Maurice Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton was a British Conservative politician and Prime Minister from 1957 to 1963.

Born in London, Macmillan was educated at Eton and at Balliol College, Oxford. He served with distinction in WW I, being wounded on three occasions. Elected to the House of Commons in 1924 for Stockton-on-Tees, he lost his seat in 1929 only to return in 1931.

In WW II he was part of the wartime coalition government, he worked with the Ministry of Supply before being sent to North Africa in 1942 as British government representative to the Allies. He returned to England after the war.

When the Conservatives regained power in 1951 he was minister of housing, then minister of defence under Winston Churchill moving on to become foreign secretary and chancellor of the exchequer under Anthony Eden. When Eden resigned in January 1957 Macmillan succeeded him.

He led the Conservatives to victory in the October 1959 general election, increasing his party's majority in the process. The election campaign had been based on the economic improvements achieved, the slogan "Life's Better Under the Conservatives" was matched by Macmillan's remark, "most of our people have never had it so good" usually paraphrased as "You've never had it so good."

Britain's balance of payments problems led to the imposition of a wage freeze in 1961. This caused the government to lose popularity and led to a series of by-election defeats. Macmillan organised a major Cabinet change in July 1962 but he continued to lose support from within his party.

He was also embarrassed by the Profumo Affair of 1963. Following ill health and surgery he resigned on October 18, 1963. Alec Douglas-Home, the foreign secretary, succeeded him. This proved controversial as it was alleged that Macmillan had pulled strings and utilised the party's grandees, nicknamed "The Magic Circle", to ensure that Butler was not chosen as his successor.

In 1984 he finally accepted a peerage and was created Earl of Stockton in 1984. He died at Birch Grove in Sussex in 1986 at the age of 92 years and 322 days - to date the greatest age attained by any British Prime Minister.