The Coterie

The Coterie was a fashionable and famous set of English aristocrats and intellectuals of the 1910s, widely quoted and profiled in magazines and newspapers of the period. They also called themselves the "Corrupt Coterie".[1]

Members

Its members included Lady Diana Manners, then considered a famous beauty in England; Duff Cooper, who became a Conservative politician and a diplomat; Raymond Asquith, son of the Prime Minister H. H. Asquith and a famed barrister; Maurice Baring; Patrick Shaw-Stewart, a managing director of Barings Bank and war poet; Nancy Cunard and her friend Iris Tree; Edward Horner and Sir Denis Anson.[2] Also included in the group were Hugo Francis Charteris, Lord Elcho and Yvo Alan Charteris sons of the Earl and Countess of Wemyss of Stanway House.[3]

Many were the children of The Souls, with Lady Diana Manners and Raymond Asquith being seen as the undisputed golden couple of the group.[4]

First World War

The First World War destroyed the original Coterie, taking the lives of Percy "Perf" Wyndham in 1914; Charles Lister, Julian Grenfell, Billy Grenfell, and Yvo Charteris in 1915; Edward Wyndham Tennant, Ego Charteris and Raymond Asquith in 1916; and Edward Horner, and Patrick Shaw-Stewart in 1917.[5][6] It also destroyed the security of the group's prewar life, and the remnants were slowly breaking around them after the war.[7]

Lady Diana Manners was seen as a "focus for all the interlocking friendships" comforting many who had lost their husbands or siblings in the War. She wrote about aiding Katharine Asquith after the death of Raymond Asquith to Patrick Shaw Stewart; "I tried to sink my misery and think of holding K up as we all must."[6]

Activities

They were best known for their extravagant parties and were associated with such places as the Café Royal and The Cave of the Golden Calf, London's first nightclub. The group made a common pledge to be "unafraid of words, unshocked by drink, and unashamed of 'decadence' and gambling".[8] The group reveled in drink, blasphemy, gambling, drug-taking, chloroform ("chlorers") sniffing, and other kinds of decadent behaviour.[9] While the group's principal purpose was the pursuit of pleasure, their default attitude was one of cynical heartlessness, that at times was downright cruel.[4]

Reportedly, without the occasionally moderating influence of Raymond Asquith, the behaviour of the group might have been even more unacceptable and out of control, as he was fourteen years older than Lady Diana and well respected by the whole group.[9] In the early years of the group Asquith was the leader, moderating them to take pride in their learning and erudition, while enjoying wild and riotous parties and pranks.[10] For all their wild parties, however, there was still a standard of behaviour to be upheld and all members paid for the damage that they caused.[11]

The members indulged themselves in treasure hunts, fancy dress balls, and poker evenings, while holding riotous parties until dawn with their actions documented by the press. The members were also in high demand by the great hostesses and eminent politicians of the day.[10] Their behavior at one such party was documented by Asquith's stepmother who recorded that, "After dinner, Diana ejaculated, 'I must be unconscious tonight' and went away in a taxi to fetch chloroform from the chemist. 'Jolly old chlorers!' One guest who had nearly fainted at dinner had to be removed before the orgy began."[12]

World War I

With the outbreak of war, many members left for the front, causing Asquith to be seen as the pre-war symbol of the Coterie, and Lady Diana Manners, wife of Duff Cooper, to become the post-war symbol for the 'new' Coterie. She became known for throwing wilder parties, with freer sex and drink in an effort to escape the horrors of the war.[10]

During the War, Manners wrote to Edward Horner on 7 August 1914, claiming that she thought it was "...up to the Coterie to stop this war."[13]

Reactions

Lady Diana Manners later wrote that she was a little ashamed of the name, and did not know how it came to be called the Coterie, just as her mother was ashamed of title of the Souls.[13]

Lady Diana also reported that the group's "...peak of unpopularity was certainly 1914 and 1915." This sentiment was followed by some of their parents, as Raymond Asquith's stepmother wrote to Hilda Harrisson, calling the group "...a rotten social gang...who lead a futile and devastating life."[12] Lady Cynthia Asquith, Raymond Asquith’s sister-in-law, wrote in her diary, "I don't care a damn about their morals and manners, but I do think what - for want of a better word - I call their anti-cant, is really suicidal to happiness."[12]

Two deaths were attributed to the group and their actions, with Gustav Hamel, a Swedish amateur flyer and racing driver crashing his private plane during a flight from France to London; and Denis Anson drowning in the Thames during a late-night swimming party.[14]

Notes
  1. Gordon, Lois G. (2007). Nancy Cunard: Heiress, Muse, Political Idealist. Columbia University Press. p. 23. ISBN 978-0-231-13938-0.
  2. Duff Cooper: Old Men Forget, 1953
  3. "Two Sons of The Souls: Hugo and Yvo Charteris – Epitaphs of the Great War". www.epitaphsofthegreatwar.com. Retrieved 2018-07-13.
  4. Jones, Nigel (2014). Peace and War: Britain in 1914. Head of Zeus. ISBN 978-1781852538.
  5. "The Original Lady Diana". Edwardian Promenade. 2012-05-25. Retrieved 2018-07-13.
  6. Fletcher, Anthony (2013). Life, Death, and Growing Up on the Western Front. Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300195538.
  7. Patten, Bill (2008). My Three Fathers: And the Elegant Deceptions of My Mother, Susan Mary Alsop. PublicAffairs. ISBN 978-1586485559.
  8. Ziegler, Philip (1981). Diana Cooper: The Biography of Lady Diana Cooper. Hamish Hamilton Ltd. ISBN 978-0241106594.
  9. Nicolson, Juliet (2008). The Perfect Summer: England 1911, Just Before the Storm. New York, NY: Grove Press. ISBN 978-1-5558-4870-5.
  10. Levine, Naomi (1991). Politics, Religion and Love: The Story of H.H. Asquith, Venetia Stanley and Edwin Montagu, Based on the Life and Letters of Edwin Samuel Montagu. NYU Press. ISBN 978-0814750575.
  11. Waugh, Evelyn (2002). Two Lives: Edmund Campion and Ronald Knox. Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd. ISBN 978-0826464293.
  12. Popplewell, Oliver (2014). The Prime Minister and His Mistress. Lulu Publishing Services. ISBN 978-1483414317.
  13. Cooper, Diana (1985). The Rainbow Comes and Goes. Carroll & Graf Pub. ISBN 978-0881841312.
  14. Mackrell, Judith (2013). Diana's Story. Macmillan. ISBN 9781447253969.
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References
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