Hubert Duggan
Encyclopedia
Hubert John Duggan was a British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...

 officer and politician, who was Conservative Party
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...

 Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 for Acton
Acton (UK Parliament constituency)
- Elections in the 1940s :- Elections in the 1960s :-References:...

 from 1931 until his death. He was an opponent of appeasement
Appeasement
The term appeasement is commonly understood to refer to a diplomatic policy aimed at avoiding war by making concessions to another power. Historian Paul Kennedy defines it as "the policy of settling international quarrels by admitting and satisfying grievances through rational negotiation and...

 and broke the whip
Whip (politics)
A whip is an official in a political party whose primary purpose is to ensure party discipline in a legislature. Whips are a party's "enforcers", who typically offer inducements and threaten punishments for party members to ensure that they vote according to the official party policy...

 on several important occasions, voting to bring down Neville Chamberlain
Neville Chamberlain
Arthur Neville Chamberlain FRS was a British Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from May 1937 to May 1940. Chamberlain is best known for his appeasement foreign policy, and in particular for his signing of the Munich Agreement in 1938, conceding the...

 in 1940.

A witty and handsome man who very much enjoyed the company of women, Duggan was married only briefly before becoming the plaintiff in a scandalous divorce case. He suffered from ill health; brought up in the Catholic faith, he lapsed in adolescence but returned when on his deathbed. Episodes in his life inspired writers Evelyn Waugh
Evelyn Waugh
Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh , known as Evelyn Waugh, was an English writer of novels, travel books and biographies. He was also a prolific journalist and reviewer...

 and Anthony Powell
Anthony Powell
Anthony Dymoke Powell CH, CBE was an English novelist best known for his twelve-volume work A Dance to the Music of Time, published between 1951 and 1975....

 to fictionalise him.

Family

Duggan was born in Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...

, Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

 where his father Alfred was honorary Attaché to the British Legation. At an early age the family returned to England where Duggan and his elder brother Alfred Duggan
Alfred Duggan
Alfred Duggan was an English historian, archeologist and best-selling historical novelist during the 1950s. Although he was raised in England, Duggan was born Alfred Leo Duggan in Buenos Aires, Argentina to a family of wealthy landowners of Irish descent. His family moved to England when he was...

, the historical novelist, were brought up. Alfred Duggan senior was a Roman Catholic
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...

 and his sons were brought up in that faith, but he died "of drink" in his early thirties when Duggan was 11.

His immensely rich American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 mother Grace
Grace Curzon, Marchioness Curzon of Kedleston
Grace Elvina, Marchioness Curzon of Kedleston was born as Grace Elvina Hinds in Alabama, a daughter of J. Monroe Hinds, former United States Minister to Brazil...

 married leading statesman Lord Curzon
George Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston
George Nathaniel Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston, KG, GCSI, GCIE, PC , known as The Lord Curzon of Kedleston between 1898 and 1911 and as The Earl Curzon of Kedleston between 1911 and 1921, was a British Conservative statesman who was Viceroy of India and Foreign Secretary...

 in January 1917. Duggan was therefore well-connected with the Conservative Party
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...

 from an early age. As neither his stepfather nor his mother were Catholic, his faith gradually lapsed.

Duggan regarded his stepfather positively and countered suggestions that the humourless image he projected to the public was accurate in private. In later years he angrily denounced W. Somerset Maugham
W. Somerset Maugham
William Somerset Maugham , CH was an English playwright, novelist and short story writer. He was among the most popular writers of his era and, reputedly, the highest paid author during the 1930s.-Childhood and education:...

's comedy Our Betters which gently satirised Americans marrying into aristocratic British families.

Eton

Duggan was sent to Eton College
Eton College
Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....

, and was placed in Goodhart's House of which he became Captain. His near-contemporary Anthony Powell
Anthony Powell
Anthony Dymoke Powell CH, CBE was an English novelist best known for his twelve-volume work A Dance to the Music of Time, published between 1951 and 1975....

 described him at Eton as reading a great deal despite being "never in the least .. part of the Eton .. intellectual world". Powell identified Duggan as being witty, something of a show-off, but with a strong vein of melancholy, and a stylish rider in point to point racing. Evelyn Waugh
Evelyn Waugh
Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh , known as Evelyn Waugh, was an English writer of novels, travel books and biographies. He was also a prolific journalist and reviewer...

 thought of Duggan as handsome and amusing, but melancholy.

Duggan did not complete his studies at Eton owing to ill health. At the age of 18 he underwent an operation for appendicitis
Appendicitis
Appendicitis is a condition characterized by inflammation of the appendix. It is classified as a medical emergency and many cases require removal of the inflamed appendix, either by laparotomy or laparoscopy. Untreated, mortality is high, mainly because of the risk of rupture leading to...

 and went to Argentina to convalesce. When he had recovered, Duggan went up to Christ Church, Oxford
Christ Church, Oxford
Christ Church or house of Christ, and thus sometimes known as The House), is one of the largest constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England...

 in summer term of 1923. He immediately took an intense dislike to life at Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...

, falling into depression and wistfully speaking of the girls of Argentina. Anthony Powell, who was then at Balliol College
Balliol College, Oxford
Balliol College , founded in 1263, is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England but founded by a family with strong Scottish connections....

, reported once seeing Lord Curzon (then Chancellor of the University) talking to Duggan who had not yet got out of bed.

Army life

After only one term, Duggan left Oxford, apparently due to the lack of female company there. Early in 1924, he joined the Life Guards
Life Guards (British Army)
The Life Guards is the senior regiment of the British Army and with the Blues and Royals, they make up the Household Cavalry.They originated in the four troops of Horse Guards raised by Charles II around the time of his restoration, plus two troops of Horse Grenadier Guards which were raised some...

. On 20 December of that year he was promoted to be Second Lieutenant, Supplementary List on probation, and the appointment was confirmed on 14 November 1925.. On 30 January 1927 he was moved to the regular Army.

Politics

He had served only four years before he resigned his commission on being selected as prospective Conservative Party candidate for East Ham South
East Ham South (UK Parliament constituency)
East Ham South was a parliamentary constituency centred on the East Ham district of London, which was in Essex until 1965. It returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the first past the post voting system.- History :The...

 in 1928. In the same year he married Miss Joan Dunn, second daughter of Sir James Hamet Dunn
James Hamet Dunn
Sir James Hamet Dunn, 1st Baronet was a major Canadian financier and industrialist during the first half of the 20th century.-Early life:...

. Duggan spent more than a year 'nursing' his prospective constituency, which was narrowly held by the Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...

; in the 1929 general election
United Kingdom general election, 1929
-Seats summary:-References:*F. W. S. Craig, British Electoral Facts: 1832-1987*-External links:***...

 he argued that the Ford
Ford of Britain
Ford of Britain is a British wholly owned subsidiary of Ford of Europe, a subsidiary of Ford Motor Company. Its business started in 1909 and has its registered office in Brentwood, Essex...

 factory would only be built locally if 'safeguarding' of industries was continued. He lost the election as the Labour majority increased to 10,102 votes.

Divorce case and love life

On 1 November 1929 Duggan was granted a divorce
Divorce
Divorce is the final termination of a marital union, canceling the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage and dissolving the bonds of matrimony between the parties...

 on grounds of his wife's adultery with Anthony Jenkinson. The President of the Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division stated that petitioner Duggan was absent from home because of his position as a Parliamentary candidate, and criticised the "social crimes" of Jenkinson in insinuating himself into Mrs Duggan's life. Duggan was granted custody of a child born to his wife on 5 August 1929. (Jenkinson, who subsequently married Duggan's ex-wife, committed suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...

 in October 1935.)

Duggan had many affairs, both before and after his marriage. Among those was with Lady Mary (Maimie) Lygon (third daughter of the 7th Earl Beauchamp), Lady Bridget Parsons (daughter of the 5th Earl of Rosse
William Parsons, 5th Earl of Rosse
William Edward Parsons, 5th Earl of Rosse was the son of Lawrence Parsons, 4th Earl of Rosse and Frances Cassandra Hawke. He was elected a Representative Peer in 1911...

), Diana Fellowes, and Daphne Weymouth.

Election for Acton

Meanwhile, Duggan decided not to fight East Ham again, He was adopted for Acton
Acton (UK Parliament constituency)
- Elections in the 1940s :- Elections in the 1960s :-References:...

 in 1930, a seat which Labour held by 467 votes. At the 1931 general election
United Kingdom general election, 1931
The United Kingdom general election on Tuesday 27 October 1931 was the last in the United Kingdom not held on a Thursday. It was also the last election, and the only one under universal suffrage, where one party received an absolute majority of the votes cast.The 1931 general election was the...

, he gained the seat by a majority of 12,272. He was swiftly appointed as Parliamentary Private Secretary
Parliamentary Private Secretary
A Parliamentary Private Secretary is a role given to a United Kingdom Member of Parliament by a senior minister in government or shadow minister to act as their contact for the House of Commons; this role is junior to that of Parliamentary Under-Secretary, which is a ministerial post, salaried by...

 to Euan Wallace
Euan Wallace
Captain David Euan Wallace, MC, MP, PC was a British Conservative politician who briefly served as Minister of Transport during World War II...

, Civil Lord of the Admiralty
Lord Commissioner of the Admiralty
The Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty were the members of the Board of Admiralty, which exercised command over the Royal Navy.Officially known as the Commissioners for Exercising the Office of Lord High Admiral of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland &c. The Lords...

.

Parliamentary activity

In April 1932, Duggan made a speech supporting the government's Sunday Performances (Regulation) Bill, which sought to allow cinema
Movie theater
A movie theater, cinema, movie house, picture theater, film theater is a venue, usually a building, for viewing motion pictures ....

s to open on a Sunday. He argued that prohibiting Sunday opening would be "a breach of the principle of religious tolerance". However, Duggan did not prove to be a particularly active Member of Parliament, and spoke only very rarely. His majority was more than halved to 5,578 at the 1935 general election
United Kingdom general election, 1935
The United Kingdom general election held on 14 November 1935 resulted in a large, though reduced, majority for the National Government now led by Conservative Stanley Baldwin. The greatest number of MPs, as before, were Conservative, while the National Liberal vote held steady...

.

He began the new Parliament by joining with other Conservative MPs to put down a motion opposing "the transfer into any other hands of British Colonies or British Mandated Territories". In March 1936 he argued that the Derating Act, which removed local taxation from industries and had been brought in to tackle the depression, was acting to move industry to the South of England and should be withdrawn in order to keep industry in the North of England.

Opposition to appeasement

Duggan seconded an amendment moved by Alan Lennox-Boyd
Alan Lennox-Boyd, 1st Viscount Boyd of Merton
Alan Tindal Lennox-Boyd, 1st Viscount Boyd of Merton, CH, PC, DL was a British Conservative politician.-Background, education and military service:...

 to a Labour Party motion on food storage in wartime in February 1938, during which he argued that Britain had "no such menace as that of the German Fleet in 1914, and there was no submarine menace comparable to that of 1914". However, he was allied with Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...

 on the threat in Europe, and abstained rather than support the Government in a vote of censure over the resignation of Anthony Eden
Anthony Eden
Robert Anthony Eden, 1st Earl of Avon, KG, MC, PC was a British Conservative politician, who was Prime Minister from 1955 to 1957...

 later that month.

In the spring of 1938 Duggan was a member of an informal group of young Conservative back-benchers who called themselves "The Group" and met to discuss foreign affairs; the Conservative whips derided them as "the Glamour Boys". When the Munich Agreement
Munich Agreement
The Munich Pact was an agreement permitting the Nazi German annexation of Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland. The Sudetenland were areas along Czech borders, mainly inhabited by ethnic Germans. The agreement was negotiated at a conference held in Munich, Germany, among the major powers of Europe without...

 was put to the vote in October 1938, Duggan also abstained. With the broad group of anti-appeasement Members, he signed a motion calling for a National Government on the "widest possible basis" in March 1939.

Second World War

On the outbreak of the Second World War, Duggan rejoined the Life Guards as a Lieutenant, apparently in spite of medical advice. Wearing his military uniform, he voted against Neville Chamberlain
Neville Chamberlain
Arthur Neville Chamberlain FRS was a British Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from May 1937 to May 1940. Chamberlain is best known for his appeasement foreign policy, and in particular for his signing of the Munich Agreement in 1938, conceding the...

 in the Norway Debate
Norway Debate
The Norway Debate, sometimes called the Narvik Debate, was a famous debate in the British House of Commons that took place in May 1940. It led to the formation of a widely-based National Government led by Winston Churchill which was to govern Britain until the end of World War II in Europe...

 in May 1940, thereby contributing to his fall. Later that year he ceased to serve on active duty. His health declined but he insisted that he would not be invalided out of the Army.

Illness

From the late 1930s, Duggan was living with his mistress Phyllis de Janzé in a small house in Chapel Street in Belgravia
Belgravia
Belgravia is a district of central London in the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Noted for its immensely expensive residential properties, it is one of the wealthiest districts in the world...

. He was much affected by de Janzé's death in April 1943. That July, Duggan fell gravely ill with tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...

, and was confined to hospital where he was operated on. However, Duggan did not improve, and on 14 September he was removed from the Reserve of Officers and granted the honorary rank of Captain.

Death and literary model

While on his deathbed, Duggan was visited by his friend Evelyn Waugh
Evelyn Waugh
Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh , known as Evelyn Waugh, was an English writer of novels, travel books and biographies. He was also a prolific journalist and reviewer...

 (Duggan was god-father
Godparent
A godparent, in many denominations of Christianity, is someone who sponsors a child's baptism. A male godparent is a godfather, and a female godparent is a godmother...

 to Waugh's daughter Margaret). On 12 October Duggan told Waugh that he was thinking of returning to the Catholic faith from which had been estranged since his youth, but was reluctant to repent of his life with Phyllis de Janzé because it would be to betray her.

The next day Waugh brought a Priest, Father Devas of Farm Street Chapel, to see Duggan. Duggan's sister Marcella Rice did not want the priest to go in to see him, but Waugh insisted and Duggan was given absolution
Absolution
Absolution is a traditional theological term for the forgiveness experienced in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. This concept is found in the Roman Catholic Church, as well as the Eastern Orthodox churches, the Anglican churches, and most Lutheran churches....

, replying "Thank you, father". Later that day Waugh and Devas returned with the offer to anoint
Anointing of the Sick (Catholic Church)
Anointing of the Sick is a sacrament of the Catholic Church that is administered to Catholics who because of sickness or old age are in danger of death, even if the danger is not proximate...

 Duggan; Duggan was reluctant but eventually crossed himself to indicate his acceptance and after receiving the ceremony told Waugh "When I became a Catholic it was not through fear". Waugh later transposed this scene into his novel Brideshead Revisited
Brideshead Revisited
Brideshead Revisited, The Sacred & Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder is a novel by English writer Evelyn Waugh, first published in 1945. Waugh wrote that the novel "deals with what is theologically termed 'the operation of Grace', that is to say, the unmerited and unilateral act of love by...

.

Duggan's "demeanor at school–though not in later life" was the model for Charles Stringham in Anthony Powell
Anthony Powell
Anthony Dymoke Powell CH, CBE was an English novelist best known for his twelve-volume work A Dance to the Music of Time, published between 1951 and 1975....

's series of novels "A Dance to the Music of Time
A Dance to the Music of Time
A Dance to the Music of Time is a twelve-volume cycle of novels by Anthony Powell, inspired by the painting of the same name by Nicolas Poussin. One of the longest works of fiction in literature, it was published between 1951 and 1975 to critical acclaim...

".

External links

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