Anthony Joseph Drexel Biddle , Jr . Anthony Joseph Drexel Biddle , Jr . ( 1897 – 1961 ) , also known as A . J . Drexel Biddle , Jr . or Tony Biddle , was a wealthy socialite who became a diplomat of the United States , and served in the United States Army during World War I and after World War II , reaching the rank of major general . Biography . Biddle was the son of millionaire Anthony Joseph Drexel Biddle , Sr . ( 1874 – 1948 ) , and Cordelia Rundell Bradley ( 1873 – 1947 ) . He was born in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania on December 17 , 1897 . His father , grandson of banker Anthony Joseph Drexel and great - grandson of banker Nicholas Biddle was an eccentric boxing fan . When he was ten years old , the younger Biddle was in an exhibition match with Bob Fitzsimmons , who of course knocked him into a wall with a punch traveling about two inches . He graduated from St . Paul ' s School in Concord , New Hampshire but never attended college . Biddle married Mary Lillian Duke , a tobacco heiress , on June 16 , 1915 . They divorced in 1931 after having two children : Mary Duke Biddle Trent Semans ( 1920 - 2012 ) and Nicholas Duke Biddle ( 1921 – 2004 ) , who was initially named Anthony Joseph Drexel Biddle III , only to have his mother change his name following the divorce . His second wife , whom he married in 1931 ( later divorced ) , was Margaret Thompson Schulze , the only child of mining magnate William Boyce Thompson ; by this marriage he had two stepchildren , ( Margaret ) Boyce Schulze and Theodore Schulze Jr , as well as a son , given the name Anthony Joseph Drexel Biddle III , who died at birth . He married as his third wife , in 1946 , Margaret Atkinson Loughborough , the former wife of William Ellery Loughborough and had two children , Margaret Biddle and Anthony Biddle III ; after Biddle ' s death , she married , as her fourth husband , Colonel Edwinston Robbins . In World War I he first enlisted as a private , and was promoted to rank of captain . In the 1920s he engaged in several business ventures , which were known as social successes but financial failures . For example , he managed Belgian boxer René deVos , and invested in the St . Regis Hotel . A party he held for the boxer at the hotel was marked by the loss of many bottles of fine champagne ( at great expense due to prohibition in the United States ) . " Guests " even tried to wheel out the piano before it was retrieved . Biddle also made a deal to rent part of Central Park in New York City and open an expensive nightclub called The Casino . After the Wall Street Crash of 1929 many of his investments failed . The Casino was raided and shut down . In 1931 he and other directors of the bankrupt Sonora Products Corporation of America ( formerly Acoustic Products Company , in the phonograph and radio business ) were sued by the Irving Trust Company . The directors were accused of diverting profits from stock sales into their own accounts . A district court acquitted the defendants , but was reversed on appeal . From business to diplomacy . After Biddle was appointed Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Norway on July 22 , 1935 , he settled the Irving case out of court to avoid a bond required before leaving the country to assume the post . He presented his credentials on September 7 , 1935 . It was widely suspected he was a political appointee resulting from his support of the Democratic Party and George Howard Earle III , its 1934 successful candidate for Governor of Pennsylvania . However , his social skills made him and his wife ideally suited to being a diplomat . On May 4 , 1937 he was promoted to Ambassador to Poland and presented his credentials in Warsaw , Poland on June 2 , 1937 . In September 1939 Germany invaded Poland , which was a major cause of World War II . After Biddle ' s house was hit with bomb fragments , his family and embassy staff fled to various temporary quarters . After the escape , he joined the Polish government in exile in France until June 1940 , when he returned to the US after France was invaded . On February 11 , 1941 he also commissioned to the governments - in - exile of Belgium , Czechoslovakia , Greece , Luxembourg , the Netherlands , Norway , and Yugoslavia . Biddle arrived in London on March 14 , 1941 , and continued as ambassador through 1943 . In January 1944 Biddle resigned from the state department and joined the Army as lieutenant colonel to serve on the staff of Dwight Eisenhower . His contacts with " underground " moverments and free military units in occupied nations provided intelligence for the planning of operation Overlord , the allied invasion . He continued on Eisenhower ' s staff supervising European reconstruction after the war ended . In 1955 he resigned from the Army to become Adjutant General of the Pennsylvania National Guard . Biddle was known as a fashion plate . On October 4 , 1943 , he appeared on the cover of " Life magazine " magazine . The one published picture of Biddle without his impeccable suit was when he had to pack in a hurry to escape German bombers in Poland via Romania . He was recognized in 1960 by George Frazier as one of the best dressed men in the US , on a short list with such stars as Fred Astaire . He was noted for his small number of fine custom - made suits and his horizontlly striped starched Charvet Place Vendôme | Charvet shirts . He died November 13 , 1961 , in Washington , D . C . at the Walter Reed Army Hospital . He was interred at Arlington National Cemetery . His cenotaph is at The Woodlands Cemetery in Philadelphia . Legacy . His sister Cordelia Drexel Biddle wrote a book with Kyle Crichton about the family , focusing on her marriage with Angier Buchanan Duke who was the brother of Anthony ' s first wife . It was made into a play and the 1967 musical film " The Happiest Millionaire " . He was portrayed by Paul Petersen in the film . His nephew Angier Biddle Duke ( 1915 – 1995 ) also became a diplomat .