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Press, 18 October 1978, Page 5

Mr Harold Macmillan, now in his 80’s was one of the great statesmen of modern British conservation. This is the story of his career.

Mr Macmillan was bom on February 10, 1894. His grandfather was a Scottish crofter who later founded one of the world’s great publishing houses. Mr Macmillan went to the exclusive Eton public school, the equally-famous Balliol College, Oxford, and then became an officer in the Grenadier Guards. Wounded in Action He served in France in the Great War and was wounded three times. In 1920 he married Lady Dorothy Evelyn Cavendish, a daughter of the ninth Duke of Devonshire, whose aide-de-camp he was in 1919-20 when the duke was GovernorGeneral of Canada. He returned home to take over editorial direction of the family publishing business. , Mr Macmillan entered Parliament in 1924 as Conservative member for Stockton-on-Tees, a depressed northern area. He was defeated in 1929, regained the seat in 1931 and held it until 1945. Colourful Language It was at Stockton-on-Tees, forceful personality asserted itself. His command of telling phrases once led him to describe the then Conservative front bench as “a collection of extinct volcanoes.” As a Tory "rebel” he was strongly critical of the government in the period of industrial depression between the wars. Independent Spirit His political rebelliousness was far from quelled when the Second World War broke out. He had refused the Conservative whip in 1936 and sat for a year as an independent. Chui-chill recognised his potential and it was generally considered he did a first-rate job as British resident Minister at Allied Headquarters in North-west Africa between 1942 and 1945. At a by-election in November, 1945, he was returned for Bromley with a majority of 5557 in a three-cornered fight. In the short-lived caretaker government of 1945 he was Air Secretary. In the same year he took the defeat of his party as a sign the Conservatives had failed to move with the times.

New Look for Party He played a big part in producing a charter which outlined the new Conservative policy on industry. A shrewd Churchillian move, when the Conservatives regained power in 1951, was to make Mr Macmillan Minister of Housing.

There, he confidently set himself a target of 300,000 houses a year and it was with a triumphant smile that he himself painted part of the 310,000 th house on New Year’s Eve, 1952.

He was successively Minister of Defence, Foreign Secretary, and Chancellor of the Exchequer.

As Chancellor he introduced the premium bonds scheme which aroused controversy. and also turned with

characteristic zest to fighting the battle of inflation. At the time of Sir Anthony Eden’s resignation it was said Mr Macmillan owed his premiership chiefly to the vocal anti-Butlerism of the party’s Right, and to the powerful influence of the Marquis of Salisbury, with whom in later years he did not see eye-to-eye. Suez Aftermath It was in January, 1957, that he succeeded Sir Anthony Eden as Prime Minister, in the wake of the Suez crisis. When he went into the House of Commons for the first time after his appointment the Opposition cheers for Mr Butler were louder than the Government cheers for Mr Macmillan, In July, 1962—during an economic crisis—Mr Macmillan carried out a sensational purge, in which seven Cabinet Ministers were dismissed, and be became known widely as “Mac, the Knife.” The purge was reported to have crushed a Cabinet rebellion against Mr Macmillan’s intention to have Britain join the European Economic Community. By 1963, after six years as Prime Minister, he had enjoyed the longest stretch of unbroken premiership by a Conservative this century. Mr Asquith, the Liberal, held office for eight years from 1908 to 1916. The Labour leader, Earl Attlee, was premier for six years and three months.

Recognition of Age At the Conservative Party conference at Brighton two years ago, Mr Macmillan made the famous speech in which he said he could not promise to be at the helm throughout the following 10 years.

“Like one of Shakespeare’s characters,” he said, “I do not intend ‘to live after my flame lacks oil,, to be the snuff for younger spirits’.” Mr Macmillan’s last year in office gave him two serious reverses and one signal success.

His bid to make Britain a member of the European Common Market failed early in 1963 when President de Gaulle of France vetoed it-