After World War II King George VI offered to make Winston Churchill duke of Dover, yet he reclined because he knew that a seat in the House of Lords would cost him his the seat among the commoners, who had had the real political power since a reform back in 1910. This situation he did not want. Churchill also turned down the Most Noble Order of the Garter in the immediate post-war era and did not accept the honour before 1954, when Queen Elizabeth II brought up the idea again. Many observers saw the accept as the beginning of his farewell to a life in politics. In 1955 he passed on the responsibility as Prime Minister to Sir Anthony Eden.