Charles Francis Sweeny

Charles Francis Sweeny (October 3, 1909[1][2][3] or 1910,[4][5] Scranton, Pennsylvania – March 11, 1993) was an American businessman and socialite who played a major role in the formation of the Eagle Squadrons, composed mostly of volunteer American pilots eager to fight in the Royal Air Force prior to the United States entering into World War II.

[2][6] His father, Robert, was a successful lawyer in Los Angeles, before moving to New York City in 1916 to pursue business opportunities and enlarge the family fortune.

Robert Sweeny Sr. either joined[2] or in 1926 founded[7] the Federated Trust and Finance Corporation of London, and by the late 1920s, had homes in Wimbledon[2] and Le Touquet.

Whigham, the only child of a Scottish millionaire, converted to Sweeny's Catholicism[10] and on February 21, 1933, they were married at the Brompton Oratory, London.

[13] (She became the third wife of Ian Campbell, 11th Duke of Argyll, on 22 March 1951; their marriage ended in a scandalous divorce in 1963 on grounds of her adultery.)

[15] With the outbreak of the Second World War, he formed a Home Guard unit, the First Motorised Squadron, composed of American expatriates in London.