Channon, Henry, 1898-1958

Sir Henry Channon (7 March 1897 – 7 October 1958), known as Chips Channon, was an American-born British Conservative Party politician, author and diarist. Channon moved to England in 1920 and became strongly anti-American, feeling that American cultural and economic preponderance threatened traditional European and British civilisation. Channon quickly became enamoured of London society and became a social and political figure. 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 extenso, edited by Simon Heffer and published by Hutchinson in three volumes, between 2021 and 2022.