THE only Prime Minister in British history to resign because of stress - or "severe overstrain" as it was called in those days - was Sir Anthony Eden.

Sir Anthony was born just metres inside the Sedgefield constituency of Tony Blair, the British Prime Minister who has been recovering this week from a heart complaint that the media suggests was brought on by stress.

Despite 50 years and a huge political gulf separating the two Prime Ministers, the story of Eden's demise has many parallels with Mr Blair's time.

Eden was born at the family mansion of Windlestone near Rushyford in 1897. In 1922 he stood as the Conservative candidate for Durham City. Sixty years later, Mr Blair's father Leo, chairman of Durham City Conservative Association, was a senior law lecturer at Durham University and a barrister practising in Newcastle. The stress of his work caused him to have a stroke so severe that he couldn't speak for three years. His second son Tony was 11 at the time, and it is said that seeing his father cut down in his prime is one of Mr Blair's driving forces.

Anyway, the Windlestone lad Eden succeeded Winston Churchill as Prime Minister in 1955. In 1956, President Nasser of Egypt nationalised the Suez Canal. Britain owned shares in the canal and, more importantly, two thirds of our oil passed through it. Eden said Nasser was a "Muslim Mussolini" who should not be allowed "to have his hands on our windpipe".

The British people were deeply divided over the merits of war. Labour, under Hugh Gaitskell, refused to support it without United Nations agreement, and said it was illegal. America was also against war, fearing it would open the door to Russian influence in the Middle East.

Undeterred, Eden and his only ally, France, cooked up a secret plan whereby Israel invaded Egypt, thus allowing Britain and France to invade on the pretext of acting as peacemakers. While no one was looking, they'd capture the canal as well.

Unfortunately, on October 29, 1956, British forces left Malta several hours before Israel had begun the invasion - rather giving the game away.

By November 3, Eden was so isolated internationally that he became the first PM to address the nation via the television. It didn't work. The following day, 30,000 anti-war protestors coverged on London and the pound fell catastrophically on the currency markets.

On November 6, Eden announced a ceasefire. British troops had captured just 25 miles of canal. Then he fled to Ian Fleming's villa in Jamaica, leaving his Foreign Secretary Selwyn Lloyd to announce the embarrassing withdrawal of British troops.

Eden returned in mid-December but on January 9, 1957, resigned suffering from "severe overstrain".

The episode proved that Britain was no longer "great". No longer did it have the military or economic power to act alone contrary to world opinion. It's time had passed - America's opposition to military action proved that it was now the world's policeman, a fact that has been rammed home this year in Iraq.

After resigning, Eden and his second wife sailed for New Zealand for a relaxing holiday. On board the liner, their cabin boy is supposed to have been a certain John Prescott - whom Mr Blair, MP for Sir Anthony's birthplace, knows as his Deputy Prime Minister.