Editing Alec Douglas-Home (section)

=== Military service and backbench MP===
Dunglass had volunteered for active military service, seeking to rejoin the Lanarkshire Yeomanry<ref name=dnb/> shortly after Chamberlain left Downing Street. The consequent medical examination revealed that Dunglass had a hole in his spine surrounded by [[tuberculosis]] in the bone. Without surgery he would have been unable to walk within a matter of months.<ref name="t109">Thorpe (1997), p. 109</ref> An innovative and hazardous operation was performed in September 1940, lasting six hours, in which the diseased bone in the spine was scraped away and replaced with healthy bone from the patient's shin.<ref name=t109/>

{{Quote box |quoted=true |bgcolor=#E0E0F8 |salign=right| quote = <big>You have put backbone into a politician!</big>| source = Dunglass to his surgeon<ref name="p461">Pike, p. 461</ref>|align=left| width=200px}}
For all of Dunglass's humour and patience, the following two years were a grave trial. He was encased in plaster and kept flat on his back for most of that period. Although buoyed up by the sensitive support of his wife and family, as he later confessed, "I often felt that I would be better dead".<ref>Home (1976), p. 86</ref> Towards the end of 1942 he was released from his plaster jacket and fitted with a spinal brace, and in early 1943 he was mobile for the first time since the operation.<ref name=p461/> During his incapacity he read voraciously; among the works he studied were ''[[Das Kapital]]'',{{Efn|According to Thorpe, Douglas-Home was the only British Prime Minister known to have read the work.<ref name="t115">Thorpe (1997), p. 115</ref>}} and works by [[Engels]] and [[Lenin]], biographies of nineteenth and twentieth century politicians, and novels by authors from [[Dostoyevsky]] to [[Arthur Koestler|Koestler]].<ref>Thorpe (1997), pp. 115–116</ref>

In July 1943 Dunglass attended the House of Commons for the first time since 1940, and began to make a reputation as a backbench member, particularly for his expertise in the field of foreign affairs.{{Sfnmp|ps=none|1a1=Pike|1y=1968|1p=461|2a1=Thorpe|2y=1997|2p=121}} He foresaw a post-imperial future for Britain and emphasised the need for strong European ties after the war.{{Sfnp|ps=none|Thorpe|1997|p=121}} In 1944, with the war now turning in the Allies' favour, Dunglass spoke eloquently about the importance of resisting the [[Soviet Union]]'s ambition to dominate eastern Europe. His boldness in publicly urging Churchill not to give in to [[Joseph Stalin]] was widely remarked upon; many, including Churchill himself, observed that some of those once associated with appeasement were determined that it should not be repeated in the face of Russian aggression.{{Sfnp|ps=none|Thorpe|1997|p=124}} Labour left the wartime coalition in May 1945 and Churchill formed a caretaker Conservative government, pending a general election in July. Dunglass was appointed to his first ministerial post: [[Anthony Eden]] remained in charge of the Foreign Office, and Dunglass was appointed as one of his two Under-secretaries of State.{{Sfnp|ps=none|Dutton|2006|p=15}}