Nevile Henderson

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Nevile Henderson
Ambassador Henderson
Ambassador Henderson in office, May 1937
Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia
In office
21 November 1929 – 1935
MonarchGeorge V
Prime MinisterRamsay MacDonald
Preceded byHoward William Kennard
Succeeded byRonald Ian Campbell (1939)
Ambassador to Argentina
In office
1935–1937
MonarchsGeorge V (1935–36)
Edward VIII (1936)
George VI (1936–37)
Prime MinisterStanley Baldwin
Preceded byHenry Chilton
Succeeded byEsmond Ovey
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Germany
In office
28 May 1937 – 10 May 1940
MonarchGeorge VI
Prime Minister
Preceded byEric Phipps[1]
Succeeded byBrian Robertson (1949)[1]
Personal details
BornNevile Henderson (1937)
(1882-04-10)10 April 1882
Sedgwick, West Sussex
Died30 December 1942(1942-12-30) (aged 60)
London
Resting placeNevile Henderson (1937)
NationalityBritish
Political partyConservative
Parent
  • Nevile Henderson (1937)

Sir Nevile Meyrick Henderson KCMG (10 June 1882 – 30 December 1942) was a British diplomat and Ambassador of the United Kingdom to Nazi Germany from 1937 to 1939.

Life and career

He was the third child of Robert and Emma Henderson and was born at Sedgwick Park near Horsham, West Sussex.[2] He was educated at Eton College and joined the Diplomatic Service in 1905. He served as an envoy to France in 1928/29 and as Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia between 1929 and 1935,[3] where he was in close confidence with King Alexander and Prince Paul. In 1935 he became Ambassador to Argentina before on 28 May 1937 he was appointed Ambassador in Berlin.

A follower of appeasement policies, Henderson believed that Adolf Hitler could be controlled and pushed toward peace and cooperation with the Western powers. In February 1939, he cabled the Foreign Office in London:

If we handle him (Hitler) right, my belief is that he will become gradually more pacific. But if we treat him as a pariah or mad dog we shall turn him finally and irrevocably into one.

Henderson (centre) with Neville Chamberlain and Joachim von Ribbentrop, Bad Godesberg, September 1938

Henderson was ambassador at the time of the 1938 Munich Agreement, and counselled Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain to enter into it. Shortly thereafter, he returned to London for medical treatment, returning to Berlin in ill-health in February 1939 (he would die of cancer less than four years later).[4] After Wehrmacht troops on 15/16 March 1939 occupied the remaining territory of the Czechoslovak Republic in defiance of the Agreement, Chamberlain spoke of a betrayal of confidence and decided to withstand German aggression. Henderson handed over a protest note and was intermittently recalled to London.

On the eve of World War II, Henderson came into frequent conflict with Alexander Cadogan, Permanent Undersecretary of the Foreign Office. Henderson argued that Britain should go about rearmament in secret, as a public rearmament would encourage the belief that Britain planned to go to war with Germany. Cadogan and the Foreign Office disagreed.

With the signing of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact on 23 August 1939 and the Anglo-Polish military alliance two days later, war became immanent. On the night of August 30, Henderson had an extremely tense meeting with German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop. Ribbentrop presented the German "final offer" to Poland at midnight, and warned Henderson that if he received no reply by dawn, the "final offer" would be considered rejected. "When Ribbentrop refused to give a copy of the German demands to the British Ambassador at midnight of 30–31 August 1939, the two almost came to blows. Ambassador Henderson, who had long advocated concessions to Germany, recognized that here was a deliberately conceived alibi the German government had prepared for a war it was determined to start. No wonder Henderson was angry; von Ribbentrop on the other hand could see war ahead and went home beaming."[5]

Henderson leaves for Berlin, Croydon Airport, August 1939

While negotiating with the Polish ambassador Józef Lipski and advising accommodation over Germany's territorial ambitions – as he had during the Austrian Anschluss and the occupation of Czechoslovakia – the Nazis staged the Gleiwitz incident and the Invasion of Poland began on September 1. It was Henderson who had to deliver Britain's final ultimatum on the morning of 3 September 1939 to Minister Ribbentrop, stating that if hostilities between Germany and Poland did not cease by 11 a.m. that day, a state of war would exist. Germany did not respond, and Prime Minister Chamberlain declared war at 11:15 a.m. Henderson and his staff were briefly interned by the Gestapo before finally returning to Britain on September 7.

After returning to London, Henderson asked for another ambassadorship, but was denied. He wrote a book, Failure of a Mission: Berlin 1937–1939, published in 1940. In it, he spoke highly of some members of the Nazi regime, including Hermann Göring. In contrast, he was not complimentary about Joachim von Ribbentrop.

Henderson was on friendly terms with the members of the Astors' Cliveden set, which also supported the appeasement of Hitler, and whose member was Prince Paul of Yugoslavia. Henderson wrote in his memoirs how eager Alexander was to show him his military plans to counter Mussolini's projected attack on Dalmatia, when the main body of the Italian Army had been sent overseas.[6]

References

  1. ^ a b List of diplomats of the United Kingdom to Germany#Ambassadors Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary 3
  2. ^ Appeasing Hitler: The Diplomacy of Sir Nevile Henderson, 1937–39, Peter Neville, Palgrave Macmillan, 1999, p.1.
  3. ^ "No. 33573". The London Gazette. 24 January 1930.
  4. ^ Appeasing Hitler: The Diplomacy of Sir Nevile Henderson, 1937–39 | Canadian Journal of History | Find Articles at BNET at findarticles.com
  5. ^ A World At Arms, Gerhard Weinberg, 43.
  6. ^ Jukic, Ilija, The Fall of Yugoslavia, New York and London, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1974, p.14-15.

2.Appeasing Hitler. The Diplomacy of Sir Nevile Henderson. 1937– 9. Peter Neville. Palgrave 2000. Book not article in Canadian Journal of History.

External links

Diplomatic posts
Preceded by Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary
to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia

1929–1935
Succeeded by
Preceded by Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador to the Third Reich
1937–1939
Succeeded by
No representation until 1950
Ivone Kirkpatrick

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