Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Figures
- List of Abbreviations
- A Note on Names
- Acknowledgements
- A Personal Note
- Introduction
- Chapter One Family and Youth
- Chapter Two The First World War
- Chapter Three Into the Sahara
- Chapter Four International Banker
- Chapter Five Negotiating with Italy
- Chapter Six West Africa, 1940
- Chapter Seven East Africa in Transition
- Chapter Eight AMGOT (Allied Military Government of Occupied Territories)
- Chapter Nine ‘Jack of Many Trades’
- Conclusion
- Sources and Bibliography
- Index
Chapter Nine - ‘Jack of Many Trades’
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 February 2021
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Figures
- List of Abbreviations
- A Note on Names
- Acknowledgements
- A Personal Note
- Introduction
- Chapter One Family and Youth
- Chapter Two The First World War
- Chapter Three Into the Sahara
- Chapter Four International Banker
- Chapter Five Negotiating with Italy
- Chapter Six West Africa, 1940
- Chapter Seven East Africa in Transition
- Chapter Eight AMGOT (Allied Military Government of Occupied Territories)
- Chapter Nine ‘Jack of Many Trades’
- Conclusion
- Sources and Bibliography
- Index
Summary
In summer 1943, with Rodd engrossed in AMGOT, Mary decided to return to Britain. Leaving Philadelphia in August, she brought the family back across the Atlantic on a Portuguese liner, in what was a harrowing crossing; a cyclone forced the ship to turn south towards the Azores before it finally docked in Portugal in late September. Rodd got news of their safe arrival on 9 October and saw them briefly in Lisbon at the end of the month. He was keen to alert Mary to the nature of the situation she was returning to, including the scarcity of food in the cities. He had already told her that, post-war, she would have to make some adjustments to her lifestyle. Her priority, he suggested, needed to be the reestablishment of family life in Herefordshire. But this was going to be a challenge: ‘The position roughly is that if you have servants you will have to work in a factory, or you can do the work yourself instead.’ But he sought to reassure her that he had not been able to detect any criticism of her for having been away from Britain. Mary knew of Rodd's desire to settle down at the Rodd after the war. But she was unsure that this would suit him. In the summer of 1942, she told him that any desire he had to live quietly in Herefordshire for the rest of his life was a ‘nostalgic’ dream; he was meant to get involved in the running of the country in some way, rather than be a country squire or farmer.
Rodd warned Mary about the attacks on him in parliament and the press:
I have come in for a good deal of slanging in parliament and in the press. I think I have done a good deal to clear things up. But it has been hard work. Keep out of the press as much as you can and don't see newspaper men. You will almost certainly be assailed on arrival. My life seems to have become a subject of interest unfortunately.
The whole process had been ‘very unpleasant’, he declared, adding that any thoughts he had had of being a colonial governor had been set back by this publicity and criticism.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Life and World of Francis Rodd, Lord Rennell (1895–1978)Geography, Money and War, pp. 187 - 212Publisher: Anthem PressPrint publication year: 2021