Duff Cooper
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The Right Honourable The Viscount Norwich GCMG DSO PC |
|
|---|---|
Duff Cooper in 1941
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| Secretary of State for War | |
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In office 22 November 1935 – 28 May 1937 |
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| Monarch |
George V Edward VIII George VI |
| Prime Minister | Stanley Baldwin |
| Preceded by | The Viscount Halifax |
| Succeeded by | Leslie Hore-Belisha |
| Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster | |
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In office 20 July 1941 – 11 November 1943 |
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| Prime Minister | Winston Churchill |
| Preceded by | The Lord Hankey |
| Succeeded by | Ernest Brown |
| British Ambassador to France | |
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In office 1944–1948 |
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| Monarch | George VI |
| Preceded by | Vacant due to German occupation |
| Succeeded by | Oliver Harvey |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 22 February 1890 |
| Died | 1 January 1954 (aged 63) |
| Nationality | British |
| Political party | Conservative |
| Spouse(s) |
Lady Diana Manners (1892–1986) |
| Alma mater | New College, Oxford |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |
 United Kingdom
|
| Service/branch | British Army |
| Rank | Lieutenant |
| Unit | Grenadier Guards |
| Battles/wars | |
| Awards |
Distinguished Service Order Mentioned in Despatches |
Alfred Duff Cooper, 1st Viscount Norwich, GCMG, DSO, PC (22 February 1890 – 1 January 1954), known as Duff Cooper, was a British Conservative Party politician, diplomat and author. in the intense political debates of the late 1930s over appeasement, he first put his trust in the League of Nations, and realized that war with Germany was inevitable. He denounced the Munich agreement of 1938 as meaningless, cowardly, and unworkable, as he resigned from the cabinet. When Churchill became prime minister in May 1940, he named Cooper as Minister of Information. From 1941 he served in numerous minor diplomatic roles. His most important role was representative to de Gaulle's Free France (1943–44) and ambassador to France from 1944–48.
The only son of fashionable society doctor Sir Alfred Cooper and Lady Agnes Duff, daughter of James Duff, 5th Earl Fife, Duff Cooper was the youngest of their four children. He had royal connections: his maternal uncle, the first Duke of Fife, was married to Louise, Princess Royal. Cooper enjoyed a typical gentleman's upbringing of country estates, London society, Wixenford School,Eton College and New College, Oxford.
At Oxford, his Eton friendship with John Nevile Manners won him entry into a famous circle of young aristocrats and intellectuals known as the Coterie, including Patrick Shaw-Stewart, Raymond Asquith, Sir Denis Anson, Edward Horner and the celebrated Lady Diana Manners. He cultivated a reputation for eloquence and fast living and although he had established a reputation as a poet, he earned an even stronger reputation for gambling, womanizing, and drinking in his studied emulation of the life of the 18th and 19th century Whig statesman Charles James Fox.
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