On 10 January 1957, Harold Macmillan was appointed prime minister, succeeding Sir Anthony Eden, who had resigned the previous day due to ill health.

Eden’s departure was precipitated by the political fallout from the Suez Crisis of 1956, which had damaged Britain’s international standing and divided the Conservative Party. Its outcome exposed the limits of Britain’s independent foreign policy in the face of international condemnation, effectively confirming its post-war status as a ‘second tier’ world power.

It brought the so-called UK-US ‘special relationship’ to the brink and plunged the House of Commons into chaos.

In the wake of the crisis, a doctor’s report found that Eden’s “health will no longer enable him to sustain the heavy burdens inseparable from the office of prime minister”.

It said: “The prime minister’s health gives cause for anxiety. In spite of the improvement which followed his rest before Christmas there had been a recurrence of abdominal symptoms.”

Eden, who had undergone a series of operations to correct a gall bladder condition in 1953, announced his resignation in a personal statement.

On 9 January, the outgoing prime minister said: “When I returned to this country a month ago I hoped that my health had been sufficiently restored to enable me to carry out my duties effectively for some considerable time. That has not been realised.

“I do not feel that it is right for me to continue in office as the queen’s first Minister, knowing that I shall be unable to do my full duty to my sovereign and the country. I have therefore decided, with the utmost regret, that I must tender my resignation to the queen, which her majesty has been graciously pleased to accept.”

Eden also stood down as an MP. In July 1961, he was elevated to the House of Lords as the 1st Earl of Avon.

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Macmillan, the chancellor of the exchequer and former foreign secretary, was chosen by the queen following consultations with senior party figures, including Winston Churchill and the Marquess of Salisbury. At that time, the Conservative Party had no formal mechanism for selecting a new leader.

The new prime minister had been a supporter of military intervention to protect the Suez canal, but later – ahead of Eden – converted to supporting a ceasefire. Harold Wilson, the future PM, would later describe Macmillan as “first in, first out” during the Suez crisis.

Macmillan was selected ahead of his main rival, Rab Butler, to the surprise of some contemporaries.

At the age of 62, Macmillan emerged as prime minister at a moment of immense national difficulty. His immediate priorities were to restore political stability and repair the fractured relationship with the United States, which had been severely strained by the Suez intervention.

Butler, 54, pledged his support to the new prime minister and wished him “the greatest possible success”.

Upon his appointment, Macmillan is said to have told the Queen that he did not think the new government would last longer than 6 weeks. It would ultimately last over six years.

In a televised speech broadcast the evening of 10 January 1957, Macmillan said: “This afternoon, the Queen did me the great honour to ask me to form a government. I have accepted this duty.

“The occasion is a sad one for me, brought about as it is by the retirement of my old and very dear friend Anthony Eden.”

He added: “I am now engaged in forming a government. I hope to present the list for Her Majesty’s approval in a few days time.

“We have a difficult task before us in this country – all of us. It will need all our courage and strength, and we shall need the sympathy, good will and understanding of everyone in the country, whatever their party or beliefs.

“I believe we shall have that sympathy. I am certain that with the efforts of all, we can succeed.”

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In his first speech to the commons as prime minister, Macmillan praised Eden for his “great diligence, tact, charm, and very high skill in negotiation”.

He added: “Throughout his whole political life he has shown complete integrity in every sense of the word. He has also shown on many occasions rare courage. He has always done what he thought was right, and we can pay no greater tribute to any man.”

The new prime minister also thanked Hugh Gaitskell, the Labour leader of the opposition, for his remarks.

Macmillan told the House: “Of course, I know that these are to some extent the stylised preliminaries to combat, like the salutes between duellists.

“Nevertheless, the House of Commons has also such traditions of good fellowship that I feel that there is a genuine welcome given by the House as a whole to any of its Members called upon to undertake the great tasks which have fallen to me.

“I can only say that I have been much touched by the kindness which has been shown to me on all sides of the House, and that I will do my best.”

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Macmillan’s consciously calm demeanour would soon earn him the nickname “Supermac”, courtesy of cartoonist Victor Weisz. His premiership was characterised by his “one-nation” socioeconomic policy and the steadily quickening process of decolonisation.

As living standards and prosperity improved during his premiership, Macmillan famously quipped that the British public “never had it so good”.

Speaking at a rally in July, the prime minister declared: “Indeed let us be frank about it – most of our people have never had it so good.

“Go around the country, go to the industrial towns, go to the farms and you will see a state of prosperity such as we have never had in my lifetime – nor indeed in the history of this country.”

He added: “What we need is restraint and common sense – restraint in the demands we make and common sense on how we spend our income.”

Macmillan led the Conservatives into the 1959 general election. The party secured 365 seats, increasing its majority to 107 (up 30).

Macmillan’s resignation in October 1963 on health grounds followed a series of damaging political scandals and electoral setbacks.

His Supermac sobriquet was somewhat undermined by the fallout from the infamous Night of the Long Knives reshuffle in 1962 – so-called after Adolf Hitler’s 1934 purge of his political opponents.

In 1963, months of intensive negotiations over Britain’s application to join the European Economic Community (EEC) were ended when Charles de Gaulle unilaterally and abruptly exercised his veto. De Gaulle’s notorious “Non” was a humiliating political blow to Macmillan, who confided in his diary that “all our policies at home and abroad are in ruins.”

Macmillan’s judgement was also questioned over his handling of the Vassall and Profumo affairs in 1962 and 1963 respectively.

Upon his resignation as prime minister, Macmillan controversially recommended that Queen Elizabeth II appoint Alec Douglas-Home, a peer of the realm, as his successor.

He was created Earl of Stockton in 1984 and died two years later on 29 December 1986, aged 92.