Hubert John Duggan (24 July 1904 – 25 October 1943) was an Argentine-born British Army officer and politician, who was Conservative Party Member of Parliament for Acton from 1931 until his death.
A witty and handsome man who very much enjoyed the company of women, Duggan was married only briefly before becoming the plaintiff in a scandalous divorce case.
Duggan was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where his father's family had many "estancias", and was also honorary Attaché to the Argentine Legation in London.
[6] Duggan regarded his stepfather positively and countered suggestions that the humourless image he projected to the public was accurate in private.
[3] In later years, he angrily denounced W. Somerset Maugham's comedy Our Betters which gently satirised Americans marrying into aristocratic British families.
[13] Anthony Powell, who was then at Balliol College, reported once seeing Lord Curzon (then Chancellor of the University) talking to Duggan who had not yet got out of bed.
[17] He had served only four years before he resigned his commission[18] on being selected as prospective Conservative Party candidate for East Ham South in 1928.
[20] Duggan spent more than a year "nursing" his prospective constituency, which was narrowly held by the Labour Party; in the 1929 general election he argued that the Ford factory would only be built locally if "safeguarding" of industries was continued.
[31] However, he was allied with Winston Churchill on the threat in Europe, and abstained rather than support the Government in a vote of censure over the resignation of Anthony Eden later that month.
[34] With the broad group of anti-appeasement Members, he signed a motion calling for a National Government on the "widest possible basis" in March 1939.
[35] On the outbreak of the Second World War, Duggan rejoined the Life Guards as a lieutenant, apparently in spite of medical advice.
On 12 October Duggan told Waugh that he was thinking of returning to the Catholic faith from which had been estranged since his youth, but was reluctant to repent of his life with Phyllis de Janzé because it would be to betray her.
[42] Duggan's "demeanour at school–though not in later life"[9] was the model for Charles Stringham in Anthony Powell's series of novels "A Dance to the Music of Time".