Early Life
Douglas Hurd was born in 1930 at Marlborough, Wiltshire. His father Anthony Hurd (later Lord Hurd) and grandfather Sir Percy Hurd were also Members of Parliament. His uncle, Sir Archibald Hurd, was a leading Fleet Street shipping correspondent, who became a Freeman Honoris Causa of the Shipwrights' Company in 1922 and was knighted in 1928.
Hurd attended Twyford School and Eton College. He then went up to Cambridge University, where he graduated with a first-class degree in History at Trinity College (MA) as well as serving as President of the Cambridge Union Society.
In 1952, Hurd joined the Diplomatic Service. He was posted to China, the United States and Italy, before leaving the service in 1966 to enter politics as a member of the Conservative Party.
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