Born in Shanghai in 1888, Koo attended Saint John's University, Shanghai, and Columbia University, where he was a member of the Philolexian Society, a literary and debating club, and graduated with a B.A. in Liberal Arts and an M.A. in Political Science. In 1912 he received his Ph.D. in international law and diplomacy from Columbia. Koo returned to China in 1912 to serve the new Republic of China as English Secretary to PresidentYuan Shikai. In 1915, Koo was made China's Minister to the United States and Cuba. In 1919, he was a member of the Chinese delegation to the Paris Peace Conference, led by Foreign Minister Lu Zhengxiang. Before the Western powers and Japan, he demanded that Japan return Shandong to China. He also called for an end to imperialist institutions such as extraterritoriality, tariff controls, legation guards, and lease holds. The Western powers refused his claims and, consequently, the Chinese delegation at the Paris Peace Conference was the only nation that did not sign the Treaty of Versailles at the signing ceremony. Koo also was involved in the formation of the League of Nations as China's first representative to the newly formed League. From 1922, Koo served successively as Foreign Minister and Finance Minister. He was twice Acting Premier, in 1924 and again in 1926 during a period of chaos in Beijing under Zhang Zuolin in 1926-7. Koo was Acting Premier from 1 October 1926 and acted concurrently as Interim President. He served as Premier from January until June 1927, when Zhang organised a military government and Koo resigned. After the Northern Expedition toppled the government in Beijing in 1928, he was briefly wanted for arrest by the new Nationalist government in Nanjing, but through Zhang Xueliang's mediation he was reconciled with the new government and returned to the diplomatic service. He represented China at the League of Nations to protest the Japanese invasion of Manchuria. He served as the Chinese Ambassador to France from 1936–1940 until France was occupied by Germany. Afterwards, he was the Chinese Ambassador to the Court of St James's until 1946. In 1945, Koo was one of the founding delegates of the United Nations. He later became the Chinese Ambassador to the United States and focused on maintaining the alliance between the Republic of China and the United States as the Kuomintang began losing to the Communists and had to retreat to Taiwan. Koo retired from the Chinese diplomatic service in 1956. and in the same year he became a judge of the InternationalCourt of Justice in The Hague, and served as Vice-President of the Court during the final three years of his term. In 1967, he retired and moved to New York City, where he lived until his death in 1985.
Personal life
In 1908, Koo married his first wife, Chang Jun-e. They divorced prior to 1912. Koo's second wife, Tang Pao-yueh "May", was the youngest daughter of the former Chinese prime ministerTang Shaoyi and a first cousin of the painter and actress Mai-Mai Sze. Their marriage took place soon after Koo's return to China in 1912. She died in the US during the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic. They had two children: a son, Teh-chang Koo, and a daughter, Patricia Koo,. Koo's third wife was the socialite and style icon Oei Hui-lan. She married Koo in Brussels, Belgium, in 1921. She was previously married, in 1909, to British consular agent Beauchamp Stoker, by whom she had one son, Lionel, before divorcing in 1920. Much admired for her adaptations of traditional Manchu fashion, which she wore with lace trousers and jade necklaces, Oei Hui-lan was the favorite daughter of Peranakan tycoon MajoorOei Tiong Ham, and the heiress of a prominent family of the Cabang Atas or the Chinese gentry of colonial Indonesia. She wrote two memoirs: Hui-Lan Koo : An Autobiography and No Feast Lasts Forever. Koo had two sons with her: Yu-chang Wellington Koo, Jr. and Fu-chang Freeman Koo. On 3 September 1959, Koo married his fourth wife Yen Yu-yun, the widow of Clarence Kuangson Young. He had three stepdaughters from this marriage: Genevieve, Shirley and Frances Loretta Young.
Death
Koo lived long enough to see two of his sons die before him. He died surrounded by his family on the night of 14 November 1985, at the age of 97. Wellington Koo was survived by his fourth wife, two children, nineteen grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Dying older than both the 87-year old Qianlong Emperor, the 92-year old People's Republic paramount leaderDeng Xiaoping and living Jiang Zemin, Koo holds the distinction of being the longest-lived person to ever lead China. Despite this, his last wife lived even longer than he did: Juliana Koo died at the age of 111.
