| Anthony Joseph Drexel Biddle Jr. | |
| Order: | 14th |
| Ambassador From: | United States |
| Country: | Spain |
| Term Start: | May 25, 1961 |
| Term End: | October 12, 1961 |
| Predecessor: | John Davis Lodge |
| Successor: | Robert F. Woodward |
| President: | John F. Kennedy |
| Order1: | 1st |
| Ambassador From1: | United States |
| Country1: | Czechoslovakia |
| Term Start1: | July 12, 1943 |
| Term End1: | December 1, 1943 |
| President1: | Franklin D. Roosevelt |
| Predecessor1: | Himself (as Minister) |
| Successor1: | Laurence A. Steinhardt |
| Order2: | 1st |
| Ambassador From2: | United States |
| Country2: | Yugoslavia |
| Term Start2: | November 3, 1942 |
| Term End2: | September 28, 1943 |
| President2: | Franklin D. Roosevelt |
| Predecessor2: | Himself (as Minister) |
| Successor2: | Lincoln MacVeagh |
| Order3: | 1st |
| Ambassador From3: | United States |
| Country3: | Greece |
| Term Start3: | October 30, 1942 |
| Term End3: | March 16, 1943 |
| Predecessor3: | Himself (as Minister) |
| Successor3: | Alexander Comstock Kirk |
| Order4: | 1st |
| President3: | Franklin D. Roosevelt |
| Ambassador From4: | United States |
| Country4: | Norway |
| Term Start4: | May 13, 1942 |
| Term End4: | December 1, 1943 |
| Predecessor4: | Himself (as Minister) |
| Successor4: | Lithgow Osborne |
| President4: | Franklin D. Roosevelt |
| Order5: | 1st |
| Ambassador From5: | United States |
| Country5: | Netherlands |
| Term Start5: | May 8, 1942 |
| Term End5: | December 1, 1943 |
| Predecessor5: | Himself (as Minister) |
| Successor5: | Stanley Hornbeck |
| President5: | Franklin D. Roosevelt |
| Order6: | 22nd |
| Minister From6: | United States |
| Country6: | Greece |
| Term Start6: | November 28, 1941 |
| Term End6: | October 30, 1942 |
| Predecessor6: | Lincoln MacVeagh |
| Successor6: | Himself (as Ambassador) |
| President6: | Franklin D. Roosevelt |
| Order7: | 7th |
| Minister From7: | United States |
| Country7: | Czechoslovakia |
| Term Start7: | October 28, 1941 |
| Term End7: | July 12, 1943 |
| Predecessor7: | Wilbur J. Carr |
| Successor7: | Himself (as Ambassador) |
| President7: | Franklin D. Roosevelt |
| Order8: | 5th |
| Minister From8: | United States |
| Country8: | Yugoslavia |
| Term Start8: | October 3, 1941 |
| Term End8: | October 3, 1942 |
| Predecessor8: | Arthur Bliss Lane |
| Successor8: | Himself (as Ambassador) |
| President8: | Franklin D. Roosevelt |
| Order9: | 30th |
| Minister From9: | United States |
| Country9: | Netherlands |
| Term Start9: | March 27, 1941 |
| Term End9: | May 8, 1942 |
| Predecessor9: | George A. Gordon |
| Successor9: | Himself (as Ambassador) |
| President9: | Franklin D. Roosevelt |
| Order10: | 9th |
| Ambassador From10: | United States |
| Country10: | Belgium |
| Term Start10: | March 24, 1941 |
| Term End10: | December 1, 1943 |
| Predecessor10: | John Cudahy |
| Successor10: | Charles W. Sawyer |
| President10: | Franklin D. Roosevelt |
| Order11: | 7th and 9th |
| Minister From11: | United States |
| Country11: | Norway |
| Term Start11: | March 20, 1941 |
| Term End11: | May 13, 1942 |
| Predecessor11: | Florence Harriman |
| Successor11: | Himself (as Ambassador) |
| President11: | Franklin D. Roosevelt |
| Term Start12: | September 7, 1935 |
| Term End12: | May 21, 1937 |
| Predecessor12: | Hoffman Philip |
| Successor12: | Florence Harriman |
| Order13: | 5th |
| Ambassador From13: | United States |
| Country13: | Poland |
| Term Start13: | June 2, 1937 |
| Term End13: | December 1, 1943 |
| Predecessor13: | John Cudahy |
| Successor13: | Arthur Bliss Lane |
| President13: | Franklin D. Roosevelt |
| Birth Date: | 17 December 1897 |
| Birth Place: | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US |
| Death Place: | Washington, D.C., US |
| Resting Place: | Arlington National Cemetery |
| Occupation: | Soldier, diplomat |
| Spouse: | |
| Children: | 4, including Mary Duke Biddle |
| Father: | Anthony Joseph Drexel Biddle Sr. |
| Serviceyears: | 1917–1919; 1944–1955 |
| Awards: | is not set --> |
Anthony Joseph Drexel Biddle Jr. (December 17, 1897 – November 13, 1961) was an American diplomat who served as ambassador to several countries between the 1930s and 1961. He served in the United States Army during World War I and after World War II, reaching the rank of major general.[1]
Biddle was the son of millionaire Anthony Joseph Drexel Biddle Sr. (1874–1948), and Cordelia Rundell Bradley (1873–1947). A member of the Biddle family, he was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on December 17, 1897.His father, grandson of banker Anthony Joseph Drexel and great-grandson of banker Nicholas Biddle, was an eccentric boxing fan. When he was ten years old, the younger Biddle was in an exhibition match with Bob Fitzsimmons, who knocked him into a wall with a punch traveling about two inches.[2]
He graduated from St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire, but never attended college.[3]
In World War I, he first enlisted as a private, and was promoted to rank of captain. In the 1920s he engaged in several business ventures, which were known as social successes but financial failures. For example, he managed Belgian boxer René deVos, and invested in the St. Regis Hotel. A party he held for the boxer at the hotel was marked by the loss of many bottles of fine champagne (at great expense due to prohibition in the United States). "Guests" even tried to wheel out the piano before it was retrieved.[3]
Biddle also made a deal to rent part of Central Park in New York City and open an expensive nightclub called Central Park Casino. After the Wall Street Crash of 1929 many of his investments failed. The Casino was raided and shut down.[4]
In 1931 he and other directors of the bankrupt Sonora Products Corporation of America (formerly Acoustic Products Company, in the phonograph and radio business) were sued by the Irving Trust Company. The directors were accused of diverting profits from stock sales into their own accounts. A district court dismissed the claims against the defendants, but the dismissal of Biddle and several others was reversed on appeal.[5] [6]
After Biddle was appointed Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Norway on July 22, 1935, he settled the Irving case out of court to avoid a bond required before leaving the country to assume the post.[7] He presented his credentials on September 7, 1935. It was widely suspected he was a political appointee resulting from his support of the Democratic Party and George Howard Earle III, its 1934 successful candidate for Governor of Pennsylvania. However, his social skills made him and his wife ideally suited to being a diplomat.[3] [8]
On May 4, 1937, he was promoted to Ambassador to Poland and presented his credentials in Warsaw, Poland on June 2, 1937.[9] In September 1939 Germany invaded Poland, which was a major cause of World War II. After Biddle's house was hit with bomb fragments, his family and embassy staff fled to various temporary quarters. After the escape, he joined the Polish government in exile in France until June 1940, when he and his wife Margaret received transit visas from the Portuguese consul Aristides de Sousa Mendes, in Bordeaux, and crossed into Portugal. They stayed in Estoril, at the Hotel Palácio, between 19 July and 31 July 1940.[10] On 1 August 1940, they boarded the S.S. Excalibur headed for New York City, arriving on 10 August.[11]
On February 11, 1941, he also commissioned to the governments-in-exile of Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Greece, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, and Yugoslavia. Biddle arrived in London on March 14, 1941, and continued as ambassador through 1943.[9] During the period, he owned Saint Hill Manor in West Sussex, a country estate which was later sold to Church of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard.
In January 1944, Biddle resigned from the State Department and joined the Army as lieutenant colonel to serve on the staff of Dwight Eisenhower. His contacts with "underground" movements and free military units in occupied nations provided intelligence for the planning of Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of France.[12] He continued on Eisenhower's staff supervising European reconstruction after the war ended. In March 1951 he was promoted to brigadier general. At his promotion ceremony, Eisenhower pinned on one of Biddle's stars.
In April 1955, he resigned from the Army to become Adjutant General of the Pennsylvania National Guard.[13] Nevertheless, as a member of the Army Reserve, he was promoted to major general in August.[14]
In 1961, Biddle became the United States Ambassador to Spain, though he did not speak Spanish fluently;[15] in which he served until shortly before his death.[1]
On June 16, 1915, Biddle married Mary Lillian Duke (1887–1960), a tobacco heiress who was the daughter of Benjamin Newton Duke.[16] They divorced in 1931 after having two children:
His second wife, whom he married in 1931, was Margaret Thompson Schulze (d. 1956), the only child of mining magnate William Boyce Thompson and recent divorcee of Theodore M. Schulze, a New York banker. Through this marriage he had two stepchildren, (Margaret) Boyce Schulze and Theodore Schulze Jr, as well as a son before their divorce in 1945:[19]
He married as his third wife, in 1946, Margaret Atkinson Loughborough (1915–2013), the former wife of William Ellery Loughborough[21] and had two more children:
He died November 13, 1961, in Washington, D.C., at the Walter Reed Army Hospital.[1] He was interred at Arlington National Cemetery.[23] His cenotaph is at The Woodlands Cemetery in Philadelphia. After Biddle's death, she married, as her third husband, Colonel Edwinston Robbins.[24]
A wealthy socialite, Biddle was known for being elegantly dressed. On October 4, 1943, he appeared on the cover of Life magazine.[25] The one published picture of Biddle without his impeccable suit was when he had to pack in a hurry to escape German bombers in Poland via Romania.[26] He was recognized in 1960 by George Frazier as one of the best dressed men in the US, on a short list with such stars as Fred Astaire. He was noted for his small number of fine custom-made suits[27] and his starched, horizontally-striped Charvet shirts.[28]
His sister Cordelia Drexel Biddle wrote a book with Kyle Crichton about the family, focusing on her marriage with Angier Buchanan Duke who was the brother of Anthony's first wife. It was made into a play and the 1967 musical film The Happiest Millionaire.He was portrayed by Paul Petersen in the film.His nephew Angier Biddle Duke (1915–1995) also became a diplomat.[29] [30]
His multiple appointments from 1941 to 1943 were to governments-in-exile in London.
Note – Ambassador Drexel also received numerous foreign orders and decorations.