after Harold Macmillan retired, he knew it would be difficult to lead a government from the House of Lords. So he renounced his title, four days after becoming Prime Minister.Hurd, Douglas 2004. Home, Alexander Frederick Douglas-, fourteenth Earl of Home and Baron Home of the Hirsel (1903–1995), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, accessed 14 April 2012 Boyd, Francis, and Norman Shrapnel. "Stumbling into Number 10", The Guardian, 10 October 1995, p. 15 Once he renounced the title, he became simply Sir Alec Douglas-Home. He had been made a Knight of the Thistle in 1962. Finally, after he lost the election of 1964, he was given a life peerage, titled 'Baron Home of the Hirsel'. That title is not hereditary but, after his death, his son became the 15th Earl of Home.

Rapidly, after the title was renounced, arrangements were made. The safe Conservative seat of Kinross and Western Perthshire was vacant, and Douglas-Home was adopted as his party's candidate. Parliament was due to meet on 24 October after the summer recess, but its return was postponed until 12 November pending the by-election.Pike, E Royston 1968. Britain's Prime Ministers. London: Odhams, p464.  For twenty days Douglas-Home was Prime Minister while a member of neither house of Parliament, a situation without modern precedent.Technically, no Prime Minister, or any other politician, is a Member of Parliament between the dissolution of one Parliament and the election of another. Home was unusal in being a PM for nearly two weeks while Parliament was sitting while he was without a seat in either chamber. "Dissolution Arrangements" , House of Commons, February 2010, accessed 14 April 2012 He won the by-election with a majority of 9,328.

 Prime Minister 1963–1964 
A former peer as Prime Minister was open to attack, and Douglas-Home was attacked by the Labour Party leader Harold Wilson. Wilson attacked the new prime minister as "an elegant anachronism". He said that nobody from Douglas-Home's background knew the problems of ordinary families. In particular, Wilson asked how "a scion of an effete establishment" could lead the technological revolution which was needed. His premiership was ended by the general election of 1964, which put in the Labour Party with Harold Wilson as Prime Minister.

 Foreign Affairs 19701974 
When the Conservatives returned to power in 1970, Home was made Foreign Secretary. He was a considerable success in this role. His speeches explained the world situation, which was then at the height of the Cold War.


In east–west relations, Douglas-Home spoke against the Soviet Union and its spying activities in Britain. In September 1971 he expelled 105 Soviet diplomats, who were spying. Although this was an extraordinary incident, Gromyko was realistic enough to keep a working relationship with the British government. Within days of the expulsions from London he and Douglas-Home met and discussed the Middle East and disarmament.

 Assessment 
The Times considered that his reputation rested not on his brief premiership, but on his two spells as Foreign Secretary: "He brought to the office ... his capacity for straight talking, for toughness towards the Soviet Union and for firmness (sometimes interpreted as a lack of sympathy) towards the continents of Africa and Asia. But he brought something else as well: an unusual degree of international respect".Obituary

 References 

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