Born: Maurice Harold Macmillan was born on 10th February 1894 in London. His parents were Maurice Crawford Macmillan, the well-known publisher, and Helen Artie Tarleton Belles from Indiana. He had two older brothers.

Educated: His parents sent him to a day school in London and a preparatory school in Oxford. He went to Eton, and later graduated from Balliol College, Oxford

Married: On 21st April 1920 Harold Macmillan married Dorothy Evelyn Cavendish, daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire. In 1929, Dorothy embarked on an affair with another man. She spent the next 37 years playing the part of a dedicated and effective wife to a prominent politician, but in private she and her husband were never fully reconciled.

Family: Harold and Dorothy Macmillan had one son, Maurice, and three daughters; Ann Caroline, Catherine and Sarah.

Home: Harold Macmillan lived at Birch Grove in Sussex all his life, except when his work required him to be elsewhere.

Known for: Harold Macmillan was Prime Minister from 1957 to 1963. His connection with Teesside was that from 1924 to 1929 and again from 1931 to 1945 he was the M.P. for Stockton. After losing his seat there, he became M.P. for Bromley. Macmillan was an active local M.P. in Stockton with a strong reputation for dealing with his constituents’ problems. He was also active in the creation of the Stockton Social Services Centre. He returned to Stockton to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Stockton and Darlington Railway in 1975, and in 1984 he was made Earl of Stockton. Shortly before his death he expressed his sadness that unemployment in Stockton was almost as bad as when he was the M.P. there.

Died: Harold Macmillan died on 29th December 1896 at Birch Grove, his home in Sussex. He was buried at Horsted Keynes, Sussex.

Further Information:

“Stockton-on-Tees in Hard Times: Harold Macmillan and the Stockton Social Services Centre” John Little in Cleveland History vol. 116 (2019)

“Supermac: The Life of Harold Macmillan” D.R.Thorpe (2010)