John Julius Norwich obituary

[hopewell]

Behind the paywall, but here's the link https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2018/06/01/john-julius-norwich-writer-television-personality-obituary/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

[Jelena JS]

Lord Norwich, the 2nd Viscount Norwich, who has died aged 88, was an aristocratic man of letters and, as a historian, travel writer and television personality, was better known as John Julius Norwich.

The only son of the Conservative politician, diplomat and writer Duff Cooper (who would be created Viscount Norwich in 1952) and the society beauty Lady Diana Cooper, Norwich became one of the best-known cultural pundits of his generation. The author of numerous monumental and often multi-volume books on subjects ranging from Sicily, Venice and Byzantium to Shakespeare’s history plays and the papacy, he founded the Venice in Peril Fund and was a popular lecturer on opera and the arts.

After graduating from Oxford with a Second in Modern Languages, in 1952, following in his father’s footsteps, Cooper, as he then was, joined the Foreign Office as Third Secretary to the British Embassy in Belgrade, then as Second Secretary in Beirut. On his father’s death in 1954 he inherited the viscountcy. Ten years later he left the Diplomatic Service to become a writer and broadcaster.

In 1952 he had married Anne Clifford, daughter of Sir Bede Clifford, one-time governor of the Bahamas, with whom he had a daughter, the historian Artemis Cooper, and a son, Jason, an architect. Later, it became an open secret that he had had an illegitimate daughter with Ricki Huston, wife of the film director John Huston. When Anne discovered her husband’s infidelity, she is said to have had a breakdown, though John Julius insisted that she got over it quite quickly.

After divorcing Anne in 1983 (Allegra, his daughter by Ricki Huston, was adopted by John Huston after her mother’s death in a car accident), he married, secondly, in 1989, Mollie Philipps (née Makins), daughter of the 1st Baron Sherfield, GCB, GCMG.

He was appointed CVO in 1992 after curating an exhibition at the V & A marking the 40th anniversary of the Queen’s accession to the throne.

Lord Norwich is survived by his wife and by the son and daughter of his first marriage.

He is succeeded in the viscountcy by his son, Jason, born in 1959.

2nd Viscount Norwich, born September 15 1929, died June 1 2018

2018 m. birželis 1 d., penktadienis 19:55:31 UTC+3, hopewell rašė:

[Henry W]

The new Viscount, Jason Charles Duff Bede Cooper, is unmarried I believe. There are no heirs to the title after him.

[rcb1]

Given his eminence as a historian and his popularity as a public figure, it seems rather surprising that he received no more than a CVO, apparently for helping to organise an exhibition for the Queen's 40th Jubilee.  I would have thought that he was an obvious candidate for a CH or even a KG.  Maybe, his apparently rather colourful, private life counted against him on this score; but his life's work will continue to resonante and give pleasure to civilsed people for very many years, in a way cannot be said of many more decorated people.   Not I suspect that he greately minded: he seemed the most genial and unpompous of men, who was fulfilled in what he did.

[malcolm davies]

rcb1,
You should know by now that the garter isn’t awarded on merit!
I agree with your comment about the CH.
John Julius’s books were a pleasure to read-it’s sad that there won’t be any more.

[Richard Cumming-Bruce]

I know what Lord Melbourne said about the Garter, no doubt with his tongue rather in his cheek, of course.  But I rather think that Lord Norwich's face would have fitted in that group at least as well as some of the worthy but not vey notable figures appointed in recent years. 

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[Richard R]

Death notice in the Telegraph and Times of 8 June 2018: NORWICH John Julius, died peacefully on 1 June 2018. The funeral, for family and friends, is at 12 noon on Monday 18 June, at St Mary's church on Paddington Green.

[Richard R]

From the Telegraph and Times of 12 September 2018: NORWICH, John Julius. A memorial service will be held on Wednesday 14 November at 4.30pm at St James's Church Piccadilly....

[colinp]

From the House of Lords Minutes of Proceedings 11 May 2022:

" Viscountcy of Norwich in the Peerage of the United Kingdom The Lord Chancellor reported that Jason Charles Duff Bede Cooper had established his claim to the Viscountcy of Norwich in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. The Clerk of the Parliaments was accordingly directed to enter Viscount Norwich on the register of hereditary peers maintained under Standing Order 9(4)."