Ernest Perron

When Mohammad Reza returned to Iran, he took Perron with him, eventually appointing him as his private secretary, and they enjoyed an exceptionally close friendship, which puzzled and offended many.

[2] A "short and thin man, almost fragile", Perron lived in the servants' quarters of Le Rosey and fantasied about being a great poet, reciting his poetry at all times.

[3] Perron had only a high school education, but he read widely and impressed Mohammad Reza with his knowledge of French literature, poetry and philosophy.

[1] Besides for his love of poetry, Perron was known for being both openly gay and a devout Catholic who ultimately persuaded the Shah's older sister Princess Shams Pahlavi to convert to Catholicism.

[5] In 1935, the British Legation in Bern reported to London that Perron was "the most oddest young man...who appears to be the Prince's chief guide, philosopher and friend.

[6] Perron's devout Catholicism gave Mohammad Reza someone outside of his immediate family who had the certainty of faith, of believing that there was a just, omnipotent God out there to look after one, which appealed to the teenage Crown Prince.

[8] In a report from 1936, Perron was described by the British Embassy in Tehran as "a curious fellow...dressed like a musical comedy Bohemian who also writes characters from hand-writing and from the palm of your hand and makes the most surprising statements of the strength of it about your vie sexuelle!...It is rather alarming that such an odd specimen should have such a hold on the prince.

[1] Reflecting his lack of education beyond high school graduation, Perron felt uncomfortable dealing with diplomats and asked the Swiss ambassador to give him advice about how to improve his social graces.

The Shah's twin sister Princess Ashraf Pahlavi had a relationship with Mehrpour Teymourtash, but over time found herself being more and more attracted to his younger brother Houshang.

[11] The Shah's second wife Soraya Esfandiary-Bakhtiari hated Perron, writing in her memoirs "How can I describe this shaytun [a Persian term that roughly translates as a "trouble maker"] and limping devil who dragged his leg and spread his poison around the palace as well as our own quarters?

[14] Much to her revulsion, Perron visited her one day in late 1951 and made a series of what she called very "lewd" remarks about her sex life with the Shah, intersected with equally vulgar questions, which led her to throw him out of the Marble Palace in her fury.

[15] In December 1953, the British diplomat Denis Wright secretly visited Tehran and met with Perron and Bahram Shahrokh, who had worked as a broadcaster for Radio Berlin during World War II, who were the Shah's agents for talks about the future of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company.

[1] During their talks, Perron and Shahrokh wanted British support if Mohammad Reza Shah were to dismiss both Hossein Ala' and the Prime Minister General Fazlollah Zahedi.

[11] Zonis wrote: "No one who was a member of court circles in the period of Perron's involvement supports the rumors of a homosexual tie between the Shah and his Swiss friend...Whether or no manifest sexuality was a part of their relation, there clearly was an extraordinary close bond between the two.

[6] In 1988, Iranian television aired the purported confessions of General Hossein Fardoust, who himself had also been a childhood friend of the Shah, a few weeks before his death where he claimed Perron had been "planted" at Le Rosey as a British spy.

[19] In 1991, the newspaper Kayhan-e Hava'i published what were allegedly Fardoust's memoirs, which were summarized by the Iranian-American historian Ervand Abrahamian as: "These claimed that Perron had been planted by the British in Le Rosey to seduce the young shah; that Perron headed a homosexual clique among the courtiers and the Freemasons; and that he continued to work for MI6 until his death in 1961, when his espionage role was taken over by Dr. Ayadi, a Bahai veterinary surgeon who had cured the Shah of a psychosomatic ailment.