Frederick Philip Lewis Cunliffe-Owen was born on January 30, 1855 in London, England. He was the eldest son of Sir Francis Philip Cunliffe-Owen and Baroness von Reitzenstein whose father was Baron Fritz von Reitzenstein of the Prussian Royal Guards.
He was a grandson of the distinguished Captain Charles Cunliffe-Owen, R. N. , and Mary Blosset whose father, Sir Henry Blosset, was Chief Justice of Bengal.
He received his early education at the Lancing School in England but went for his college work to the University of Lausanne.
Becoming an attaché in the British diplomatic service, Frederick was stationed in several foreign countries including Egypt and Japan. He first visited the United States in 1876 to represent officially at the Centennial Exposition his father, the British Executive Commissioner, who was then director of the South Kensington Mu-Cunningham seum and one of the greatest promoters of International Exhibitions.
After a brief sojourn in England, he returned to the United States to settle in New York, ever after his home.
Being an omnivorous reader of foreign newspapers and magazines and having traveled extensively, he soon secured an editorial connection with the New York Tribune as a contributor on foreign topics. These were signed “Ex-Diplomat” until Whitelaw Reid, who had been appointed minister to France in 1889, returned to resume the editorship of the Tribune-, then “Ex-Attaché” was substituted lest readers might mistake the author. Because of his encyclopaedic familiarity with foreign affairs Cunliffe-Owen had been appointed copy editor of the foreign news. Close confinement to the desk and late hours at night so told on his health that he was made society editor, a position he held until his retirement in 1913.
With his wife and Willis Fletcher Johnson, day editor of the Tribune, he formed a newspaper syndicate.
In 1899 Johnson withdrew but Cunliffe-Owen and his wife continued the syndicate with great success under the signature, “La Marquise de Fontenoy. ”
The loss of a son, Algernon, in 1910, was a blow from which the father never recovered. A voluminous contributor of signed articles under his own name, and under noms de plume to British reviews, he radiated culture and learning in all that he wrote. His death left vacant in American journalism the position of international interpreter of foreign affairs.
Frederick was a prominent writer and newspaper columnist who received numerous honours including being named a Knight of the Order of Orange-Nassau in 1908 and Commander of the Order of the British Empire and Knight Commander of the Order of the White Eagle (Serbia) in 1920. His remarkable collection of newspaper clippings and magazine articles was given by his executors to the Department of Journalism, New York University.
He married November 22, 1877 to formerly Countess Marguerite du Planty de Sourdis.
