Ernest Perron

Ernest Perron (29 June 1908 – 1961) was a Swiss courtier in Iran during the reign of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Perron had been a servant in a college at Rolle, Switzerland, where he taught the future Shah 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. During the Abadan Crisis in 1953–1954, 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.