Ernest Perron

Ernest Perron (29 June 1908 – 1961) was a Swiss courtier in Iran during the regime of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

Perron had been a servant in a college at Rolle, Switzerland, where he taught the future Shah Mohammad Reza to appreciate French literature.

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.

Perron aroused much enmity as an upstart servant with delusions of grandeur, as well as being overtly homosexual.

The son of a gardener and handyman who worked at the Institut Le Rosey in Rolle, Switzerland, Perron first met the Crown Prince of Iran, Mohammad Reza while the latter was a student there between 1931–36.

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.

Perron worked at Le Rosey as a janitor and gardener, and most considered him a ridiculous figure, the janitor who thought of himself as a great poet.

Perron, an eccentric, effeminate man who dressed in a campy style, walked with a limp and who did nothing to hide his homosexuality was often beaten up by the students in what might today be deemed gay-bashing.

One day, Mohammad Reza came to his defense, and the two became best friends.

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

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.

Perron introduced Mohammad Reza to French poetry and as Mohammad Reza later recalled under his influence Chateaubriand and Rabelais "become my favorite French authors".

The father of the Teymourtash brothers was Abdolhossein Teymourtash, an important minister under Reza Khan, who is generally believed to had died as a result of drinking "Qajar coffee" in 1933 (i.e. poisoned as the Qajar shahs were infamous for killing their enemies with poisoned coffee), and Mohammad Reza did not want his sister to marry a man whose father had been killed by their father.

Ashraf recalled:"'Realizing how attached I was to Houshang, my brother had sent his friend Ernest Perron to see him. 'The Shah doesn't doubt the sincerity of your feelings for his sister', Perron told Houshang, 'but His Imperial Majesty knows his sister and he knows that a marriage to you will cause her suffering and unhappiness. If you really love her, you will not attempt to see her again'."

With that, Teymourtash ceased seeing Ashraf.

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?"

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. He is apparently engaged as a sort of Super-Servant for the prince in Switzerland".

Perron introduced Mohammad Reza to French poetry while Mohammad Reza took his best friend with him on weekend trips to the Bern house of Anoushirvan Sepahbodi, the Iranian ambassador to Switzerland, where he introduced Perron to Persian food, which he loved.

Besides enjoying Persian cooking, Perron and Mohammad Reza spent hours at Sepahbodi's house listening to Persian and classical music with Mozart and Bach being particular favorites.

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.

Though the relationship between Mohammad Reza and Perron has caused much speculation, it seems that Mohammad Reza lost his virginity to a maid who worked at Le Rosey in 1935.

The Crown Prince liked Perron so much that when he returned to Iran in 1936, he brought Perron back with him, installing his best friend in the Marble Palace.

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. The Belgian Charge here, a most sensible fellow, has said that he would not entrust any young man to Monsieur Perron, let alone a future monarch; and his description of him as un exalté, un illuminé, un mystique is just about right."

Reza Khan strongly disapproved of Perron for his homosexuality and tried to send him back to Switzerland, but was persuaded by his children to allow him to stay.

Reza Khan's first reaction to Perron was to attack him with his riding crop and beat him bloody, and although the Crown Prince persuaded the Shah to let Perron stay, Reza Khan demoted Perron down to a gardener at the Marble Palace.

In 1939, Perron started to write newspaper articles about Iran for Swiss newspapers, by 1941 was an "employee" of the Crown Prince, through he was unable to provide a job description to foreign diplomats about what he was actually doing and by 1942 he was working for the French embassy in Tehran as a translator.

In 1942, Perron worked as a messenger for Mohammad Reza, carrying letters back and forth between him and Reza Khan who had been exiled by the British to South Africa in September 1941.

In 1943, Perron became the private secretary to the Shah, a job he retained until 1954.

As private secretary, Perron controlled access to the Shah while also working as the court poet and philosopher.

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.

Perron became very friendly with Mohammad Mosaddegh with Mosaddegh's son Gholam Hossein Mosaddegh remembering Perron as a "very good", "very pure" and "very religious man".

Perron was used as intermediary between Mohammad Reza and Mosaddegh, being the only person allowed to enter the Shah's bedroom other than his wife and mistresses.

George Middleton, the British ambassador to Iran called Perron a "court jester" who was only allowed his position at the court because he could make Mohammad Reza laugh, but others remembered him as a ruthless intriguer who was forever plotting to keep his position as the Shah's best friend and the second most powerful man in Iran, the Shah's favorite advisor and the man who controlled access to the Shah.

Such was Perron's power to make or break careers that many in the Iranian elite found it expedient to cultivate him and always stay in his good graces by providing him with intelligence, which further enhanced his power.

As Perron's Persian was less than perfect, he often served as the Shah's favored emissary with the British, American, Swiss and French embassies in Tehran.

As a foreigner who could not own land in Iran nor had any important court position, Perron was completely dependent upon Mohammad Reza for power, which explains why he was trusted with such power by the Shah.

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.

Ultimately, Princess Ashraf decided to marry Houshang Teymourtash, but he was then visited by Perron who had a message from the Shah.

The Shah's second wife, Queen Soraya, banned him from the palace in 1951.

During the Abadan Crisis in 1953-4, he was involved in negotiations as an agent for the Shah; he offered to bypass the cabinet and exclude the Prime Minister from the negotiations with the British; the offer was rejected, revealed by the British and led to his public dismissal.