Statesman and nobleman Anthony Eden (1897-1977) briefly succeeded Winston Churchill as prime minister of Britain during its disastrous invasion of Suez in 1956.

From a wealthy and privileged background, Robert Anthony Eden was born on June 12, 1897, at Windlestone Hall near Bishop Auckland, Durham. He was the third son of Sir William Eden, with one sister, Marjorie, older than all the brothers, of which there was a total of four. Young Eden was educated at Sandroyd Prep School in Surrey and then at Eton, where he distinguished himself in sports but little else. He interrupted his schooling to fight in the King's Royal Rifle Corps during World War I (during which his eldest and youngest brothers were killed). In the course of the war he became the youngest adjutant by 1916, won a military cross in 1917, and by the end of the war he had become a brigade major. In 1919 he...