Wikipedia:Today's featured article/July 2, 2013

Alec Douglas-Home (1903–95) was a British Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister from October 1963 to October 1964. His reputation rests more on the two periods when he served as the UK foreign minister than on his brief, uneventful premiership. As parliamentary aide to Neville Chamberlain, he witnessed Chamberlain's efforts to preserve peace before the Second World War. In 1951 he inherited the earldom of Home and became a member of the House of Lords. Under Winston Churchill, Anthony Eden and Harold Macmillan he was appointed to posts including Leader of the House of Lords and Foreign Secretary. In October 1963 Macmillan resigned as Prime Minister. Home was controversially chosen to succeed him, renouncing his earldom and winning election to the House of Commons. He was criticised by the Labour Party as an out-of-touch aristocrat, and he came over stiffly in television interviews. After narrow defeat in the 1964 general election he resigned as party leader; he later served under Edward Heath as Secretary of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. After the defeat of the Heath government in 1974 he retired from front-line politics.

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