Name Suffix:<NSFX> Earl of Avon
Name Prefix:<NPFX> Sir
Notes:
Source: Leo van de Pas. Anthony Eden, the son of Sir William Ede
n, was born at WindlestoneHall, Bishop Auckland, in 1897. Eden
, like his father and grandfather, was educated at Eton. He hope
d to go to Sandhurst before joining the British Army,but was re
jected because of his poor eyesight. With the outbreak of the Fi
rst World War the British Army reduced its entry standards, an
d Eden was ableto obtain a commission in the King's Royal Rifl
e Corps. Soon after LieutenantEden arrived in France in June 19
16, he heard that his sixteen year old brother, Nicholas Eden, h
ad been killed when the Indefatigable had been sunk at the Battl
e of Jutland. Eden served on the Western Front and won the Milit
aryCross at the Battle of the Somme in 1916. After one attack a
t at Delville Wood, Eden's he battalion suffered 394 casualties
, of whom 127 were killed. Nearly all the junior officers were e
ither dead or badly wounded and as a resultEden was promoted t
o adjutant. By the time the war ended, Eden had reached the ran
k of major. After the war Eden was undecided about whether to st
ay inthe army. He eventually selected a career in politics an
d in the 1923 General Election won Warwick & Leamington for th
e Conservative Party. Three years later he was appointed parliam
entary private secretary to Austen Chamberlain at the Foreign Of
fice. A post he held until the government lost power at the 192
9 General Election. In the National Government formed by Ramsa
y MacDonaldin 1931, Eden became Under-Secretary for Foreign Aff
airs (1931-34). When Stanley Baldwin became prime minister in 19
35 he appointed Eden as his Foreign Secretary. Eden disagreed wi
th Neville Chamberlain about the way to deal withfascism in Eur
ope and in 1938 he resigned from office. When Winston Churchil
l took over from Chamberlain in 1940, Eden was reappointed as Fo
reign Secretary. After the Labour Party victory in the 1945 Gene
ral Election, Eden becamedeputy leader of the opposition. The 1
951 General Election saw the return ofa Conservative governmen
t and once more Eden became Foreign Secretary. A post he held un
til he replaced Winston Churchill as prime minister in April, 19
55. In November 1956, Eden ordered British troops to occupy th
e Suez Canal in Egypt aHead of the invading Israeli army. His ac
tion was condemned by the United Nations and as a result of inte
rnational pressure, was forced to withdraw his troops from Egypt
. In failing health, Eden resigned on 9. January, 1957. Create
d Earl of Avon in 1961, Eden spent his later years writing his M
emoirs (3 volumes, 1960-65) and Another World (1976), an accoun
t of his war experiences. Sir Anthony Eden died in 1977. (1) Ant
hony Eden was highly criticalof the British government during t
he early stages of the war. This was illustrated in a letter h
e wrote on the 14. May, 1915. I should like to hang, drawand qu
arter Haldane, Asquith, Winston Churchill and McKenna. Ye Gods
? Whata quartet. (2) Soon after arriving at the Western Front
, one of Eden's lance-corporals was killed by a German sniper. E
den wrote about the incident in his book, Another World, publish
ed in 1976. This was our first sharp contact with sudden death a
nd we were utterly miserable. The passage of years has neverblu
nted it. We had yet to learn that it was the chance deaths in th
e trenches which left a sharper imprint than the wholesale slaug
hter of a battle. (3) In Another World, Anthony Eden described h
is first night-patrol into No Man's Land. We worked our way acro
ss no-man's-land without incident, and Pratt and Liddell began t
o cut the enemy wire. This was tough and rather thicker than w
e had reckoned. Even so we made good progress and there were onl
y a fewmore strands left to cut, so we were right under the Ger
man trench, when suddenly, jabber, jabber, and without warning t
wo G
