Editing Alec Douglas-Home (section)

{{Short description|Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1963 to 1964}}
{{Redirect|Douglas-Home|other people with this name|Douglas-Home (surname)}}
{{Featured article}}
{{Use British English|date=January 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2015}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific-prefix    = [[The Right Honourable]]
| name                = The Lord Home of the Hirsel
| honorific-suffix    = {{Post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|KT|PC|JP|DL}}
| image               = Alec Douglas-Home (c1963).jpg
| alt                 = A head and shoulders image of clean shaven, slim, balding man of middle age
| caption             = Portrait, {{Circa|1963}}
| office              = [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom]]
| monarch             = [[Elizabeth II]]
| term_start          = 19 October 1963
| term_end            = 16 October 1964
| predecessor         = [[Harold Macmillan]]
| successor           = [[Harold Wilson]]
| office2             = [[Leader of the Opposition (United Kingdom)|Leader of the Opposition]]
| monarch2            = Elizabeth II
| primeminister2      = Harold Wilson
| term_start2         = 16 October 1964
| term_end2           = 28 July 1965
| predecessor2        = Harold Wilson
| successor2          = [[Edward Heath]]
| office3             = [[Leader of the Conservative Party (UK)|Leader of the Conservative Party]]
| term_start3         = 18 October 1963
| term_end3           = 28 July 1965
| predecessor3        = Harold Macmillan
| successor3          = Edward Heath
{{Collapsed infobox section begin|last=yes|Ministerial offices
|titlestyle = border:1px dashed lightgrey;}}{{Infobox officeholder |embed=yes
| office           = [[Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs]]{{efn|Foreign Affairs (1960–1963)}}
| primeminister    = Edward Heath
| term_start       = 20 June 1970
| term_end         = 4 March 1974
| predecessor      = [[Michael Stewart, Baron Stewart of Fulham|Michael Stewart]]
| successor        = [[James Callaghan]]
| primeminister1   = Harold Macmillan
| term_start1      = 27 July 1960
| term_end1        = 18 October 1963
| predecessor1     = [[Selwyn Lloyd]]
| successor1       = [[Rab Butler]]
| office2          = [[Lord President of the Council]]
| primeminister2   = Harold Macmillan
| term_start2      = 14 October 1959
| term_end2        = 27 July 1960
| predecessor2     = [[Quintin Hogg, Baron Hailsham of St Marylebone|The Viscount Hailsham]]
| successor2       = The Viscount Hailsham
| primeminister3   = Harold Macmillan
| term_start3      = 29 March 1957
| term_end3        = 17 September 1957
| predecessor3     = [[Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 5th Marquess of Salisbury|The Marquess of Salisbury]]
| successor3       = The Viscount Hailsham
| office4          = [[Leader of the House of Lords]]
| primeminister4   = Harold Macmillan
| term_start4      = 29 March 1957
| term_end4        = 27 July 1960
| predecessor4     = The Marquess of Salisbury
| successor4       = The Viscount Hailsham
| office5          = [[Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations]]
| term_start5      = 7 April 1955
| term_end5        = 27 July 1960
| primeminister5   = {{Plainlist|
* [[Anthony Eden]]
* Harold Macmillan}}
| predecessor5     = [[Philip Cunliffe-Lister, 1st Earl of Swinton|The Viscount Swinton]]
| successor5       = [[Duncan Sandys]]
| office6          = [[Minister of State for Scotland]]
| primeminister6   = [[Winston Churchill]]
| term_start6      = 2 November 1951
| term_end6        = 7 April 1955
| predecessor6     = ''Office established''
| successor6       = [[Thomas Galbraith, 1st Baron Strathclyde|Thomas Galbraith]]
| office7          = [[Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs]]
| alongside7       = [[Simon Fraser, 15th Lord Lovat|The Lord Lovat]]
| primeminister7   = Winston Churchill
| term_start7      = 26 May 1945
| term_end7        = 26 July 1945
| predecessor7     = [[George Hall, 1st Viscount Hall|George Hall]]
| successor7       = [[Hector McNeil]]{{Collapsed infobox section end}}}}
{{Collapsed infobox section begin |cont=yes |last=yes |Parliamentary offices
 |titlestyle=border:1px dashed lightgrey;}}{{Infobox officeholder |embed=yes
| office           = [[Member of the House of Lords]]
| status           = [[Lord Temporal]]
| term_label       = [[Life peer]]age
| term_start       = 24 December 1974
| term_end         = 9 October 1995
| term_label1      = [[Hereditary peer]]age
| term_start1      = 11 July 1951
| term_end1        = 23 October 1963
| predecessor1     = [[Charles Douglas-Home, 13th Earl of Home|The 13th Earl of Home]]
| successor1       = [[David Douglas-Home, 15th Earl of Home|The 15th Earl of Home]] (1996)
| parliament2      = United Kingdom
| constituency_MP2 = Kinross and Western Perthshire
| term_start2      = 8 November 1963
| term_end2        = 20 September 1974
| predecessor2     = [[Gilmour Leburn]]
| successor2       = [[Nicholas Fairbairn]]
| constituency_MP3 = Lanark
| term_start3      = 23 February 1950
| term_end3        = 11 July 1951
| predecessor3     = [[Tom Steele (politician)|Tom Steele]]
| successor3       = [[Patrick Maitland, 17th Earl of Lauderdale|Patrick Maitland]]
| term_start4      = 27 October 1931
| term_end4        = 15 June 1945
| predecessor4     = [[Thomas Dickson (Scottish politician)|Thomas Dickson]]
| successor4       = Tom Steele{{Collapsed infobox section end}}}}
| birth_name          = Alexander Frederick Douglas-Home
| birth_date          = {{Birth date|1903|7|2|df=y}}
| birth_place         = [[London]], England
| death_date          = {{Death date and age|1995|10|9|1903|7|2|df=y}}
| death_place         = [[Coldstream]], [[Berwickshire]], Scotland
| resting_place       = {{#ifexist:Lennel Churchyard|[[Lennel Churchyard]], Coldstream}}
| party               = [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]]
| otherparty          = [[Unionist Party (Scotland)|Unionist]]
| spouse              = {{Marriage|[[Elizabeth Alington]]|3 October 1936|3 September 1990|reason=d}}
| children            = 4, including [[David Douglas-Home, 15th Earl of Home|David]]
| father              = [[Charles Douglas-Home, 13th Earl of Home|Charles Douglas-Home]]
| relatives           = [[Robin Douglas-Home|Robin]] and [[Charles Douglas-Home (journalist)|Charles Douglas-Home]] (nephews)
| education           = {{Ubl|[[Eton College]]|[[Christ Church, Oxford]]}}
| module3             = {{Infobox cricketer
| child=yes
| batting          = Right-handed
| bowling          = Right-arm fast-medium
| club1            = [[Middlesex County Cricket Club|Middlesex]]
| year1            = {{Nowrap|1924–1925}}
| club2            = [[Oxford University Cricket Club|Oxford University]]
| year2            = 1926
| club3            = [[Marylebone Cricket Club|MCC]]
| year3            = 1926/27
| columns          = 1
| column1          = [[First-class cricket|First-class]]
| matches1         = 10
| runs1            = 147
| bat avg1         = 16.33
| 100s/50s1        = 0/0
| top score1       = 37[[not out|*]]
| deliveries1      = 688
| wickets1         = 12
| bowl avg1        = 30.25
| fivefor1         = 0
| tenfor1          = 0
| best bowling1    = 3/43
| catches/stumpings1 = 9/–
| source           = https://www.espncricinfo.com/player/alec-douglas-home-12295 Cricinfo}}
<!--Military service-->| branch              = [[British Army]]
| unit                = [[Army Reserve (United Kingdom)|Territorial Army]]
| rank                = [[Major (United Kingdom)|Major]]
| commands            = [[Lanarkshire Yeomanry]]
| signature           = Alec Douglas-Home signature.svg
}}

'''Alexander Frederick Douglas-Home, Baron Home of the Hirsel''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|h|juː|m}} {{Respell|HEWM}}; 2 July 1903 – 9 October 1995), known as '''Lord Dunglass''' from 1918 to 1951 and the '''Earl of Home''' from 1951 to 1963, was a British statesman and [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]] politician who served as [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom]] from 1963 to 1964. He was the last prime minister to hold office while being a member of the [[House of Lords]], before renouncing his peerage and taking up a seat in the [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom|House of Commons]] for the remainder of his premiership. His reputation, however, rests more on his two stints as [[Foreign Secretary (United Kingdom)|Foreign Secretary]] than on his brief premiership.

Within six years of first entering the House of Commons in 1931, Douglas-Home (then called by the [[Courtesy titles in the United Kingdom|courtesy title]] Lord Dunglass) became a parliamentary aide to [[Neville Chamberlain]], witnessing first-hand Chamberlain's efforts as prime minister to preserve peace through [[appeasement#Conduct of appeasement, 1937–1939|appeasement]] in the two years before the outbreak of the Second World War. In 1940 Douglas-Home was diagnosed with spinal [[tuberculosis]] and was immobilised for two years. By the later stages of the war he had recovered enough to resume his political career, but he lost his seat in the [[1945 United Kingdom general election|general election of 1945]]. He regained it in 1950, but the following year he left the Commons when, on the death of his father, he inherited the earldom of Home and thereby became a member of the House of Lords. Under the premierships of [[Winston Churchill]], [[Anthony Eden]] and [[Harold Macmillan]] he was appointed to a series of increasingly senior posts, including [[Leader of the House of Lords]] and [[Foreign Secretary (United Kingdom)|Foreign Secretary]]. In the latter post, which he held from 1960 to 1963, he supported United States resolve in the [[Cuban Missile Crisis]] and in August 1963 was the United Kingdom's signatory to the [[Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty]].

In October 1963 Macmillan was taken ill and resigned as prime minister. Home was chosen to succeed him. By the 1960s it had become generally considered unacceptable for a prime minister to sit in the House of Lords; Home renounced his earldom and successfully stood for election to the House of Commons. The manner of his appointment was controversial, and two of Macmillan's cabinet ministers refused to take office under him. He was criticised by the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] as an aristocrat, out of touch with the problems of ordinary families, and he came over stiffly in television interviews, by contrast with the Labour leader, [[Harold Wilson]]. The Conservative Party, in power since 1951, had lost standing as a result of the [[Profumo affair]], a 1963 sex scandal involving a defence minister, and at the time of Home's appointment as prime minister it seemed headed for heavy electoral defeat. Home's premiership was the second briefest of the twentieth century, lasting two days short of a year. Among the legislation passed under his government was the abolition of [[resale price maintenance]], bringing costs down for the consumer against the interests of producers of food and other commodities.

After a narrow defeat in [[1964 United Kingdom general election|the general election of 1964]], Douglas-Home resigned the leadership of his party, after having instituted a new and less secretive method of electing the party leader. From 1970 to 1974 he was in the cabinet of [[Edward Heath]] as Secretary of State at the [[Foreign and Commonwealth Office]]; this was an expanded version of the post of Foreign Secretary, which he had held earlier. After the defeat of the Heath government in 1974, he returned to the House of Lords as a [[life peer]], and retired from front-line politics.