Margaret Thomson Biddle
 Margaret Thomson Biddle  (millionaire, journalist, spook?) | |
|---|---|
 Margaret Thompson Biddle and her husband Anthony Drexel Biddle | |
| Born | 1897 |
| Died | June 1956 (Age 58) Paris, France |
Cause of death | cerebral hemorrhage |
| Nationality | US |
| Parents | William Boyer Thompson |
| Spouse | • Theodore Schulze • Anthony Drexel Biddle |
American millionaire heiress and businesswoman. After World War 2 she started a salon in Paris frequented by many deep politicians. | |
Margaret Thompson Biddle was an American millionaire heiress and businesswoman. After World War 2 she started a salon in Paris frequented by many deep politicians.
Contents
Background
Margaret was the daughter of Colonel William Boyer Thompson, "king of copper" in the United States. When her father died in 1930, Margaret shared in an estate worth an estimated $85 million. A year later, she divorced her New York banker husband Theodore Schulze and married Anthony Drexel Biddle, "a dashing Philadelphia socialite" who became U.S. envoy to Norway and Poland. The diplomat couple was caught in the German bombing of Warsaw in 1939.[1] and The couple divorced after World War 2.[2]
A shrewd businesswoman, she had further increased the immense fortune that her father had left her. She was the main shareholder of the Newmont Mining Corporation. This company had secured a stake in the Zellidja Mines in French Morocco.[2]
She entered the political world in 1931 when, after a brief marriage with a Polish prince, she married Anthony Drexel Biddle, who was ambassador of the United States in Warsaw, then in London, during the war to the European exile governments.[3]
Paris salon
At the end of World War 2, Biddle settled in Paris, in a mansion in the rue Las-Cases, just off fashionable Boulevard St. Germain, which she decorated luxuriously. It housed an exceptional collection of paintings, including Renoir, Utrillo and Cézanne. She was considered the "grande dame" of American society in Paris after the war.[2]
Biddle aspired to play and played an important role in the relations between France and the United States. She received many French politicians there. She showed herself an ardent supporter of the European Defence Community, a vehement opponent of Mendès-France, while she showed strong sympathy to Presidents René Pleven and Antoine Pinay.[3] The Eisenhowers were frequent guests.[2] Other guests included General Alfred Gruenther, Papal Legate Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli (Pope John XXIII), the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Prince Bernhard of The Netherlands, Cardinal Spellman, Bernard Baruch, "and practically every noted French politician, artist, or writer."[2]
She was also involved in Moroccan affairs. Contrary to the French, who considered the restoration of the sultan desirable, she asserted herself as a resolute supporter of Thami El Glaoui.[3]
Death
She died on June 8th 1956, after attending a gala opera performance in honor of visiting King Paul and Queen Frederika of Greece. She went to her bedroom at 3 a.m. and had her maid unzip her dress. Suddenly she felt a pain, and then a paralysis, in her neck and right arm. A doctor was hurriedly summoned, but Maggie Biddle was dead. His diagnosis was cerebral hemorrhage.[3]
There were some suggestions of potential foul play in her death. But after a ten-week investigation, French police declared her death "completely natural."[2]
References
- ↑ https://thompsongenealogy.com/2010/05/margaret-thompson-biddles-furs-barely-escaped-the-bombs-in-poland/
- ↑ a b c d e f https://thompsongenealogy.com/2011/04/queen-elizabeth-ate-from-margaret-biddles-plates/
- ↑ a b c d https://www.lemonde.fr/archives/article/1959/02/21/qui-etait-mrs-biddle_2156916_1819218.html
