Duff Cooper

The Right Honourable The Viscount Norwich GCMG DSO PC
Secretary of State for War
In office 22 November 1935 – 28 May 1937
Monarchs	George V Edward VIII George VI
Prime Minister	Stanley Baldwin
Preceded by	The Viscount Halifax
Succeeded by	Leslie Hore-Belisha
First Lord of the Admiralty
In office 28 October 1937 – 3 October 1938
Monarch	George VI
Prime Minister	Neville Chamberlain
Preceded by	Sir Samuel Hoare
Succeeded by	The Earl Stanhope
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
In office 20 July 1941 – 11 November 1943
Prime Minister	Winston Churchill
Preceded by	The Lord Hankey
Succeeded by	Ernest Brown
British Ambassador to France
In office 1944–1948
Monarch	George VI
Preceded by	Vacant due to German occupation
Succeeded by	Oliver Harvey
Personal details
Born	Alfred Duff Cooper (1890-02-22)22 February 1890 London, England
Died	1 January 1954(1954-01-01) (aged 63) at sea, North Atlantic
Political party	Conservative
Spouse	Lady Diana Manners ​ (m. 1919)​
Children	John Julius
Parent(s)	Sir Alfred Cooper Lady Agnes Duff
Alma mater	New College, Oxford
Military service
Branch/service	British Army
Rank	Lieutenant
Unit	Grenadier Guards
Battles/wars	First World War Western Front
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 and diplomat who was also a military and political historian.

First elected to Parliament in 1924, he lost his seat in 1929 but returned to Parliament in the 1931 Westminster St George's by-election, which was seen as a referendum on Stanley Baldwin's leadership of the Conservative Party. He later served in the Cabinet as Secretary of State for War and First Lord of the Admiralty. He resigned from the cabinet over the Munich agreement of 1938.

When Winston Churchill became prime minister in May 1940, he named Cooper as Minister of Information. In 1941, as a member of the Cabinet, he served as British Minister in Singapore before its fall to the Japanese. He later served an important role as representative to Charles de Gaulle's Free France (1943–44) and ambassador to France from 1944 to 1948.