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Henry Mond, 2nd Baron Melchett

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Henry Mond, 2nd Baron Melchett
Baron
Member of Parliament
for Liverpool East Toxteth
In office
19 March 1929 – 27 December 1930
Preceded byAlbert Jacob
Succeeded byPatrick Buchan-Hepburn
Member of Parliament
for Isle of Ely
In office
6 December 1923 – 9 October 1924
Preceded byNorman Coates
Succeeded byHugh Lucas-Tooth
Personal details
Born
Henry Ludwig Mond

10 May 1898
London, England
Died22 January 1949(1949-01-22) (aged 50)
Miami Beach, Florida, USA
SpouseAmy Gwen Wilson
Children3, including Julian, 3rd Baron Melchett
Parent(s)Alfred Mond, 1st Baron Melchett
Violet Goetze
EducationWinchester College
OccupationPolitician, industrialist, financier

Henry Ludwig Mond, 2nd Baron Melchett (10 May 1898 – 22 January 1949) was a British politician, industrialist and financier.

Early life and education

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Henry Mond was born in London, the only son of Alfred Mond, 1st Baron Melchett and his wife Violet (née Goetze). He was educated at Winchester College.[1] In the First World War he was commissioned with the South Wales Borderers on 9 April 1915[2] and wounded in 1916.[3]

Business life

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He then joined some of his father's businesses, becoming a director of Imperial Chemical Industries and serving as deputy chairman from 1940 to 1947. He was also a director of the Mond Nickel Company and Barclays Bank.[3]

Politics

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He served as Member of Parliament for the Isle of Ely 1923-24 as a Liberal. He won against Unionist candidate Max Townley in the 1923 general election with a small majority of 467. In the same election his father, Sir Alfred Mond, Bt, lost his seat of Swansea West. He was unable to retain the Isle of Ely at the 1924 general election.

Like his father, he later became a Conservative. He was Conservative Member of Parliament for Liverpool East Toxteth from 1929 to 1930, when, on the death of his father, he succeeded to the barony becoming the 2nd Baron Melchett.[4] He then set about restoring the family finances and moved his interests away from politics to economics.[3]

Religion

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Henry Mond visits Tel Mond, founded in 1929 in Palestine

Having been brought up in the Church of England, he reverted in the 1930s to his family's original Judaism and became a champion of Zionism, hoping that the Jews and Arabs could live harmoniously alongside each other. He advocated the evacuation of Jews from Germany to Palestine and supported the formation of an independent state of Palestine as part of the British Commonwealth. He was chairman of the Jewish Agency for Palestine and took an interest in the Maccabi Jewish youth organisation.[3]

Personal life

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Gwen Mond, Lady Melchett, 1935, by Glyn Philpot
Portrait of Mond painted by Philpot, 1932

He married Amy Gwen Wilson (usually called Gwen, the daughter of Edward John Wilson, who lived in Johannesburg[5]), at Chelsea Register Office on 30 January 1920.[6] She was described as "a show stopping beauty and artist".[7] Their relationship began when she was living with writer Gilbert Cannan, a friend of D. H. Lawrence, and they initially formed a ménage à trois.[7]

From 1930 the couple lived in a London home, Mulberry House in Smith Square, Westminster. Paying homage to their early relationship, they commissioned a 1.6 metres (5.2 ft) high relief from the prominent artist Charles Sargeant Jagger called "Scandal", which they displayed in their living room.[7] This showed a naked couple in an intimate embrace watched by society ladies in a state of outrage. The sculpture and the Baron's relationship led to censure and outrage from their contemporaries.[7] In 2008 "Scandal" was bought for £106,000 by the Victoria and Albert Museum[7] where it is on display.[8]

Family

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They had had two sons – the Honourable Derek John Henry Mond (18 October 1922 – 30 April 1945), Julian (9 January 1925 – 15 June 1973), and one daughter, the Honourable Karis Valerie Violet (26 July 1927 – 8 February 2006).[9] Derek was killed in a flying accident while he was serving with the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve in 1945.[10]

Mond bought and restored Colworth House on the edge of the Bedfordshire village of Sharnbrook and lived there for twelve years. During World War II he made the house available for the recuperation of American nurses[3] and to house Jewish refugees.[citation needed] He sold the house to Unilever in 1947 due to his wife's belief that moving to Florida would restore his health.[citation needed] He died at Miami Beach, Florida in 1949 aged 50 and the title passed to his surviving son Julian.[4] Mond was cremated in Islington.[11]

Publications

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  • Why the Crisis? (1931)
  • Modern Money (1932)
  • Thy Neighbour (1937)
  • Hunting and Polo

Coat of arms

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Coat of arms of Henry Mond, 2nd Baron Melchett[12]
Notes
Coat of arms of Mond, Barons Melchett
Coronet
A coronet of a Baron
Crest
A Demi-Bear holding between the paws a Fountain both proper.
Escutcheon
Quarterly: 1st and 4th, Gules a Demi-Lion rampant argent between in chief a Decrescent and an Increscent and in base a Crescent all Or on a Chief Argent an Eagle displayed between two Mullets Sable (Mond); 2nd and 3rd, Azure on a Pile between three Mullets Argent an Eagle displayed Sable (Lowenthal).
Supporters
Dexter: a Doctor of Science of the University of Oxford holding in the exterior hand a Chemical Measure Glass; Sinister: a Labourer holding in the exterior hand a Pick resting on the shoulder, all proper.
Motto
Make Yourself Necessary

Images

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See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ Streat, Sir Raymond (1987). Lancashire and Whitehall: The Diary of Sir Raymond Streat. Manchester University Press. p. 84. ISBN 978-0-7190-2391-0.
  2. ^ "No. 29179". The London Gazette (Supplement). 1 June 1915. p. 5317.
  3. ^ a b c d e Greenaway, Frank (2004) 'Mond family (per. 1867-1973)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, [1], retrieved on 9 March 2007.
  4. ^ a b Leigh Rayment's Peerage Page[usurped], accessed 9 March 2007
  5. ^ Amy Gwen Wilson on the Peerage website
  6. ^ The Mond Legacy by Jean Goodman Weidenfeld & Nicolson 1982
  7. ^ a b c d e ""On display, the sculpture that revealed an aristocrat's guilty secret" by Arifa Akba, The Independent, 18 April 2009". London. 18 April 2009. Retrieved 19 April 2009.
  8. ^ "Scandal (A.1:1 to 4-2008)". V & A. Retrieved 3 November 2016.
  9. ^ "Person Page #511586". The Peerage. Darryl Lundy. Retrieved 5 February 2018.
  10. ^ CWGC entry for Lieutenant Derek John Henry Mond, RNVR
  11. ^ The record on deceased online
  12. ^ Debrett's peerage and baronetage 2003. Debrett's Peerage Ltd. 2002. p. 1088.
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Media related to Henry Mond, 2nd Baron Melchett at Wikimedia Commons

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Isle of Ely
1923–1924 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Liverpool East Toxteth
1929–1930 		Succeeded by
Peerage of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Baron Melchett
1930–1949 		Succeeded by
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