Rennell Rodd, 1st Baron Rennell

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Douglas McGarel Hogg
Succeeded byAlec Cunningham-Reid
Personal details
Born
James Rennell Rodd

9 November 1858 (1858-11-09)
London, England
Died26 July 1941 (1941-07-27) (aged 82)
Spouse
Lilias Georgina Guthrie
​
​
(m. 1894)​
RelationsJohn Tremayne Rodd (grandfather)
Anthony Todd Thomson (grandfather)
Children6
Parent(s)James Rennell Rodd
Elizabeth Anne Thomson
EducationHaileybury College
Alma materBalliol College, Oxford

James Rennell Rodd, 1st Baron Rennell,

First World War
.

Early life

Rodd was born in London on 9 November 1858. He was the only son of Cornishman Major James Rennell Rodd (1812–1892) of the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry, and his wife Elizabeth Anne Thomson, the third daughter of Dr. Anthony Todd Thomson. His paternal grandparents were Admiral Sir John Tremayne Rodd and the former Jane Rennell, a daughter of the geographer James Rennell.[1]

Rodd was educated at Haileybury and Balliol College, Oxford, where he was associated with the circle of Oscar Wilde. In 1880, he won the Newdigate prize for Raleigh.[2] Wilde later assisted Rodd in securing publication for his first book of verse, Rose Leaf and Apple Leaf, for which Wilde provided an introduction.[3] As Wilde began to court scandal in his public career, their friendship cooled.[4] Following Wilde's trial, Rodd strongly dissociated himself from him,[5] particularly as his own work had contained a number of gently homoerotic verses, such as: "his eyes would gaze from his soul at mine/My eyes that would answer without one sign/And that were enough for love."[6]

Career

Rodd entered the

Menelik II of Ethiopia. In late 1901, he was appointed first secretary at the embassy in Rome, where he arrived in 1902, and remained for the next two years.[7]

In 1904, Rodd was made minister plenipotentiary to Sweden—and until November 1905, Norway—but did not arrive until 17 January 1905. He played an active and neutral part in the

King Oscar II
. After the secession, he continued as a minister in Sweden until 1908.

In 1908 he was appointed ambassador to Italy. He remained in this post until 1919, and played a key role in securing Italy's adhesion to the

Diplomatic Service in 1919, but nonetheless served on the mission to Egypt in 1920, with The Viscount Milner. Rodd was the British delegate to the League of Nations from 1921 to 1923. He also sat as Unionist Member of Parliament for the constituency of St Marylebone between 1928 and 1932.[8]

Writing career and scholar

Apart from his diplomatic services Rodd was also a published poet and scholar of

H.P. Lovecraft.[12] Earlier in 1927 he met travel writer Richard Halliburton at a party and the two "clicked at once" as Halliburton recounted his time in Greece, including his following in the footsteps of Odysseus and Alexander the Great, deeds which appeared in his recent The Glorious Adventure. [13] He published his memoirs, entitled Social and Diplomatic Memories, in three volumes between 1922 and 1925. His diaries were published in 1981 by Torsten Burgman, and edited by Victor Lal in 2005.[14]

Honours

Rodd was appointed

County of Hereford.[16]

Personal life

On 27 October 1894, Rennell Rodd was married to Lilias Georgina Guthrie (1864–1951) at

Charles Bingham, 4th Earl of Lucan
). They had four sons and two daughters, including:

Lord Rennell died in July 1941, aged 82.[17] He was succeeded in the barony by his second, but eldest surviving, son Francis, who later served as president of the Royal Geographical Society.[18] His widow died on 20 September 1951.

Descendants

Though his daughter Gloria, he was a grandfather of four boys, including the portrait painter Dominick Elwes, who had three sons with Tessa Kennedy, including actor Cary Elwes.[19]

Arms

Coat of arms of Rennell Rodd, 1st Baron Rennell
Crest
A representation of the Colossus of Rhodes over the shoulder a bow in the dexter hand an arrow and in the sinister a cup all Proper.
Escutcheon
Argent two trefoils slipped Sable on a chief of the second three crescents of the first.
Supporters
On either side a Cornish chough wings elevated and addorsed Proper each charged on the breast with a trefoil slipped Argent.
Motto
Recte Omnia Duce Deo[20]

References

  1. ISBN 978-0-19-861412-8. Retrieved 4 June 2020. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)
  2. ISBN 978-0-7748-4481-9
    .
  3. ^ Oscar Wilde: Poems in Prose and Private Letters ; Including an Intimate Preface by His Biographer, Frank Harris. Pearson's (25c) Library. 1919. p. 10. Retrieved 4 June 2020.
  4. ISBN 978-3-030-14374-9
    . Retrieved 4 June 2020.
  5. ^ Rodd, James Rennell, Social and Diplomatic Memories, 1884–1893, Edward Arnold, London 1922, pp. 22–5.
  6. ^ Rodd, Rennell Rose Leaf And Apple Leaf, J.M. Stoddart 1882, p59
  7. ^ "No. 27367". The London Gazette. 22 October 1901. p. 6846.
  8. ^ "Rodd, James Rennell (1858-1941) 1st Baron Rennell, diplomat". discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk. The National Archives. Retrieved 4 June 2020.
  9. ^ "James Rennell Rodd, 1st Baron Rennell (1858-1941) - Rome of the Renaissance and to-day / by Sir Rennell Rodd ; with illustrations by Henry Rushbury". www.rct.uk. Retrieved 4 June 2020.
  10. ^ Rodd, Sir Rennell (1920). "The Italian People". Proceedings of the British Academy. 9: 389–407.
  11. ^ "Italian Lectures". British Academy.
  12. ^ H.P. Lovecraft, Selected Letters II, page 331.
  13. ^ Richard Halliburton; His Story of His Life's Adventures, Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1940, p. 278.
  14. ^ Legg, L. G. Wickham, Williams, E. T (editors). The Dictionary of National Biography, 1941-1950. Oxford University Press, 1959.
  15. ^ "No. 31712". The London Gazette (Supplement). 30 December 1919. p. 3.
  16. ^ "No. 33917". The London Gazette. 3 March 1933. p. 1424.
  17. ^ "Rennell, Baron (UK, 1933)". www.cracroftspeerage.co.uk. Heraldic Media Limited. Retrieved 4 June 2020.
  18. JSTOR 634229
    .
  19. ^ Burke's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage, 107th edition, vol. 3, ed. Charles Mosley, Burke's Peerage Ltd, 2003, p. 3319
  20. ^ Burke's Peerage. 1956.
Bibliography

External links

Diplomatic posts
Preceded by
Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary
to the King of Norway

1904–1905 		Succeeded by
Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary
to the King of Sweden

1904–1908 		Succeeded by
Sir Cecil Spring Rice
Preceded by
British Ambassador to Italy

1908–1919 		Succeeded by
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament for St Marylebone
1928 – 1932 		Succeeded by
Peerage of the United Kingdom
New creation Baron Rennell
1933 – 1941 		Succeeded by

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