Michael Balfour

balfour michael photo from Geni
Born in Oxford, England, Michael Leonard Graham Balfour (1908-1995) attended Rugby School and graduated from Balliol College, Oxford, with a First Class degree in history. He then taught at Oxford and worked at Chatham House as secretary to a study group on Nationalism. He first visited Germany in 1930, where he became a close friend of Helmuth James von Moltke, executed by the Nazis in January 1945, and von Moltke's widow, Freya, who provided material for his 1972 book Helmuth von Moltke: A Leader Against Hitler.

During the World War II, Balfour worked at the Ministry of Information and the Political Intelligence Department of the Foreign Office. In 1944 he joined the Psychological Warfare Division of the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force and after the war he became Director of Public Relations and Information Services, Control Commission, in the British Zone of Allied-occupied Germany. His 1979 book
Propaganda in War, 1939-45 is based on his experiences. He also wrote The Kaiser and his Times in 1964.

He returned to the UK in 1947 and served as Chief Information Officer at the Board of Trade until 1964. He was then Professor of European History at the University of East Anglia from 1966 until 1974.


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Helmuth von Moltke eBook cover