🪴 GoDeep
Search
← University Challenge
Portrait of Harold Macmillan

Prime Ministers · 20th century

Harold Macmillan

1894–1986 · British

Conservative

In office: 1957–1963

Harold Macmillan, of the publishing family, took over from Eden after Suez in 1957 and restored Conservative fortunes, winning the 1959 election amid rising prosperity. "Supermac" repaired relations with the United States, accelerated decolonisation with his "wind of change" speech, and helped negotiate the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty of 1963. His later years were troubled by de Gaulle's veto of Britain's EEC application and the Profumo affair, and he resigned through ill health in October 1963.

How to spot them

  • ▸'Supermac' (cartoonist Vicky); 'never had it so good'
  • ▸The 'wind of change' speech in Cape Town (1960)
  • ▸Night of the Long Knives (1962); the Profumo affair (1963)
  • ▸Publishing family; MP for Stockton; later Earl of Stockton
  • ▸De Gaulle's 'Non' to Britain joining the EEC (1963)

In office

'Most of our people have never had it so good' (1957)

Speech at Bedford on post-war prosperity

Dismissing Treasury ministers' resignations as 'little local difficulties' (1958)

After Chancellor Peter Thorneycroft, Enoch Powell and Nigel Birch resigned

Life Peerages Act (1958)

Created life peers and admitted women to the House of Lords

The 'wind of change' speech to the South African Parliament (1960)

Delivered in Cape Town on 3 February 1960, signalling African decolonisation

The 'Night of the Long Knives' cabinet purge (1962)

Sacked seven Cabinet ministers in July 1962

Nassau Agreement to buy Polaris missiles from the US (1962)

Agreed with President Kennedy after the cancellation of Skybolt

The Profumo affair (1963)

War Secretary John Profumo lied to the Commons about his affair with Christine Keeler

Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (1963)

Signed by Britain, the US and the USSR in August 1963

Key ideas

  • 'Middle way' Conservatism: planning, full employment and a mixed economy (The Middle Way, 1938)
  • Rebuilt the Anglo-American 'special relationship' with Eisenhower and Kennedy
  • Accelerated decolonisation, especially in Africa

Quick-fire facts

  • •Grandson of Daniel Macmillan, co-founder of the Macmillan publishing house; his mother was American
  • •Wounded several times as a Grenadier Guards officer in the First World War
  • •As Housing Minister he met the Conservative target of 300,000 new homes a year
  • •As Chancellor he introduced Premium Bonds (1956)
  • •Chancellor of the University of Oxford from 1960 until his death
  • •Resigned in October 1963 and was succeeded by Sir Alec Douglas-Home
  • •Created Earl of Stockton in 1984; in 1985 likened privatisation to 'selling the family silver'
  • •Died in December 1986, aged 92

Drill it — 8 cards

1 / 8new card

Sources