Harold Macmillan avoided political involvement.
Maurice Harold Macmillan , 1st Earl of Stockton , ( 10 February 1894 -- 29 December 1986 ) was a British Conservative politician and statesman who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 10 January 1957 to 19 October 1963 . After the war Macmillan joined his family business , then entered Parliament in the 1924 General Election , for the northern industrial constituency of Stockton-on-Tees . Rising to high office during the Second World War as a protégé of wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill , Macmillan then served as Foreign Secretary and Chancellor of the Exchequer under Churchill 's successor Sir Anthony Eden . When Eden resigned in 1957 after the Suez Crisis , Macmillan succeeded him as Prime Minister . The Middle Way is a book on political philosophy written by Harold Macmillan ( British Conservative Party politician and later prime minister of the United Kingdom ) .