Footnote: Robert Anthony Eden, 1st Earl of Avon, KG, MC, PC (June 12, 1897 - January 14, 1977) was a British Conservative politician who served three periods as Foreign Secretary and then a relatively brief term as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1955 to 1957. Achieving rapid promotion as a young Member of Parliament, he became Foreign Secretary at the age of 38, before resigning in protest at Neville Chamberlain's appeasement policy towards Mussolini's Italy. He again held that position for most of the Second World War, and a third time in the early 1950s. Having been deputy to Winston Churchill for almost fifteen years, he succeeded him as the Leader of the Conservative Party and Prime Minister in April 1955, and a month later, won a general election. Eden's worldwide reputation as an opponent of appeasement, a "man of peace", and a skilled diplomat was overshadowed in 1956 when the United States refused to support the Anglo-French military response to the Suez Crisis, which critics across party lines regarded as an historic setback for British foreign policy, signalling the end of British predominance in the Middle East. Most historians argue that he made a series of blunders, especially not realizing the depth of American opposition to military action. Two months after ordering an end to the Suez operation, he resigned as Prime Minister on grounds of ill health and because he was widely suspected of having misled the House of Commons over the degree of collusion with France and Israel. Eden is generally ranked among the least successful British Prime Ministers of the twentieth century, although two broadly sympathetic biographies (in 1986 and 2003) have gone some way to shifting the balance of opinion. Biographer D. R. Thorpe described the Suez Crisis as "a truly tragic end to his premiership, and one that came to assume a disproportionate importance in any assessment of his career."
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United Kingdom. A Victoria Cross Parade Invitation to Prime Minister Sir Robert Anthony Eden and Lady Eden 1956
Invitation illustrating the Victoria Cross flanked by the dates "1856" on the left and "1956" on the right, inscribed in running script "In the presence of Her Majesty the Queen and his Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh / Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland request the honour of the company of The Right Honorable Sir Anthony Eden and Lady Eden at a Parade to be held in Hyde Park, London, on Tuesday, 26th June, 1956 at 11.0 a.m. to mark the Centenary of the institution of the Victoria Cross", with "Lounge Suit or Uniform. / Please bring this card with you." at the lower left and "R.S.V.P. The Under Secretary of State. / The War Office (P.S. 12) Whitehall. S.W.1." at the lower right, the Victoria Cross printed in bronze and violet raised inks, the text printed in black ink, the addressee's name in calligraphic handwritten black ink, measuring 195 mm (w) x 145 (h) within a matte, under glass, in a 270 mm (w) x 215 mm (h) black wooden frame, the invitation exhibiting light soiling, near extremely fine.
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