Frederick Winston Furneaux Smith, 2nd Earl of Birkenhead (7 December 1907 – 10 June 1975) was a British historian. He is best known for writing a controversial biography of Rudyard Kipling that was suppressed by the Kipling family for many years, and which, in fact, he never lived to see in print.
The son of F. E. Smith, 1st Earl of Birkenhead, he was known as Viscount Furneaux from 1922, when his father, then 1st Viscount Birkenhead, was created Earl of Birkenhead. Lord Furneaux was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford and inherited his father's peerages in 1930.
In 1935 he married The Hon. Sheila Berry, second daughter of the 1st Viscount Camrose. The couple had a son, Frederick, Viscount Furneaux, in 1936, and a daughter, Lady Juliet Margaret Smith (later Lady Juliet Townsend) in 1941.
For the first three years of the Second War, Lord Birkenhead served with a Territorial Army Anti-Tank unit. Following a course at the Staff College, Camberley, Major 'Freddy' Birkenhead was assigned to the Foreign Office's Political Intelligence Department, popularly known as the Political Warfare Executive, or PWE for short. He saw action in Croatia, as second-in-command of a sub-mission headed by Randolph Churchill, under Brigadier Fitzroy Maclean's 37th Military Mission, which included Evelyn Waugh. As a result he plays a prominent role in Waugh's diaries.
Lord Birkenhead served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Lord Halifax (1938–39), and as Lord-in-Waiting to King George VI (1938–40 and 1951–52) and Queen Elizabeth II (1952–55).
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by The Earl of Munster |
Lord-in-Waiting 1938 – 1940 |
Succeeded by New government |
| Preceded by New government |
Lord-in-Waiting 1951 – 1955 |
Succeeded by The Lord Chesham |
| Peerage of the United Kingdom | ||
| Preceded by F. E. Smith |
Earl of Birkenhead 1930 – 1975 |
Succeeded by Frederick Smith |