Air Commodore Sir Charles Jocelyn Hambro, (3 October 189728 August 1963) was a British merchant banker and
intelligence officer
An intelligence officer is a person employed by an organization to collect, compile or analyze information (known as intelligence) which is of use to that organization. The word of ''officer'' is a working title, not a rank, used in the same way ...
.
Life
Hambro was born into a banking family of Danish Jewish origin which had settled in
Dorset
Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset. Covering an area of , ...
and the
City of London
The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London f ...
in the early 19th century. He was the son of
Sir Eric Hambro, a partner in C. J. Hambro & Son (later to become
Hambros Bank
Hambros Bank was a British bank based in London. The Hambros bank was a specialist in Anglo-Scandinavian business with expertise in trade finance and investment banking, and was the sole banker to the Scandinavian kingdoms for many years. The Bank ...
) and a
Conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...
Member of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...
for
Wimbledon between 1900 and 1907.
Between 1910 and 1915, he was educated at
Eton College
Eton College () is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI of England, Henry VI under the name ''Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore'',Nevill, p. 3 ff. i ...
, joining the cricket team in 1914 and becoming the Captain in 1915. After leaving Eton he immediately went to the
Royal Military College, Sandhurst
The Royal Military College (RMC), founded in 1801 and established in 1802 at Great Marlow and High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, England, but moved in October 1812 to Sandhurst, Berkshire, was a British Army military academy for training infant ...
, being made an ensign in the
Coldstream Guards
The Coldstream Guards is the oldest continuously serving regular regiment in the British Army. As part of the Household Division, one of its principal roles is the protection of the monarchy; due to this, it often participates in state ceremonia ...
on 22 December 1915. He was immediately posted to the
Western Front Western Front or West Front may refer to:
Military frontiers
* Western Front (World War I), a military frontier to the west of Germany
*Western Front (World War II), a military frontier to the west of Germany
*Western Front (Russian Empire), a maj ...
, serving for two years as an officer until demobilisation. Promoted to lieutenant on 10 July 1916 (back-dated to 9 June 1916), he was awarded the
Military Cross
The Military Cross (MC) is the third-level (second-level pre-1993) military decoration awarded to officers and (since 1993) other ranks of the British Armed Forces, and formerly awarded to officers of other Commonwealth countries.
The MC ...
on 26 September 1917 for conspicuous bravery in action.
His citation reads as follows:
For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. Accompanied by a private, he crossed to the enemy's side of a canal and rescued two wounded men, one of whom was unable to walk, from close under the enemy's parapet. Later in the day, he went forward in charge of the leading patrol of an advance, personally accounting for four of the enemy with his revolver and capturing several prisoners with his party. On reaching his objective, he sent back correct and valuable information, and has at all times displayed the utmost coolness and gallantry.
Hambro resigned his commission on 12 August 1919, receiving a regular commission as a reserve officer from the same date. After initial training with the
Guaranty Trust Company in New York City (where he and his wife lived with Harry Morgan) he joined his family bank J.C. Hambro & Sons, playing a large part in its merger with the
British Bank of Northern Commerce The British Bank of Northern Commerce was founded in February 1912 by Knut Agathon Wallenberg of the Stockholms Enskilda Bank and Emil Glückstadt of Landmandsbanken (Copenhagen), together with several other banks including Centralbanken for Nor ...
in 1920, with the combined bank taking the name
Hambros Bank
Hambros Bank was a British bank based in London. The Hambros bank was a specialist in Anglo-Scandinavian business with expertise in trade finance and investment banking, and was the sole banker to the Scandinavian kingdoms for many years. The Bank ...
in 1921. In 1928, when only 30, Hambro was elected a director of the
Bank of England
The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694 to act as the English Government's banker, and still one of the bankers for the Government o ...
, and between 1932 and 1933 he put all work outside the bank to one side to work on establishing the bank's exchange control division under the direction of Montagu C. Norman, the Bank of England director.
[ONDB: Hambro, Charles Jocelyn](_blank)
/ref> In 1937 Hambro was asked to succeed Norman as director, but he turned it down as he was suffering from oral cancer
Oral cancer, also known as mouth cancer, is cancer of the lining of the lips, mouth, or upper throat. In the mouth, it most commonly starts as a painless white patch, that thickens, develops red patches, an ulcer, and continues to grow. When on ...
, although surgical operations and radiotherapy
Radiation therapy or radiotherapy, often abbreviated RT, RTx, or XRT, is a therapy using ionizing radiation, generally provided as part of cancer treatment to control or kill malignant cells and normally delivered by a linear accelerator. Rad ...
later helped him recover.
At the outbreak of the Second World War, Hambro was placed in charge of activities in Scandinavia, arranging smuggling, intelligence networks and sabotage operations. After the fall of France in June 1940, Hambro was made a colonel on the General Staff and was asked by Ronald Cross to join the Ministry of Economic Warfare, a cover organisation for the Special Operations Executive
The Special Operations Executive (SOE) was a secret British World War II organisation. It was officially formed on 22 July 1940 under Minister of Economic Warfare Hugh Dalton, from the amalgamation of three existing secret organisations. Its p ...
(SOE). The SOE was charged with creating "a spirit of resistance in occupied territories". Through his contact with Ebbe Munck, an anti-Nazi journalist, Hambro linked up with the Danish resistance, and was knighted as a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations,
and public service outside the civil service. It was established ...
for his work in 1941. Hambro refused to accept any wages for his military work during wartime.
Between December 1940 and November 1941, Hambro was also in charge of overseeing the French, Belgian, German and Dutch sections of the SOE, and from November 1941 he was deputy leader of SOE for 5 months. In 1942 he succeeded in persuading the British and Norwegian organisations to form a planning commission, which was instrumental in devising Operation Grouse and Operation Swallow
''Operation Swallow: The Battle for Heavy Water'' (original title: ''Kampen om tungtvannet'', French title: ''La Bataille de l'eau lourde'') is a Norwegian-French film from 1948. The history is based on the best known commando raid in Norway durin ...
, important parts of the Norwegian heavy water sabotage
The Norwegian heavy water sabotage ( nb, Tungtvannsaksjonen; nn, Tungtvassaksjonen) was a series of Allied-led efforts to halt German heavy water production via hydroelectric plants in Nazi Germany-occupied Norway during World War II, involv ...
missions. By this time Hambro was on the executive committee of the SOE, and was promoted to Air Commodore. Roundell Palmer, now head of the SOE, appointed him to succeed Frank Nelson. His first major action as head of the SOE was to meet with Colonel William Joseph Donovan
William Joseph "Wild Bill" Donovan (January 1, 1883 – February 8, 1959) was an American soldier, lawyer, intelligence officer and diplomat, best known for serving as the head of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the precursor to the B ...
, the head of the OSS and his opposite number. A disagreement over actions in the Middle East led Hambro to resign in 1943.
For the rest of the war he acted as head of the "British raw materials mission" in Washington; a cover for exchanging information and technology between Britain and the United States which led to the detonation of the first Atomic Bomb
A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bomb ...
as part of the Manhattan Project
The Manhattan Project was a research and development undertaking during World War II that produced the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States with the support of the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the project w ...
.
After the war Hambro returned to the city, assuming responsibility for the companies with which Hambros were associated. On the death of his uncle, Olaf Hambro, in 1961 he became chairman of Hambros Bank. Whilst maintaining close connection to commerce in Scandinavia, he extended the Bank's interests to Africa and Asia.
Family
In 1919, Hambro married Pamela Cobbold, daughter of John Dupuis Cobbold
John Dupuis Cobbold (11 March 1861, Ipswich – 12 June 1929, Ipswich) was a member of the Ipswich based Cobbold family.
John was born at The Cliff, Ipswich. He was the son of John Patteson Cobbold and Adele Harriette Dupuis, daughter of George ...
(1861–1929), grandson of John Chevalier Cobbold (1797–1882); and Zainab Cobbold
Zainab Cobbold (born Lady Evelyn Murray; 17 July 1867 – January 1963) was a Scottish diarist, traveller and noblewoman who was known for her conversion to Islam in the Victorian era.
Biography
Born in Edinburgh in 1867, she was the eldest da ...
.
Together they had four children:
* Cynthia Hambro (1921–1986), married Maj. Michael Ian Leslie-Melville in 1943
* Diana Hambro (b. 1922), married David Gibson-Watt, Baron Gibson-Watt
James David Gibson-Watt, Baron Gibson-Watt (11 September 1918 – 7 February 2002) was a British Conservative Party politician.
Educated at Eton College and Trinity College, Cambridge, Gibson-Watt served in the Welsh Guards from 1939 to 1946, ...
in 1942
* Pamela Hambro (b. 1925), married Capt. Robin William Lowe in 1945 (divorced 1951), married Andrew Gibson-Watt (brother of David, above) in 1951
* Charles Hambro, Baron Hambro
Charles Hambro, Baron Hambro (24 July 1930 – 7 November 2002) was a British merchant banker and political fundraiser. He was the Chairman of Hambros Bank from 1972 until its merger with Société Générale in 1998. He was the senior honora ...
(1930–2002)
The family settled at Delcombe Manor
Delcombe Manor is a Grade II*-listed manor in Milton Abbas, Dorset, England.
History
The manor was built circa 1750 using flint and stone from Milton Abbey. It was originally two separate cottages which were joined.Clive AsletVillage voice ''The ...
near Milton Abbey. Pamela died in 1932, of infection following a hunting accident. In 1934, Hambro built the village hall for Winterborne Stickland
Winterborne Stickland is a village and civil parish in the county of Dorset in southern England. It lies about west of the town of Blandford Forum. In 2013 the civil parish had an estimated population of 520. In the 2011 census the parish, comb ...
to replace its Reading Room, which had been sold off with the rest of the Milton Abbey estate, and named it after his late wife.
In 1936, Hambro remarried: his second wife was Dorothy Helen Mackay: her first husband had been Marcus Wallenberg (junior) 1899–1982). They went on to have a daughter, Sally. She is the second wife and widow of the late Anthony Brand, 6th Viscount Hampden
Anthony David Brand, 6th Viscount Hampden DL (7 May 1937 – 4 January 2008) was a British stock broker, Sussex land owner, South Downsman, hereditary peer and land agent.
Early career
Brand was the son of the cricketer and financier David Bran ...
.
A relative, Carl Joachim Hambro, (the younger) was a politician and civil servant in Norway and in exile during World War II in Sweden. He served as President of the Parliament at the time of the German invasion. [
]
C. J. Hambro
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hambro, Charles Jocelyn
1897 births
1963 deaths
British Army personnel of World War I
Coldstream Guards officers
Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire
People educated at Eton College
Recipients of the Military Cross
Graduates of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst
British Special Operations Executive personnel
High Sheriffs of the County of London
British people of Danish descent
British people of German-Jewish descent
English people of Danish descent
Barons of Denmark
Charles Jocelyn