page_title: Hugo W. Koehler
section_title: Post Armistice England
hierarchical_section_title: Hugo W. Koehler / Navy career / Post Armistice England
context_page_description: Hugo William Koehler was a United States Navy commander, secret agent and socialite. Following the First World War, he served as an Office of Naval Intelligence and State Department operative in Russia during its civil war, and later as naval attaché to Poland. He was rumored to be the illegitimate son of the Crown Prince of Austria and to have assisted the Romanovs in fleeing Russia following the revolution of 1917. He was awarded the Navy Cross for his service during World War I and was the step-father of United States Senator Claiborne Pell.
context_section_description: After the Armistice was signed on November 11, 1918, Koehler was detached to the staff of Admiral William S. Sims, commanding U.S. Naval forces in Europe, with headquarters in London.  The two months that Koehler spent on Sims' staff were far removed from the rough seas and fumes of the subchasers.  "I have landed among the very smart and fashionable and the diplomatic set," he wrote his mother, "many of whom I already knew officially: and on the other hand through Lady Scott (wife of Captain Scott who discovered the South Pole), whom I have known a long time, I see a great deal of men like Bernard Shaw, Arnold Bennett and James Barrie, so I don't get too narrow in my ideas about things English.  Mike Vanderbilt's sister, the Duchess of Marlborough, has been chaperoning me very carefully and on two occasions has had me all but married without consulting either me or the lucky girl! Rumors of this may reach you, but you are not to take them seriously. Of course, I always take all lovely women seriously--"  Koehler spent Christmas 1918 at the baronial, English manor "Cranmore", as the guest of Lady Muriel Paget with a party of thirty-seven "diverse personalities" including Arthur Balfour, former, conservative British Prime Minister, Barrie, author of Peter Pan and Lord Herbert John Gladstone, liberal British statesman, member of Parliament and first governor general and high commissioner for South Africa.  Gladstone, the son of "The Grand Old Man", Prime Minister William Gladstone, remained a close-friend of Koehler for fifteen years, and circumspectly countenanced an ongoing affair of similar duration between his much younger wife, Dolly, and Koehler.  Over the years of their friendship that lasted until Gladstone's death, his salutations evolved from, "My dear Commander", to "My dear Hugo", to "My dear Old Fellow", to "Dear Old Boy".  In a letter to Mathilda, Koehler described the festivities, "One evening at dinner, James Barrie was told to construct the most wonderful play he had ever written.  He did so the following morning; in the afternoon the play was rehearsed, and in the evening it was produced in seven acts, a tremendous success. It was wonderfully clever, for most of the actors had simply to act their own characters.  Mr. Balfour took the part of a Foreign Minister; Lord Gladstone took the part of a Colonial Governor (he had just been Governor of South Africa) and I was a dashing (sic!) young naval officer. The result was a screaming farce.  We were there five days and were idle not a solitary moment. Almost every day we had a football game in which everybody took part, men, women and children, and indeed it was a lesson in poise to see the splendid way in which the most dignified old statesmen and haughty dowagers dashed about and scrambled in the mud."
  The day after Christmas, Koehler returned to Cranmore from a partridge shoot and was captivated by the dinner guests seated on either side of him, the daughters of Thomas Thynne, 5th Marquess of Bath.  Recognizing that "two beautiful women at the same time are always a difficulty", Koehler "at once" made the "dreadful decision" and between Lady Emma Margery Thynne (1893–1980) and Lady Alice Kathleen Violet Thynne (1891–1977), chose Emma as the object of his pursuit.  The following day, Koehler, was scheduled to go to Maiden Bradley to hunt with Sir Edward Seymour, 16th Duke of Somerset.  He devised a scheme with the cooperation of his hostess, Lady Paget.  Returning from the hunting trip, they would have a tire "puncture" in front of Longleat, the ancestral home of the Marquess of Bath. The enterprising Koehler would present himself at the door and further sojourn with Emma would be his.  Koehler showed Balfour and the duke the note of his plan he had scribbled to Lady Paget. They "roared" and asked Koehler what he was going to do about it. "Get them of course", was the response to more laughter.  The duke and Koehler made a wager, his gun for the duke's greatcoat, that Koehler would not succeed.  Koehler executed his plan, and "lifting the enormous knocker, [
caption: A View of Longleat, Jan Siberechts, 1675
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