Kenneth Hugh de Courcy (6 November 1909 – 8 February 1999) was an editor of the British subscription newsletterIntelligence Digest,[1][2] as well as a confidant of British KingEdward VIII. In the 1940s, de Courcy was part of a plot by conservative members of the British royal court to returnthe Duke and Duchess of Windsor to Britain and establish a regency.[3] He liked to be known as the Duc de Grantmesnil.[4]
Kenneth de Courcy was born inGalway, Ireland in 1909. He became wealthy as a businessman, owning a chain of tobacco shops and other businesses.
In 1934, de Courcy became secretary of the Imperial Policy Group, a grouping of right-wingConservative MPs, which focused on "the importance of Imperial development" and "close friendship with the United States".[5] Later the group supported appeasement ofNazi Germany as the best means of preserving theBritish Empire, and in that capacity de Courcy travelled Europe making high-level contacts[citation needed].
In 1934, he founded Courcy's Intelligence Service to provide early warning intelligence to businesses and the government. Four years later he beganIntelligence Digest (nowCourcy’s Intelligence Brief), together withThe Weekly Review. He was joined in the business by a cousin,John de Courcy, 35th Baron Kingsale.
De Courcy was accused in theWar Cabinet minutes of 13 April 1942 of being "up to mischief" by "writing poisonous publications about the Russians".[6] At several points in his life de Courcy believed the British Security Service (MI5) was intercepting his mail and telephone communications, and he was indeed the subject of MI5 surveillance; The diary of General Alan Brooke, Chief of the Imperial General Staff through much of World War II, records that MI5 brought him report (30 September 1942) of a conversation overheard through a hidden microphone indicating that De Courcy possessed secret information about the impending invasion of French North Africa.[7]
In 1952 on the death ofGeorge VI he wrote toWinston Churchill suggestingElizabeth II develop a closer relationship with the abdicatedKing Edward, now living abroad.[8]
In 1950, de Courcy married Rosemary Catherine Baker, who was also from Ireland. They had four children. The marriage was dissolved in 1973.
Between 1953 and 1964 he was a member of the committee of theEvangelical Alliance which organisedBilly Graham's 'crusades' in Great Britain.[9]
In the 1960s, via a company called Sarsden Consolidated Properties, de Courcy planned a garden city development inSouthern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). He was unable to return the funds put up by investors and was jailed for seven years forfraud.[9] De Courcy escaped from custody when he was allowed to visit his lawyer as part of his appeal, although he was recaptured.[10]
De Courcy went on to edit publications such asBanker's Digest andSpecial Office Brief.
In December 2005, an appeal to De Courcy's 1964 court case was upheld as a miscarriage of justice by theCriminal Cases Review Commission.[11]
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