Rennell Rodd, 1st Baron Rennell

Rennell Rodd, 1st Baron Rennell, ca.1901

James Rennell Rodd, 1st Baron Rennell GCB , GCMG , GCVO , PC (born November 9, 1858 in London , † July 26, 1941 ) was a British diplomat and politician.

Live and act

Rodd was born in 1858 to Major James Rennell Rodd and his wife Elizabeth Thompson. After training at the school Haileybury and Balliol College of Oxford University , he joined in 1883 in the diplomatic service of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland . After serving for eleven years in subordinate positions at the British embassies in Berlin, Rome, Athens and Paris, Rodd served as one of the central representatives of the London government at the British Consulate General in Egypt from 1894 to 1902. At that time, he played a significant role in connection with the conclusion of the Anglo-Ethiopian Treaty of 1897.

In 1902 it was used again at the British Mission in Rome before it went to Sweden in 1904 as a British agent , where it stood out in connection with the establishment of the independent Kingdom of Norway . Oskar II (Sweden) considered his efforts in this direction to be so significant that he awarded Rodd the Grand Cross of the North Star Order . Rodd's service in Sweden ended in 1908. He was sent to Rome as the new British ambassador to Italy . As the British representative in Italy during the First World War , Rodd tried to win Italy for the Triple Entente from 1914 onwards . Retired from the diplomatic service after the war in 1919, he withdrew into private life at times. In 1921 he returned to public life as a member of the British delegation to the League of Nations . He was a member of it until 1923. From 1928 to 1932 Rodd represented the constituency of St. Marylebone as a MP for the unionist wing of the Conservative Party in the House of Commons . In the following year he was made hereditary peer (nobility) as Baron Rennell of Rodd in the County of Hereford .

As a private scholar , Rodd was particularly concerned with the ancient civilizations in the Mediterranean, with Greece and Rome. He presented his three-volume memoirs from 1922 to 1925. The historian Torsten Burgman published his diaries in 1981. Theodore Roosevelt once asked Rodd what book he could recommend for a long trip. Without hesitation, he advised the history of the city of Rome in the Middle Ages by Ferdinand Gregorovius .

family

Rodd's marriage to Lilias Georgina Guthrie, which was closed in 1894, had four sons and two daughters, including the conservative politician Evelyn Violet Elizabeth Rodd. His title went to his son Francis Rodd, 2nd Baron Rennell , on his death in 1941 .

Works

• Social and Diplomatic Memories of James Rennell Rodd , 3 volumes. London 1922-1925.

Web links

Commons : James Rennell Rodd  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Bernhard von Bülow : Memoirs , Vol. 4. Berlin 1930, p. 327f.

predecessor	Office	successor
New title created	Baron Rennell 1933-1941	Francis Rodd