Cooper, (Alfred) Duff, 1st Viscount Norwich (1890–1954)

English Conservative politician. He was elected Conservative member of Parliament in 1924 and was secretary of war 1935–37, but resigned from the Admiralty in 1938 over Neville Chamberlain's appeasement policy. He served as minister for information 1940–42 under Winston Churchill and as ambassador to France 1944–47.

He was educated at Eton and Oxford and served with the Grenadier Guards in World War I. He held a number of ministerial appointments and as First Lord of the Admiralty 1937–38 mobilized the British fleet during the Czech crisis of September 1938. He strongly disapproved of the Munich Agreement and resigned from the government over it. He returned to office when Winston Churchill formed his coalition government in 1940. His publications include Talleyrand (1932), Haig (1935), The Second World War (1939), King David (1943), and Operation Heartbreak (1950).