Frederick Philip Lewis Cunliffe-Owen,

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(30 January 1855 - 30 June 1926) was an English-born writer and newspaper columnist.

Early life

He was a son of exhibition organizer and museum director

Sir ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as p ...

Philip Cunliffe-Owen Sir Francis Philip Cunliffe-Owen (8 June 1828 – 23 March 1894) was an exhibition organizer and the Director of the South Kensington Museum in London.H. T. Wood (rev. R. C. Denis)Owen, Sir Francis Philip Cunliffe- (1828–1894) ''Oxford Dicti ...

(1828–1894) and his German wife,

Baroness Baron is a rank of nobility or title of honour, often Hereditary title, hereditary, in various European countries, either current or historical. The female equivalent is baroness. Typically, the title denotes an aristocrat who ranks higher th ...

Elisa Amalie Philippine Julie von

Reitzenstein Reitzenstein was a German dynasty of Franconian knights. The House of Reitzenstein took its name from Reitzenstein near Issigau. The family was directly related to the House of Sparneck. Prominent members of the family: * Franziska von Reitzens ...

(1830-1894), known as "Jenny". His younger brother was industrialist

Hugo Cunliffe-Owen Sir Hugo Cunliffe-Owen, 1st Baronet (16 August 1870 – 14 December 1947) was an English industrialist. Childhood Cunliffe-Owen was born in Kensington, London, the younger son of Philip Cunliffe-Owen, Sir Philip Cunliffe-Owen, director of the S ...

, 1st Baronet Cunliffe-Owen.

Biography

Frederick Cunliffe-Owen was educated at

Lancing College Lancing College is a public school (English independent day and boarding school for pupils aged 13–18) in southern England, UK. The school is located in West Sussex, east of Worthing near the village of Lancing, on the south coast of England. ...

and the

University of Lausanne The University of Lausanne (UNIL; french: links=no, Université de Lausanne) in Lausanne, Switzerland was founded in 1537 as a school of Protestant theology, before being made a university in 1890. The university is the second oldest in Switzer ...

. He joined the diplomatic service and spent time in Egypt and Japan. In 1885, Cunliffe-Owen moved to New York City with his second wife, Marguerite. He wrote for the ''

New York Tribune The ''New-York Tribune'' was an American newspaper founded in 1841 by editor Horace Greeley. It bore the moniker ''New-York Daily Tribune'' from 1842 to 1866 before returning to its original name. From the 1840s through the 1860s it was the domi ...

'', becoming first the paper's foreign editor and later its society editor. Using the pseudonym "Marquise de Fontenoy", Cunliffe-Owen wrote syndicated feature articles about European aristocratic and court society. He also wrote a series called "An Ex-Attaché's Letters" about European diplomatic and political affairs and wrote editorials on these subjects for the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

''. He was a

military attaché A military attaché is a military expert who is attached to a diplomatic mission, often an embassy. This type of attaché post is normally filled by a high-ranking military officer, who retains a commission while serving with an embassy. Opport ...

Constantinople la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه , alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis (" ...

during the

July Crisis The July Crisis was a series of interrelated diplomatic and military escalations among the major powers of Europe in the summer of 1914, Causes of World War I, which led to the outbreak of World War I (1914–1918). The crisis began on 28 June 1 ...

that led to

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. In 1916, he was sued by

Rudolph de Landas Berghes Rodolphe Francois Ghislain de Lorraine de Landas Berghes St. Winock (November 1, 1873 – November 17, 1920), better known as Rudolph de Landas Berghes, was Regionary Bishop of Scotland of the Old Roman Catholic Western Orthodox Church and late ...

for libel, after writing to the Bishop of Pennsylvania to warn him "against giving any countenance whatsoever to the soi-disant 'Prince de Berghes'." Cunliffe-Owen was appointed a Knight of the

Order of Orange-Nassau The Order of Orange-Nassau ( nl, Orde van Oranje-Nassau, links=no) is a civil and military Dutch order of chivalry founded on 4 April 1892 by the queen regent, Emma of the Netherlands. The order is a chivalric order open to "everyone who has ...

in 1908 and Commander of the

Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established ...

and Knight Commander of the

Order of the White Eagle (Serbia) The Royal Order of the White Eagle was a Royal Order in the Kingdom of Serbia (1883–1918) and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (1918–1945). It continues as a dynastic order, with appointments currently made by Alexander, Crown Prince of Yugoslavi ...

in 1920. Frederick Cunliffe-Owen died in New York on 30 June 1926. Countess Marguerite Cunliffe-Owen died on 29 August 1927.

Personal life

In 1877, he married Emma Pauline de Couvreu de Deckersberg (1856-1918), with whom he had two children. They divorced in

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

in 1887. He married, secondly, to Countess Marguerite de Godart de Planty et de Sourdis (1861-1927), later known as Countess

Marguerite Cunliffe-Owen Marguerite Cunliffe-Owen, Countess du Planty et de Sourdis (1859 – 1927) was a French-born historical novelist, nonfiction author, and a syndicated newspaper columnist who published under such pseudonyms as La Marquise de Fontenoy and Officier ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cunliffe-Owen, Frederick People educated at Lancing College 1855 births 1926 deaths Commanders of the Order of the British Empire British expatriates in the United States