Douglas Alexander

For more information on Sir Alec Douglas-Home, visit Britannica.com.

(b. London, 2 July 1903; d. 5 Oct. 1995) British; Foreign Secretary 1960 – 3, 1970 – 4, Prime Minister 1963 – 64; 14th Earl of Home 1951 – 63, Kt. 1962, Baron (life peer) 1974 Educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, Douglas-Home's career was one of public service. He was elected as Conservative MP for Lanark in 1931 at the age of 28 and, apart from a five-year period, was to spend the rest of his life in parliament. He was appointed parliamentary private secretary to Neville Chamberlain in 1935, accompanied Chamberlain to Munich, and served him until his resignation in 1940. He then spent part of the war years in plaster, part of the time lying flat on his back, the result of a spinal operation. In 1945, he served briefly as Under-Secretary at the Foreign Office in Churchill's caretaker government. He lost his seat in the Labour landslide of 1945 but won it back in 1950. The following year he succeeded his father to the earldom and became the 14th Earl of Home.

During thirteen years of Conservative government, he rose from the post of Minister of State at the Scottish Office to Prime Minister. After his stint as Minister of State (1951 – 5) he joined the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations and served concurrently for three years as Lord President of the Council. In 1960 he was Macmillan's choice as Foreign Secretary. The choice of a peer proved controversial, but the post was the one that he most enjoyed. In 1963, he was a surprise successor to Macmillan as Prime Minister, after Macmillan switched his support from Quintin Hogg to him. He renounced his title and was returned to the House of Commons in a by-election as MP for Kinross for West Perthshire. His "emergence" proved controversial and, although he was able to form a Cabinet, two members of Macmillan's Cabinet refused to serve under him.

His premiership was short-lived. Overshadowed by a young and effective leader of the Opposition, he had little time to establish himself before calling a general election. In the 1964 general election, he fought well in a difficult situation. Though the party lost the election by a narrow margin, it was nonetheless lost. His period as leader of the Opposition was not a happy one and was marked by backbench criticism. The following year he resigned, his successor being elected by a process that he had initiated and approved. In many respects, his most successful period of public service was yet to come. He served as Foreign Secretary throughout the period of Edward Heath's government, handling the post with confidence and aplomb.

In 1974 he returned to the House of Lords with a life peerage and was a regular attender for almost twenty years until prevented from further attendance by a stroke. He died peacefully in October 1995 at the age of 93.

An enormously popular figure, he was regarded as a gentleman in politics. He was also a true Tory, always recognizing that politics was important but not the only important thing in life.

Alec Douglas-Home (1903-1995) devoted his career to British politics. Serving in the Parliament for many years, he became prime minister in November 1963 and remained in office until the Conservative Party lost the 1964 elections.

Alexander Frederick Douglas-Home was born in London on July 2, 1903, the eldest son of Charles Cospatrick Archibald Douglas-Home and Lilian Lambton, daughter of the fourth Earl of Durham. According to his biographer, Kenneth Young, his family had played an important role in English history for centuries. As the future fourteenth earl of Home, he was heir to 134,000 acres of land and coal mines in Lanarkshire, Scotland. The eldest of seven children, his younger brothers included Henry, an ornithologist; William, a playwright, and Edward. Home was raised at Springhill House in Scotland for the first sixteen years of his life and returned there as an adult after his marriage. His father taught him to love nature and be of service to the poor. As a young boy, a governess taught him at home. In 1913, Home was sent to prep school at Ludgrove, New Barnett, Hertfordshire, where he excelled at cricket. Like most aristocrats of his day, his education continued at Eton. According to Young, "he was a natural leader, unassertively self-assured, cool and fair." Home received a degree is history from Christ Church College, Oxford, and played on the cricket team. He was popular with his peers but not a very good student. He had no particular interest in politics, but rather intended to live a traditional aristocratic life and look after various family interests. He became Lord Dunglass in 1918 when his father became the thirteenth earl of Home. His marriage to Elizabeth Hester Alington in 1936 produced one son, David Alexander Cospatrick, and three daughters, Lavinia, Meriel, and Diana.

Entered Public Service

After becoming aware of the poverty and unemployment near his ancestral home in Lanarkshire, Home decided to run for Parliament. He was not content to manage the family business affairs and did not feel that he was suited to the military. Although his father did not initially approve of this career choice, his mother came from a political family and supported his decision. Home failed in his first attempt, but was elected as a Conservative member from Lanarkshire in 1931. He felt that the Conservative Party would do more to end unemployment in Scotland than the Liberals. Britain, as well as the rest of the world, was locked in the grip of the Great Depression. After Home was returned to Parliament in 1935, he became first private secretary to ministers handling labor and Scottish questions. Neville Chamberlain, Chancellor of the Exchequer, asked Home to serve as his parliamentary private secretary in 1937. When Chamberlain replaced Stanley Baldwin as prime minister, Home was privy to the events leading to World War II. Although he did not make policy, Home was at Chamberlain's side at the Munich conference of 1938 when he agreed to the partition of Czechoslovakia in exchange for a guarantee of no further territorial claims from the German government of Adolf Hitler. Germany soon broke the agreement and seized the Sudentenland, causing an angry reaction from the British public.

Chamberlain's policy of appeasement had failed and the British people turned against him. Home was a casualty of this failed policy and his career appeared to be over. He later claimed to have learned three important lessons during his tenure with Chamberlain. He learned, in intimate detail, how the British political system worked. He learned that Britain could not negotiate as long as it had a weak military. Lastly, he learned that peace at all cost was a disastrous policy. Home realized that Britain could not win a war without a strong military and support from the French and Americans. The Americans were not ready to go to war and the French had backed out of their agreement with Czechoslovakia. Germany invaded Poland and Britain declared war on Germany on September 2, 1939. Home remained a member of the Chamberlain government until May 2, 1940, when Winston Churchill replaced him as prime minister.

Home intended to enter active service at the start of World War II, as an officer of the Lanarkshire Yeomanry. However, the Army Medical Board rejected his application for military service. When he consulted specialists in Edinburgh, the doctors discovered that he had a tubercular hole in his spine, which kept him out of the war. He became too ill to serve and resigned his commission. He spent the next two years recovering from spinal surgery. While lying flat on his back encased in a cast up to his neck, he tracked the progress of the war effort through reading and discussions with friends. He became convinced that Stalin intended to export Communism. If the Russians chose to be Communist, that was their business. However, if they intended to export their views to other parts of the world, Home intended to stand against it.

In 1944, Home returned to London and to the back benches of Parliament. On September 29, 1944, he delivered one of his most important speeches. Churchill had implied that he was letting Russia have Poland in return for helping to defeat the Germans. Home reminded Churchill that Britain had guaranteed Poland's independence in 1939 and that the treaty was still in effect. Churchill, along with the Americans, gave in to the Russian demands at Yalta. In 1945, Home served as the parliamentary under secretary at the foreign office for two months until the Conservatives lost office and Home lost his seat in the House of Commons. He was out of office for five years, until his party elected him as the Conservative member for Lanark in 1950. When his father died in 1951, he became the fourteenth Earl of Home and took his seat in the House of Lords. Churchill became prime minister again in October 1951, and appointed Home as his minister of state for Scotland. "Home Sweet Home," Churchill's nickname for him, was an effective advocate for Scotland. The Crofter Act of 1955 injected capital in the form of grants and loans into the farming system. Parliament was encouraged to give grants to reforest the area, and the Hydroelectric Development Act spread electricity to remote areas of Scotland. He was also able to get highway funds earmarked for the improvement of Scottish roads.

Flair for Foreign Policy

Home had learned a great deal in his years close to prime ministers, especially with regard to foreign policy. In 1955, he became secretary of state for Commonwealth relations in Anthony Eden's government. Though the post was a minor one, Home was noticed when Eden fumbled in the Suez crisis of 1956. Home held the Commonwealth together through intense criticism. With regard to the question of Rhodesian independence, Home advocated a multiracial government, but was unable to convince the white minority government. When Harold Macmillan became prime minister in 1960, he gave Home the post of foreign secretary, expecting him to be easy to dominate. This turned out not to be the case. After his experience with appeasement in Chamberlain's government, Home became one of Britain's most forceful hard-liners against the Soviet threat. He supported a strong defense against Russia and felt that Britain must join the European Common Market. However, Macmillan acted as his own foreign minister and only took advice as he desired it.

Became Prime Minister

When Macmillian became ill in October 1963, he maneuvered Home into the office of prime minister to avoid seeing it go to Rab Butler. This gave the appearance that Home was not democratically chosen by his party. He was forced to renounce his hereditary title and fight a nasty reelection battle in his home district. He returned to the House of Commons to give his first speech, after an absence of twelve years. The opposition, sensing his weakness, attacked him. Home also had to deal with television, which was a new media for him. His field of expertise was foreign affairs, not domestic policy. He served as prime minister for twelve months, when Harold Wilson and the Labor Party won the general elections of 1964 by a slim margin. After it was over, he reflected that he had a lot to learn in the craft of leadership. He had tried to lead in a straightforward manner, but felt that his term was a little like Daniel being thrown into the lion's den. Home vowed to change the way party leaders were chosen so that no future leader would have to go through what he had. He was only partially successful in party reform.

Home returned to the House of Lords and remained friendly with Heath, leader of the Conservative Party. When the Conservatives were returned to power in 1970, Heath placed him in the foreign office again. There he again worked to settle the situation in Rhodesia, but had no luck with Ian Smith, the leader of the white minority government. British influence in the Middle East was another area of interest, but he was unable to get Israel to abandon territory that it had acquired during the 1967 war. When the Conservative government fell in 1974, Home returned to the House of Lords. He retired in 1992.

In his later years, Home wrote a number of books including his autobiography The Way the Wind Blows in 1976, and Border Reflections in 1979. He served as chancellor of Heriot-Watt University. His hobbies included bird watching, hunting, and fishing at his ancestral homes of Hirsel or Castlemains. Taxes had reduced the family estates considerably, and Home was not among the richest border lords. He died in Berwickshire, Scotland, on October 9, 1995, having devoted a lifetime to British political service.

Further Reading

Butler, Lord, et. al., The Conservatives A History from their Origins to 1965, George Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1977.

Cold War 1945-1991, Gale Research, 1993.

Contemporary Authors Online, Gale Group, 1999.

Home, Alec Douglas-Home, Lord, The Way the Wind Blows, William Collins Sons & Co Ltd, 1976.

Young, Kenneth, Sir Alec Douglas-Home, J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd., 1970.

Home, Sir Alec Douglas-Home, 14th earl of [S] (1903-95). Prime minister. Douglas-Home succeeded to the earldom in 1951 but relinquished it in 1963 to re-enter the Commons as prime minister, in succession to Harold Macmillan. In 1974 he returned to the House of Lords as Lord Home of the Hirsel. He was first elected in 1931 and served as private secretary to Neville Chamberlain (1937-40), minister of state at the Scottish Office (1951-5), Commonwealth secretary (1955-60), and foreign secretary (1960-3). He also served as deputy leader (1956-7), then leader of the House of Lords and lord president of the council (1959-60).

An immensely sincere and straightforward figure, he appeared to be out of touch with political realities as prime minister. A poor public speaker and television performer, he was unfortunate to encounter Harold Wilson as leader of the opposition. His upper-class, ‘grouse moor’ image was another drawback, while the refusal of both Iain Macleod and Enoch Powell to serve under him undermined his credibility. He clearly resented the attacks on his upbringing. In a famous speech, he pointed out that if he was the 14th earl of Home, Mr Wilson was ‘the fourteenth Mr Wilson’.

None the less, after a year of almost non-stop electioneering, Sir Alec, who concentrated on foreign and defence affairs, lost the 1964 election to Labour by the most slender of margins. Given the legacy of economic problems and scandals he had inherited from Macmillan, this was no small testament to his character. After the controversy about the way in which he had become prime minister, and given that the queen could not choose a Tory leader while the party was in opposition, Sir Alec arranged that his successor as party leader should be elected. This turned out to be Edward Heath under whom he served as foreign secretary between 1970 and 1974. Relations between them were smooth, unlike those between Heath and his successor a decade later. As foreign secretary, Sir Alec was one of those who helped take Britain into the Common Market in 1973.

This article is about the British politician. For the Canadian industralist, see Sir Douglas Alexander, 1st Baronet.

The Right Honourable  Douglas Alexander  MP
Secretary of State for International Development
Incumbent
Assumed office  28 June 2007
Prime Minister	Gordon Brown
Preceded by	Hilary Benn
Secretary of State for Scotland
In office 6 May 2006 – 27 June 2007
Prime Minister	Tony Blair
Preceded by	Alistair Darling
Succeeded by	Des Browne
Secretary of State for Transport
In office 6 May 2006 – 27 June 2007
Prime Minister	Tony Blair
Preceded by	Alistair Darling
Succeeded by	Ruth Kelly
Minister of State for Europe
In office 5 May 2005 – 6 May 2006
Prime Minister	Tony Blair
Preceded by	Denis MacShane
Succeeded by	Geoff Hoon
Minister of State for Trade, Investment and Foreign Affairs
In office 8 September 2004 – 5 May 2005
Prime Minister	Tony Blair
Preceded by	Mike O'Brien (as Minister of State for Trade)
Succeeded by	Ian Pearson (as Minister of State for Trade)
Minister for the Cabinet Office Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
In office 13 June 2003 – 8 September 2004
Prime Minister	Tony Blair
Preceded by	The Lord Macdonald of Tradeston
Succeeded by	Alan Milburn
Member of Parliament for Paisley and Renfrewshire South Paisley South (1997 – 2005)
Incumbent
Assumed office  6 November 1997
Preceded by	Gordon James McMaster
Majority	13,232 (34.9%)
Born	26 October 1967 (1967-10-26) (age 41) Glasgow, United Kingdom
Political party	Labour
Alma mater	Lester B. Pearson College University of Edinburgh University of Pennsylvania
Religion	Church of Scotland
Website	DouglasAlexander.labour.co.uk

Douglas Garven Alexander (born 26 October 1967) is a British Labour politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Paisley and Renfrewshire South since 1997. Currently, he is the Secretary of State for International Development, and prior to this has served in a number of government posts. On 24 June 2007, incoming-Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced that Alexander would be appointed as his General Election Co-Ordinator.^[1]

Contents 1 Early life 2 Member of Parliament 2.1 In Government 3 Personal life 4 See also 5 References 6 Bibliography 7 External links

Early life

Born in Glasgow, the son of a Church of Scotland minister, Douglas N. Alexander and a doctor, much of Alexander's childhood was spent in Bishopton in Renfrewshire. A prominent member of the 1st Bishopton Company of the Boys Brigade, he played bugle in the Company's marching band helping them win the Scottish BB Marching Band Championship in 1981. Alexander attended Park Mains High School in Erskine, also in Renfrewshire, from where he joined the Labour Party as a school boy in 1982. In 1984 he won a Scottish scholarship to attend Lester B. Pearson United World College of the Pacific in Canada, where he gained the International Baccalaureate Diploma, returning to Scotland to study politics and modern history at the University of Edinburgh. He won a further scholarship in 1988 to study at the University Of Pennsylvania. Whilst studying in America, he worked for Michael Dukakis during the 1988 American Presidential Election campaign, he also worked for a Democratic senator in Washington, D.C..

In 1990 he worked as a speech-writer and parliamentary researcher for Shadow Trade and Industry Secretary, Gordon Brown. He returned to Edinburgh to study for an LL.B. at Edinburgh University, where he won the Novice Moot Trophy and graduated with Distinction in 1993. He then qualified as a solicitor. On qualifying as a solicitor he worked for a firm of solicitors in Edinburgh his only 'real' job outside politics. He left after 6-months.

Member of Parliament

Whilst still studying, in 1995, with friends in the local party and the backing of Gordon Brown - his mentor - he was selected to be the Scottish Labour Party candidate at the Perth and Kinross by-election caused by the death of the long serving flamboyant Conservative MP Nicholas Fairbairn. The by-election came in the middle of the Major government and was won by Roseanna Cunningham of the Scottish National Party, but Alexander did well and received enough votes to push the Conservative candidate into third place. This brought him to the attention of Tony Blair - and hotfoot from his defeat by the SNP he was welcomed at the Scottish Labour Party Conference in the Eden Court Theatre in Inverness where he spoke immediately before Blair in the critical debate on abolition of Clause 4.4 of the Party Constitution.

The Perth and Kinross constituency was abolished, but Alexander was again chosen to be the Labour candidate in the newly drawn Perth constituency at the 1997 General Election. He was pushed into third place behind the SNP and the Conservatives.

On 28 July 1997 the Labour Member of Parliament for Paisley South, Gordon McMaster, committed suicide. Alexander, who grew up in Renfrewshire, was chosen to contest the by-election and he was duly elected to serve as the Member of Parliament for Paisley South on 6 November 1997.

In Government

Alexander took a successful co-ordinating role in his party's campaign for the 2001 General Election. He was rewarded by Tony Blair and was appointed as the Minister of State with responsibility for "e-commerce and competitiveness" at the Department for Trade and Industry in June 2001. In May 2002, Alexander was transferred to the Cabinet Office as Minister of State.^[2]

In June 2003 Alexander was promoted to Minister for the Cabinet Office and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, and in September 2004 was moved to Minister of State for Trade at both the Department for Trade and Industry and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

After the 2005 General Election, he was given the role of Minister of State for Europe, part of the Foreign Office, with special provision to attend Cabinet. On 7 June 2005, he was made a Member of the Privy Council. On 5 May 2006 he was appointed Secretary of State for Transport and, simultaneously, Secretary of State for Scotland, replacing Alistair Darling, where he oversaw the running of the 2007 Scottish Parliament election.

Following Gordon Brown's appointment as Prime Minister on 27 June 2007, he appointed Douglas Alexander as Secretary of State for International Development.

Personal life

His sister, Wendy Alexander, is also involved in politics as an MSP and briefly as the Leader of the Labour Party in the Scottish Parliament until she resigned after it was revealed that she had accepted illegal payments from a foreign donor to fund her leadership campaign. His father, a Church of Scotland minister, conducted the funeral of the inaugural First Minister of Scotland, Donald Dewar at Glasgow Cathedral in 2000. He is married to Jacqueline Christian and they have two children.

See also

• Cabinet of the United Kingdom

References

1. ^ Call for snap election after Brown coronation
2. ^ No.10 - Douglas Alexander MP

Bibliography

• Torrance, David, The Scottish Secretaries (Birlinn 2006)

External links

• Douglas Alexander MP official site
• Foreign Office - Rt Hon Douglas Alexander MP official profile
• Department of Trade and Industry - Douglas Alexander
• Guardian Unlimited Politics Ask Aristotle - Douglas Alexander MP
• They Work For You - Douglas Alexander MP
• "Steering safely down the middle", interview in The Sunday Times Scotland, 24 September 2006

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Gordon James McMaster	Member of Parliament for Paisley and Renfrewshire South Paisley South (1997 – 2005) 1997–present	Incumbent
Political offices
Preceded by The Lord Macdonald of Tradeston	Minister for the Cabinet Office 2003–2004	Succeeded by Alan Milburn
	Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster 2003–2004
Preceded by Mike O'Brien as Minister of State for Trade	Minister of State for Trade, Investment and Foreign Affairs 2004–2005	Succeeded by Ian Pearson as Minister of State for Trade
Preceded by Denis MacShane	Minister of State for Europe 2005–2006	Succeeded by Geoff Hoon
Preceded by Alistair Darling	Secretary of State for Transport 2006–2007	Succeeded by Ruth Kelly
	Secretary of State for Scotland 2006–2007	Succeeded by Des Browne
Preceded by Hilary Benn	Secretary of State for International Development 2007–present	Incumbent

v • d • e Brown Cabinet (list) Adonis · Ainsworth · Alexander · Balls · Benn · Bradshaw · G. Brown · Burnham · Byrne · Cooper · Darling · Denham · Hain  · Harman · Johnson · Jowell · Mandelson · D. Miliband · E. Miliband · Murphy · Royall · Straw · Woodward Also attending: N. Brown · Drayson · Healey · Knight · McFadden When on agenda: Khan · Primarolo · Scotland · Winterton

v • d • e Secretary of State for International Development of the United Kingdom Minister of Overseas Development Barbara Castle · Anthony Greenwood · Arthur Bottomley · Reginald Prentice · Judith Hart · Richard Wood* · Judith Hart* · Reginald Prentice* · Frank Judd* · Judith Hart* · Neil Marten* · Tim Raison* · Chris Patten* · Lynda Chalker* Secretary of State for International Development Clare Short · Valerie Amos, Baroness Amos · Hilary Benn · Douglas Alexander * Served as Minister for Overseas Development as a Minister of State at the Foreign Office

Persondata
NAME	Alexander, Douglas Garven
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	British politician and Cabinet minister
DATE OF BIRTH	26 October 1967
PLACE OF BIRTH	Glasgow, Scotland
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH

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