Sir Horace Rumbold, 9th Baronet
Sir Horace George Montagu Rumbold, 9th Baronet, GCB, GCMG, KCVO, PC (1920) (5 February 1869 - 24 May 1941) was the son of Sir Horace Rumbold, 8th Baronet, PC diplomat and was educated at Eton and went on to become a well-travelled diplomat, learning Arabic, Japanese and German. He was also an outspoken critic of Nazi Germany during his time as Ambassador to Berlin.
Rumbold was an attaché at The Hague (1889–1890) and then served in Cairo, Tehran, Vienna, Munich between 1900 and 1913. Rumbold was then moved to Tokyo (1909–1913) and then to Berlin (1913–1914). After the First World War Rumbold was the British ambassador to Constantinople (1920–1924), during which he signed the Lausanne Treaty on behalf of the British Empire. He was then ambassador to Madrid (1924–1928) and then went on to his last job, which was ambassador in Berlin from 1928 to 1933.
During this time Rumbold was in favour of appeasing the Brüning Government in the hope that this would stave off German nationalist parties, like Adolf Hitler's Nazi party. However once Hitler came to power in 1933 he was deeply unsettled by the Nazi régime and produced a succession of despatches which were critical of the Nazis.
On 26 April 1933 Rumbold sent to the Foreign Office his valedictory despatch, in which he gave an unvarnished view of Adolf Hitler, the Nazis and their ambitions:
[Hitler] starts with the assumption that man is a fighting animal; therefore the nation is a fighting unit, being a community of fighters...A country or race which ceases to fight is doomed...Pacifism is the deadliest sin...Intelligence is of secondary importance...Will and determination are of the higher worth. Only brute force can ensure survival of the race. The new Reich must gather within its fold all the scattered German elements in Europe...What Germany needs is an increase in territory...[to Hitler] the idea that there is something reprehensible in chauvinism is entirely mistaken...the climax of education is military service [for youths] educated to the maximum of aggressiveness...It is the duty of the government to implant in the people feeling of manly courage and passionate hatred...Intellectualism is undesirable...It is objectionable to preach international understanding...[he] has spoken with derision of such delusive documents as peace-pacts and such delusive ideas as the spirit of Locarno.[1]
Rumbold concluded by giving stark warnings for the future of international relations:
...it would be misleading to base any hopes on a return to sanity...[the German government is encouraging an attitude of mind]...which can only end in one way...I have the impression that the persons directing the policy of the Hitler government are not normal.[2]
Sir John Simon, the Foreign Secretary, found Rumbold's descriptions "definitely disquieting".[3] Ralph Wigram, an official in the Foreign Office, gave Winston Churchill a copy of this despatch in mid-March 1936.[4]
Rumbold retired due to his age in June 1933 and died in 1941. Lord Vansittart said of him; "little escaped him, and his warnings [about Nazi Germany] were clearer than anything that we got later".[5]
[edit] Notes
- ^ Correlli Barnett, The Collapse of British Power (Pan, 2002), pp. 386-387.
- ^ Barnett, p. 387.
- ^ Barnett, p. 387.
- ^ Martin Gilbert, Churchill: A Life (Pimlico, 2000), p. 553.
- ^ Robert Gilbert Vansittart, The Mist Procession (Hutchinson, 1958), p. 476.
[edit] Books
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Horace Rumbold |
- The War Crisis in Berlin: July to August 1914 by Horace Rumbold (London, 1944).
- Horace Rumbold (1902). Recollections of a Diplomatist. E. Arnold. http://books.google.com/books?id=WHQNAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA1&dq=inauthor:Horace+inauthor:Rumbold&as_brr=1.
- Horace Rumbold (1903). Further Recollections of a Diplomatist. E. Arnold. http://books.google.com/books?id=HF9ouqrdiJoC&pg=PA1&dq=inauthor:Horace+inauthor:Rumbold&as_brr=1#PPP7,M1.
- Horace Rumbold (1905). Final recollections of a diplomatist. http://books.google.com/books?id=Lx8IAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA1&dq=inauthor:Horace+inauthor:Rumbold&as_brr=1.
- Horace Rumbold (1909). Francis Joseph and his times. D. Appleton & Co.. http://books.google.com/books?id=2iMMAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA1&dq=inauthor:Horace+inauthor:Rumbold&as_brr=1#PPR3,M1.
| Baronetage of Great Britain | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Horace Rumbold |
Baronet of Woodhall 1913–1941 |
Succeeded by Anthony Rumbold |
- 1869 births
- 1941 deaths
- Old Etonians
- British diplomats
- Baronets in the Baronetage of Great Britain
- Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath
- Knights Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George
- Knights Commander of the Royal Victorian Order
- Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom
- Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to Turkey
- Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to Spain
- Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to Germany
- Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to Poland
