Henry Channon

Sir
Henry Channon
1930 portrait
Member of Parliament
for Southend West
Southend (1935–1950)
In office
14 November 1935 – 7 October 1958
Preceded byThe Countess of Iveagh
Succeeded byPaul Channon
Personal details
Born(1897-03-07)7 March 1897
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Died7 October 1958(1958-10-07) (aged 61)
London, England
Political partyConservative
Spouse
Lady Honor Guinness
(m. 1933; div. 1945)
ChildrenPaul Channon
Alma materUniversity of Chicago
Christ Church, Oxford

Sir Henry Channon (7 March 1897 – 7 October 1958), known as Chips Channon, was an American-born British Conservative politician, author and diarist. Channon moved to England in 1920 and became strongly anti-American, feeling that American cultural and economic views threatened traditional European and British civilisation. He wrote extensively about these views. Channon quickly became enamoured of London society and became a social and political climber.

Channon was first elected as a Member of Parliament (MP) in 1935. In his political career he served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Rab Butler at the Foreign Office from 1938 in the Chamberlain administration and though he retained that position under Winston Churchill he did not subsequently achieve ministerial office, partly as a result of his close association with the Chamberlain faction. He is remembered as one of the most famous political and social diarists of the 20th century. His diaries were first published in an expurgated edition in 1967. They were later released in full, edited by Simon Heffer and published by Hutchinson in three volumes, between 2021 and 2022.[1][2]

  1. ^ The Diaries of Chips Channon Vol 1. Penguin UK. Retrieved 7 January 2021.
  2. ^ The Diaries of Chips Channon Vol 3. Penguin UK. 8 September 2022. Retrieved 8 September 2022.