This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Sofoklis Venizelos" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(May 2014) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

This article'slead sectionmay be too short to adequatelysummarize the key points. Please consider expanding the lead toprovide an accessible overview of all important aspects of the article.(February 2023)

Sofoklis Venizelos
Σοφοκλής Βενιζέλος
Prime Minister of Greece
In office 21 August 1950 – 27 October 1951
Monarch	Paul
Preceded by	Nikolaos Plastiras
Succeeded by	Nikolaos Plastiras
In office 23 March 1950 – 15 April 1950
Monarch	Paul
Preceded by	Ioannis Theotokis
Succeeded by	Nikolaos Plastiras
In office 14 April 1944 – 26 April 1944
Monarch	George II
Preceded by	Emmanouil Tsouderos
Succeeded by	Georgios Papandreou
Deputy Prime Minister of Greece
In office 8 November – 30 December 1963
Monarch	Paul
Prime Minister	Georgios Papandreou
Preceded by	Panagiotis Kanellopoulos
Succeeded by	Stefanos Stefanopoulos
In office 27 October 1951 – 11 October 1952
Monarch	Paul
Prime Minister	Nikolaos Plastiras
Preceded by	Emmanouil Tsouderos
Succeeded by	Panagiotis Kanellopoulos
In office 30 June 1949 – 6 January 1950
Monarch	Paul
Prime Minister	Alexandros Diomidis
Preceded by	Konstantinos Tsaldaris
Succeeded by	Panagiotis Kanellopoulos
In office 24 January – 29 August 1947
Monarch	Paul
Prime Minister	Dimitrios Maximos
Preceded by	Konstantinos Tsaldaris
Succeeded by	Konstantinos Tsaldaris
In office 24 May – 30 August 1944
Monarch	George II
Prime Minister	Georgios Papandreou
Preceded by	Georgios Rousos
Succeeded by	Kyriakos Varvaresos
Minister of National Defense
In office 21 August – 9 September 1950
Monarch	Paul
Prime Minister	Himself
Preceded by	Philippos Manoulidis
Succeeded by	Konstantinos Rendis
In office 10 April – 24 July 1952
Monarch	Paul
Prime Minister	Nikolaos Plastiras
Preceded by	Alexandros Sakellariou
Succeeded by	Georgios Mavros
Personal details
Born	3 November 1894 Chania,Vilayet of Crete,Ottoman Empire(present-day Greece)
Died	7 February 1964 (aged 69) on boardSS Hellas,Aegean Sea
Political party	Liberal Party Centre Union
Spouse	Kathleen Zervudachi
Relations	Kyriakos Venizelos (brother) Nikitas Venizelos (nephew) Konstantinos Mitsotakis (nephew) Dora Bakoyannis (great-niece) Alexandra Mitsotaki (great-niece) Kyriakos Mitsotakis (great-nephew)
Children	Despina Venizelou-Laskari
Parent(s)	Eleftherios Venizelos Maria Katelouzou
Alma mater	Hellenic Army Academy
Signature
Military service
Allegiance	Kingdom of Greece
Branch/service	Hellenic Army
Years of service	1911-1920
Rank	Captain
Battles/wars	World War I Macedonian front Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922)

Sofoklis^[a] Venizelos (Greek:Σοφοκλής Βενιζέλος; 3 November 1894 – 7 February 1964) was aGreek politician who served three times asPrime Minister of Greece: in 1944 (in exile), 1950 and 1950–1951.

Venizelos was born on 3 November 1894 inChania,Crete (then a part of theOttoman Empire; it became an autonomous state under Ottoman suzerainty and the protection of Russia, Britain, France, and Italy in 1898). He was the second-born son of the politicianEleftherios Venizelos.

During World War I, he served with distinction in theHellenic Army and the initial phases of theAsia Minor campaign, reaching the rank ofCaptain ofInfantry.

He resigned from the Army and was elected as anMP with his father'sLiberal Party in the 1920 elections.

In 1941, after theAxis occupation of Greece, he became ambassador to the United States, representing theGreek government in exile based inCairo. He became a minister of that government in 1943 under Prime Minister Emmanuel Tsuderos and briefly became its prime minister in 1944 (April 13–26).

After the end of the war, he returned to Greece, where he became Vice President of the Liberal Party (led byThemistoklis Sofoulis) and a minister in the first post-war government led byGeorgios Papandreou.

In 1948, he assumed the party's leadership and became a minister in several short-lived liberal governments led by Papandreou andNikolaos Plastiras; he was also the Prime Minister of three such governments.

In 1954, his longtime friendship with Georgios Papandreou was shaken, and he formed the rivalLiberal Democratic Union [el] coalition.

The rift was bridged in 1958, and in 1961, he became a founding member of Papandreou'sCenter Union party, which he served until he died in 1964.

On 6th February 1964, in the evening, he gave a pre-election speech inChania. There, he had felt unwell, which he overcame. Later, he boarded the passenger shipHellas in theAegean Sea, en route from Chania toPiraeus orSyros. In the cabin, he felt discomfort and had shortness of breath. His attending physician diagnosed acutepulmonary edema. Venizelos died at 01:05 on 7 February. The ship returned toSouda. His funeral took place on Sunday February 9, in Chania, in the presence of Crown Prince Constantine (who represented the ailing King Paul), Prime MinisterIoannis Paraskevopoulos,Georgios Papandreou,Panagiotis Kanellopoulos,Spyros Markezinis, andNicolas Kitsikis. Venizelos was buried next to his father,Eleftherios Venizelos.^[1] His wife Kathleen died in 1983, aged 86. In his honor, the shipping companyANEK Lines named one of its ferries after him.

Venizelos was acontract bridge player "of international stature" during the 1930s as a voluntary exile in France.^[2] He played for France in theEuropean IBL Championships (later incorporated into the history of present-dayEuropean Bridge League championships).^[3] France won the 1935 tournament and a version of the team^[b] traveled to New York City late that year for a match against theFour Aces, which was "an unofficial world championship match" that the Aces won.^[2]

Venizelos was second in skill toPierre Albarran among contemporary French players, according toAlan Truscott. Besides the national teams at contract bridge, they both played on a 1933 team that hosted an American foursome led byEly Culbertson in a long match at "plafond, the French parent of contract bridge, which differed only in the scoring details."^[2] The two teams played 102 deals to a draw;^[2] Albarran and Venizelos cooperated on a book reporting and analysing the match:

• Les 102 donnes d'un grand match, by Pierre Albarran, Adrien Aron, and Venizelos, preface by Ely Culbertson (Éditions Grasset, 1933), 188 pp.,LCCN 33-38010

Albarran, Aron, and Venizelos were three of six players on the 1935 European champion team.^[4][b]

• "International record for Sophocles Venizelos".World Bridge Federation.
• Sophocles Venizelos atLibrary of Congress, with 1 library catalogue record

• 1894 births
• 1964 deaths
• Politicians from Chania
• People from Ottoman Crete
• Venizelos family
• Liberal Party (Greece) politicians
• National Political Union (1946) politicians
• Liberal Democratic Union (Greece) politicians
• Centre Union politicians
• Foreign ministers of Greece
• Ministers of national defence of Greece
• Greek MPs 1920–1922
• Greek MPs 1946–1950
• Greek MPs 1950–1951
• Greek MPs 1951–1952
• Greek MPs 1952–1956
• Greek MPs 1956–1958
• Ambassadors of Greece to the United States
• 20th-century prime ministers of Greece
• Greek anti-communists
• French contract bridge players
• 1950s in Greek politics
• Children of prime ministers of Greece
• Eleftherios Venizelos
• Military personnel from Chania
• Greek people of World War II
• Greek military personnel of the Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922)
• Greek military personnel of World War I
• People of the Korean War
• People who died at sea

• Webarchive template wayback links
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Articles needing additional references from May 2014
• All articles needing additional references
• Wikipedia introduction cleanup from February 2023
• All pages needing cleanup
• Articles covered by WikiProject Wikify from February 2023
• All articles covered by WikiProject Wikify
• Articles containing Greek-language text