Nicholas Eden, 2nd Earl of Avon


Nicholas Eden, 2nd Earl of Avon, OBE , styled Viscount Eden between 1961 and 1977, was a British Army officer and, later, a Conservative politician. He was the younger son of Prime Minister Sir Anthony Eden and his first wife, Beatrice.

Career

Called up for National Service, Eden was commissioned a second lieutenant in the King's Royal Rifle Corps, his father's former regiment, on 20 May 1950. He transferred to a Territorial Army commission with effect from 6 August 1953, in the same rank, and was promoted to acting lieutenant from the same date. He was promoted to acting captain on 1 March 1956, to the substantive rank on 3 October 1957, to acting major on 1 November 1959 and to substantive major on 3 October 1964 (seniority from 1 November 1959. He was appointed OBE in the 1970 New Year Honours for his military service.
Eden succeeded to the earldom on the death of his father in 1977, his elder brother Pilot Officer Simon Gascoigne Eden having been killed in action in June 1945, while serving as a navigator with the RAF in Burma.

Government service

Having risen to the rank of lieutenant-colonel in the Royal Green Jackets, Lord Avon served under Margaret Thatcher as a Lord-in-waiting from 1980 to 1983, as Under-Secretary of State for Energy from 1983 to 1984 and as Under-Secretary of State for the Environment from 1984 until his resignation "because of ill health" in March 1985, shortly before his death.

Personal life

Widely known to have been homosexual, Lord Avon was unmarried and died from complications related to AIDS at the age of 54. The cause of death on the death certificate was stated as meningoencephalitis or "inflammation of the brain." Upon his death, his titles became extinct. At the time of his death, The News of the World identified a man "listed as authorizing cremation of Avon’s body as an antiques dealer who lived with Avon in Holland Park."