1964 United Kingdom general election
The 1964 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 15 October 1964. It resulted in the Conservatives, led by incumbent Prime Minister Alec Douglas-Home, narrowly losing to the Labour Party, led by Harold Wilson; Labour secured a parliamentary majority of four seats and ended its thirteen years in opposition since the 1951 election. Wilson became the youngest Prime Minister since Lord Rosebery in 1894. To date, this is also the most narrow majority obtained in the House of Commons, with just one seat clearing Labour for a majority government.
Image: Harold Wilson
Image: Alec Douglas Home (c 1963) (cropped)
Image: Jo Grimond in 1963 (3x 4 crop)
Alexander Frederick Douglas-Home, Baron Home of the Hirsel,, styled as Lord Dunglass between 1918 and 1951 and the Earl of Home from 1951 until 1963, was a British statesman and Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1963 to 1964. He is notable for being the last prime minister to hold office while being a member of the House of Lords, before renouncing his peerage and taking up a seat in the House of Commons for the remainder of his premiership. His reputation, however, rests more on his two stints as Foreign Secretary than on his brief premiership.
Portrait c. 1963
Douglas-Home in 1963
As a member of the Eton XI, 1921
The Hirsel, the Douglas-Home family's principal residence