Francis Rodd, 2nd Baron Rennell


Francis James Rennell Rodd, 2nd Baron Rennell , was an army officer and the second but eldest surviving son of the diplomat Rennell Rodd, 1st Baron Rennell.

Career

Rodd was educated at Eton College and Balliol College, Oxford.
During the First World War he served in the artillery and, since he spoke four languages fluently, as an intelligence officer in France, Italy, North Africa, Egypt, Libya, Palestine and Syria. After the War he travelled twice through the central Sahara desert, and wrote about his findings in People of the Veil. In 1939 Rodd was re-commissioned into the army and served as Chief of Civil Affairs, Staff Officer of the Allied Military Government in Sicily, and as Major General, Civil Affairs Administration Middle East Command, East Africa Command, and Italy. After the war he joined the civil service. He resigned in 1924 and joined the Bank of England before joining Morgan, Grenfell & Co. where he became a managing director.
During the Second world War he served as a major-general in colonial administration in the middle east, east Aftrica and Italy. After the war he served as president of the Royal Geographical Society 1945–1948 and on the board of British Overseas Airways Corporation 1954–1965. On the death of his father on 26 July 1941 he gained the title of 2nd Baron Rennell and, as he had no sons, the barony passed to his nephew Tremayne Rodd on his death in 1978.

Family

On 3 August 1928, he married the Hon. Mary Constance Vivian Smith, daughter of Vivian Smith, 1st Baron Bicester. They had four daughters: