The Duff Cooper Diaries: 1915-1951

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Ramsay MacDonald appointed Cooper as Financial Secretary to the War Office in August 1931. This was followed by posts as Financial Secretary to the Treasury to the Treasury (June, 1934 - November, 1935) and Secretary of State for War (November, 1935 - May, 1937).

When Winston Churchill became prime minister in May 1940, he named Cooper as Minister of Information. From 1941, he served in numerous diplomatic roles. He also served an important role as representative to Charles de Gaulle's Free France (1943–44) and ambassador to France from 1944 to 1948. Duff Cooper was shy, even with his own child, and his main method of communication was to read to him, and recite, teaching his son to do the same in return and thus beginning John Julius’s long career as a performer. In 1937 Duff Cooper was made first lord of the Admiralty, and the family moved to Admiralty House, off Trafalgar Square, where John Julius’s nursery overlooked Horse Guards Parade. This did not last long. Bell, P. M. H. (2014). France and Britain, 1940–1994: The Long Separation. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-05-82289-21-5. She worked as a Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) nurse at Guy's Hospital during the war, and later at a hospital for officers her mother set up in London (though she annoyed her co-workers with her inconsistent attendance, and tendency to take off with friends). She also worked briefly as editor of the magazine Femina, and she wrote a column in the Beaverbrook newspapers before turning to acting. Her work as a nurse increased her popularity and public notoriety. Her name appears in the wartime version of the music hall song " Burlington Bertie": "I'll eat a banana/with Lady Diana/Aristocracy working at Guy's". [7] Diana herself had revealed that although she was brought up as a daughter of the eighth Duke of Rutland, she was actually fathered by Harry Cust, a Lincolnshire landowner and Member of Parliament (MP).Then there was the drinking. When he became First Lord of the Admiralty, Queen Mary let it be known that he must lay off the sauce a bit. Accordingly, he adopts a system based on the division of days into five categories: A: No drink until dinner, then only one sort; B: Either only one sort at luncheon or dinner or nothing until dinner then more sorts than one; C: More sorts both at luncheon and dinner but nothing between; D: No restrictions but no excess; E: Excess. He felt out of kilter with the Conservative leadership and was surprised when the new Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain appointed him First Lord of the Admiralty in May 1937. Philip Ziegler writes that his tenure of office was "an unequivocal success". [19] He enjoyed high living on board the Admiralty yacht HMS Enchantress, but fought Chamberlain and the Chancellor of the Exchequer Sir John Simon for more spending on the Royal Navy. [20] Chamberlain saw him as indiscreet and as a firebrand. By the time of the Munich Agreement, Cooper was isolated in the Cabinet as the most public critic of Chamberlain's appeasement policy. [19] The following day many newspapers carried stories about the small ships at Dunkirk, not just pleasure steamers but river cruisers, which had never been beyond the estuary of the Thames. Hundreds of such craft had indeed been co-opted, and had sailed across the Channel, but most had naval reserve crews, and had been used for ferrying men from the beaches to the destroyers. Diana Cooper, Viscountess Norwich (née Lady Diana Olivia Winifred Maud Manners; 29 August 1892 – 16 June 1986) was an English actress and aristocrat who was a well-known social figure in London and Paris. Cooper was married to Lady Diana from 1919 to his death and their only child was John Julius Norwich (1929–2018), who became well known as a writer and television presenter. [42] Cooper's granddaughter Artemis has published several books, including A Durable Fire: The Letters of Duff and Diana Cooper, 1913–50. [43]

In 1924 she lent her fame to her husband's successful campaign for election to Parliament, canvassing on his behalf in Oldham. [5] The Coopers were friends with Edward VIII, and were guests of his on a 1936 yacht cruise of the Adriatic which famously caused his affair with Wallis Simpson to become publicly known for the first time. [9] During this period, Lady Diana’s popularity as a hostess remained undimmed, even after allegations that the embassy guest list included “pederasts and collaborators”.

Biographical / Historical

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 and diplomat who was also a military and political historian.