Michael Leonard Graham BalfourCBE (22 November 1908 — 16 September 1995) was an English historian and civil servant.[1]
He was born inOxford, the son ofSir Graham Balfour.[1] He was educated atRugby School andBalliol College, Oxford, where he graduated with a first in history.[1] He first visited Germany in 1930, where he became a friend ofHelmuth James von Moltke.[1] During theSecond World War Balfour worked at the Ministry of Information and the Political Intelligence Department of the Foreign Office (the cover name for thePolitical Warfare Executive).[1] In 1944 he joined thePsychological Warfare Division of theSupreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force and after the war he became Director of Public Relations and Information Services,Control Commission, in theBritish Zone ofAllied-occupied Germany.[1]
He was Chief Information Officer at theBoard of Trade from 1947 to 1964.[1] He was then professor of European History at theUniversity of East Anglia from 1966 to 1974. In 1934 he married Grizel Wilson (younger sister of his Balliol friend, the diplomatDuncan Wilson, and of philosopherMary Warnock)[1][2] and they had three daughters. Balfour died in theOxfordshire town ofWitney at age 86.[1]
