Wellington Koo family and the MacJannet School c1927

Wellington Koo family and the MacJannet School

 A recent Sunday New York Times (10/4) included a note (Bill Cunningham section) about Mrs. (Juliana) Wellington Koo.  She is 110 years old (not a typo—that is one-hundred and ten years old!).  She is the widow of Wellington Koo, whose 2 sons attended the MacJannet School in Paris. (more at  http://macjannet.org/history/macjannet-story/schoolmaster-of-kings/ ) page 61.

She attended and danced at a birthday party given by her daughter, Genevieve Young (age 85).  250 guests attended the event at the Pierre Hotel.  Juliana Koo plays mah-jongg three times a week with her friends.  She says her motto is, “Every day is a good day”  according to the NYT article.

Wellington Koo  (1888-1985) graduated from Columbia College, Columbia University in 1908.  (more at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wellington_Koo ). He later served as Prime Minister of China,
Ambassador to France (1936-1940), Ambassador to the Court of St James, and as Ambassador to the United States. He was a member of the Chinese delegation to the Paris Peace Conference negotiations on the Treaty of Versailles, represented China in the League of Nations, was the first person to sign the charter that created the United Nations and he later served on the International Court of Justice at the Hague.

Wellington Koo’s  first marriage lasted only a few years (1908-1911) and his second wife of six years, died in the 1918 Influenza. Wellington Koo married his third wife, Oei Hui-lan (one of 42 children of  the sugar Magnate Oei Tiong Ham), in 1921 and their two sons,  Wellington Jr., and Freeman,  attended the MacJannet School in Paris.   Oei Hui-lan was much admired for her fashion style and wrote several books noted in the above Wikipedia link.

Wellington Koo was about 72 years old when he married  Juliana Koo in 1959.

The photo below includes Freeman Koo and Wellington Koo Jr. seated in the first row, third and fourth from the right. Also in this photo is Prince Philip of Greece future husband of Queen Elizabeth. Philip is in the middle of the second row from the bottom- with blond hair.