Sir Richard Rees, 2nd Baronet

Sir Richard Lodowick Edward Montagu Rees, 2nd Baronet (4 April 1900 – 24 July 1970) was a British diplomat, writer, humanitarian, and painter.

Rees was the son of Sir John Rees, 1st Baronet and his wife Mary Catherine Dormer. His sister was the pilot Rosemary Rees, Lady du Cros, MBE. He was educated at West Downs School, Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge. His father, who had been an administrator in British India and a Liberal politician, died in 1922 and he inherited the baronetcy.

He was for a while an attache at the British Embassy in Berlin. In 1925 he became a lecturer at the Workers' Educational Association in London, and also acted as Treasurer there.University College London - Rees Papers
/ref> John Middleton Murry appointed him editor of '' Adelphi'' in 1930, where he provided encouragement to George Orwell among others. He was the inspiration for the wealthy Ravelston, publisher of the socialist magazine ''Antichrist'', in Orwell's '' Keep the Aspidistra Flying''.

In the Spanish Civil War he drove ambulances in Catalonia. He initially worked with the National Joint Committee for Spanish Relief (NJC) and then the Quakers. Rees worked closely with the NJC, travelling to Mexico in June 1939 as the NJC's delegate to meet the SS Sinaia an oceanliner co-chartered by the NJC to send sixteen hundred Spanish refugees from the camps in France to resettle in Mexico.Schneider, Martin (2023). "¿Que pasa a bordo? ¿Que pasa en el mundo? The Crossing of Spanish Republican Refugees on the SS Sinaia to Mexico (1939)". ''Getty Research Journal'' 17.

During World War II, Rees served in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (RNVR). His service included an attachment to the French Navy from 1943, serving as a Liaison Officer (LO) on board ships of the newly-integrated Mediterranean Fleet, with whom he was awarded the Croix de Guerre.

As well as writing several books, he translated the works of Simone Weil and was the literary executor of George Orwell and R. H. Tawney. In addition to writing, he was a painter, exhibiting at the Royal Academy.

Publications

*''Brave Men: A study of D H Lawrence and Simone Weil'' (Victor Gollancz, London, 1958)
*''For Love or Money'' (Secker & Warburg, London, 1960)
*''George Orwell: Fugitive from the Camp of Victory'' (Secker & Warburg, London, 1961)
*''A Theory of my Time'' (Secker & Warburg, London, 1963)
*''Simone Weil: A Sketch for a Portrait'' (Oxford University Press, London, 1966)

;Edited with John Middleton Murry
*''Selected criticism 1916 to 1957'' (Oxford University Press, London, 1960)
*''Poets, Critics, Mystics'' (Feffer & Simons, London & Amsterdam, 1970)

;Translations with Jane Degras
*Alfred Grosser ''Western Germany: From defeat to rearmament'' (George Allen & Unwin, London, 1955)
*Jules Monnerot ''Sociology of Communism'' (George Allen & Unwin, London, 1953)
*Simone Weil ''Selected Essays'' (Oxford University Press, London, 1962)
*Simone Weil ''Seventy Letters'' (Oxford University Press, London, 1965)
*Simone Weil ''On Science, Necessity, and the Love of God'' (Oxford University Press, London, 1968)
*Simone Weil ''First and Last Notebooks'' (Oxford University Press, London, 1970

Arms

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rees, Richard
1900 births
1970 deaths
Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve personnel of World War II
Royal Navy officers
Baronets in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom
English writers
People educated at Eton College
Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge
George Orwell
People educated at West Downs School
Royal Navy officers of World War II
British recipients of the Croix de Guerre 1939–1945 (France)
British people of the Spanish Civil War
English translators