Edward Wood, third Viscount Halifax, was a church-going, fox-hunting aristocrat, but it was his political guile that earned him Churchill’s nickname ‘The Holy Fox’.
As Viceroy of India, his deal with Gandhi ended the Civil Disobedience campaign before it could force the British to quit. And in November 1937, as Chamberlain’s special envoy, he visited Berctesgaden and held a conversation with Hitler which was to cast a shadow over Europe until the outbreak of the war.
After Eden’s shock resignation in February…
