Alfred Duff Cooper, 1st Viscount Norwich (February 22, 1890 - January 1, 1954), known universally as Duff Cooper, was a British diplomat, Cabinet member and acclaimed author. The son of fashionable society doctor Sir Alfred Cooper, and Lady Agnes Duff (sister of the Duke of Fife), he was the youngest of four children and the only son, and enjoyed a typical gentleman's upbringing of country estates, London Society, Eton College and Oxford. February 22 is the 53rd day of every year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1890 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... January 1 is the first day of the calendar year in both the Julian and Gregorian calendars. ... 1954 (MCMLIV) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Sir Alfred Cooper was a fashionable English surgeon and clubman of the late 19th century, whose clients included the Prince of Wales. ... The Kings College of Our Lady of Eton beside Windsor, commonly known as Eton College or just Eton, is a public school (that is, an independent, fee-charging secondary school) for boys. ... Oxford is a city and local government district in Oxfordshire, England, with a population of 134,248 (2001 census). ...

At Oxford, his Eton friendship with John Henry Montagu Manners, 9th Duke of Rutland, won him entree into a famous and fashionable circle of young aristocratic "bloods" and intellectuals known as The Coterie, including Patrick Shaw-Stewart, Raymond Asquith (son of the Prime Minister), Sir Denis Anson, Edward Horner, and most famously Lady Diana Manners, the most beautiful woman in England and the "Lady Di" of her day. He cultivated a reputation for eloquence and fast-living, and although he had established a reputation as a poet, he earned an even better reputation for gambling, womanizing and drinking in his studied emulation of the life of Charles James Fox. But his contacts with politicians such as Winston Churchill, H.H. Asquith and others were impeccable. The Coterie comprised a fashionable and famous set of English aristocrats and intellectuals of the 1910s, widely quoted and profiled in magazines and newspapers of the period. ... Patrick Shaw-Stewart was a brilliant Eton College and Oxford scholar of the Edwardian era who died on active service in the First World War. ... Raymond Asquith (November 6, 1878 - September 15, 1916) was an English barrister and son of British Prime Minister H.H. Asquith. ... Cover of Time Magazine (February 15, 1926) Lady Diana Manners (August 29, 1892 - June 16, 1986), later Lady Diana Cooper and then Diana, Viscountess Norwich, was the youngest daughter of Henry John Brinsley Manners, the 8th Duke of Rutland and his wife, the Duchess of Rutland, but was widely supposed... The Right Honourable Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, KG, OM, CH, TD, FRS (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was an English statesman, best known as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. ... Herbert Henry Asquith, 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith (September 12, 1852 - February 15, 1928) served as the Liberal Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1908 to 1916. ...

Following Oxford, he entered into the Foreign Service, and owing to the national importance of his work at cipher desk, he was excluded from military service until 1917, when he joined the Grenadier Guards. He served with distinction as a Lieutenant in the campaigns of 1918, winning the DSO for conspicuous gallantry. Almost all of his closest friends, including Shaw-Stewart, Horner, Asquith and John Manners were killed in the war, drawing him closer to Lady Diana Manners, whom he married in 1920. Oxford is a city and local government district in Oxfordshire, England, with a population of 134,248 (2001 census). ... The Grenadier Guards is the most senior regiment of the Guards Division of the British Army, and, as such, is the most senior regiment of infantry. ... Cover of Time Magazine (February 15, 1926) Lady Diana Manners (August 29, 1892 - June 16, 1986), later Lady Diana Cooper and then Diana, Viscountess Norwich, was the youngest daughter of Henry John Brinsley Manners, the 8th Duke of Rutland and his wife, the Duchess of Rutland, but was widely supposed...

Returning to the Foreign Service, he became Principal Private Secretary to two ministers and played a significant role in the Egyptian and Turkish crises of the early 1920s before winning a seat in Parliament as a Conservative in 1924. He gave one of the most acclaimed maiden speeches of the century, and became known as a stalwart supporter of Stanley Baldwin, the Prime Minister, and a close friend of Chancellor of the Exchequer, Winston Churchill. He became a junior minister in the Treasury office in the late 1920s before losing his seat in the 1929 elections when the Conservative Party was swept out of office. Stanley Baldwin, 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley (August 3, 1867 - December 14, 1947) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom on three separate occasions. ... A prime minister may be either: chief or leading member of the cabinet of the top-level government in a country having a parliamentary system of government; or the official, in countries with a semi-presidential system of government, appointed to manage the civil service and execute the directives of... The Rt. ... The Conservative Party is the largest political party on the right-of-centre in the United Kingdom. ...

Turning to literature, he produced one of the most readable short biographies in the language, Talleyrand, which was published in 1932 to critical praise and has remained in print almost continuously since. He returned to Parliament in a by-election in 1931, and served continuously until 1945. Charles Maurice de Talleyrand Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord (February 2, 1754 - May 17, 1838) was a French diplomat. ... An aerial view of Parliament of India at New Delhi. ...

Returning to the Treasury Office as a junior minister, he was elevated to the Cabinet as War Secretary in 1935 and promoted to First Lord of the Admiralty in 1937. He completed a biography of Douglas Haig during this period. The most public critic of Neville Chamberlain's appeasement policy inside the Cabinet, he famously resigned in 1938 over the Munich Agreement with Adolf Hitler in an act that MP Vyvyan Adams described as "the first step in the road back to national sanity". However Duff Cooper soon sought to return to office by seeking to ingratiate himself with Chamberlain. He later took a prominent role in the famous Parliamentary debate of 1940 which led to Chamberlain's downfall. The First Lord of the Admiralty was a British government position in charge of the Admiralty. ... Field Marshal Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig (June 19, 1861 - January 28, 1928) was a British soldier and senior commander during World War I. He had independent wealth: his family manufactured Haig & Haig whisky. ... The Right Honourable Arthur Neville Chamberlain (18 March 1869 – 9 November 1940) was a British politician and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1937–1940. ... Hitler redirects here. ...

He subsequently entered the Cabinet as Minister of Information under Winston Churchill, but surprisingly did not play a major role in the direction of the war until appointed the British Government's liaison to the Free French in 1943. He subsequently became Ambassador to France in 1944, and was a great success in Paris. He left office in 1947, was knighted, and devoted himself primarily to literature until his death in 1954 at the age of 63. He produced during this period the classic autobiography Old Men Forget, and was eventually created a viscount in 1952 in recognition of his political and literary career. The Right Honourable Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, KG, OM, CH, TD, FRS (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was an English statesman, best known as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. ... Old Men Forget is a 1953 autobiography by Duff Cooper, Viscount Norwich, detailing his Victorian childhood, Edwardian youth, and work in literature and politics. ... A viscount is a member of the European nobility, especially, as in the British peerage, ranking above a baron, below a (British) earl or (his continental equivalent) count. ...

His only child, John Julius Norwich (born in 1929), became well known as a writer and television host, and his granddaughter Artemis Cooper has published several books, including A Durable Fire: The Letters of Duff and Diana Cooper, 1913-50. (Another granddaughter is screenwriter Allegra Huston, the daughter of John Julius Norwich and Enrica Soma Huston, who was the estranged wife of the American film director John Huston.) His wife, Diana, lived until 1986, producing a three-volume autobiography that was a best-seller in its own right. She was the subject of a biography by Philip Ziegler covering her career as a film and stage actress, as well as her often tempestuous life with Duff. John Julius Cooper, 2nd Viscount Norwich (born 15 September 1929), known as John Julius Norwich, is a British historian, travel writer and television personality and the son of the Conservative politician and diplomat Duff Cooper, who in 1952 was created Viscount Norwich, and of Lady Diana Cooper, a celebrated beauty... Statue of John Huston, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico John Marcellus Huston (August 5, 1906–August 28, 1987) was an American film director and actor. ... Highly regarded British biographer and historian. ...

The couple's marriage was fraught with infidelities, notably Duff's affairs with the Singer sewing-machine heiress Daisy Fellowes, the French novelist Louise Leveque de Vilmorin, and Susan Mary Patten, the wife of an American diplomat. When Duff Cooper took the Norwich title, his wife refused to be called Lady Norwich, claiming that it sounded too much like "porridge," and promptly took out a newspaper advertisement declaring that she would retain her previous style of Lady Diana Cooper. Marguerite Séverine Philippine Decazes de Glücksbierg (April 29, 1890-December 13, 1962), better known as Daisy Fellowes, was a celebrated 20th-century society figure, acclaimed beauty, minor novelist and poet, erstwhile editor of Harpers Bazaar, fashion icon, and an heiress to the Singer sewing machine fortune. ... Louise Levêque de Vilmorin (4 April 1904-26 December 1969) was a French woman of letters: novelist, poet, journalist. ...

Duff Cooper himself was the subject of a biography by John Charmley, and a major British literary award, the Duff Cooper Prize, was established in his name. The Duff Cooper Prize is a prize which goes to the best work of history, biography, or political science published in English or French. ...

Succession