Henry Mond, 2nd Baron Melchett - Biography

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

Early life and education

Henry Mond was born in London, the only son of Alfred Mond and his wife Violet. He was educated at Winchester College. From 1915 he served in World War I with the South Wales Borderers but was wounded in 1916.

Business life

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

Politics

He served as Member of Parliament for the Isle of Ely 1923-24 as a Liberal. He then became a Conservative and was Member of Parliament for Liverpool East Toxteth from 1929 to 1931. On the death of his father in 1930 he succeeded to the barony becoming the 2nd Baron Melchett. He then set about restoring the family finances and moved his interests away from politics to economics.

Religion

Having been brought up in the Church of England, he reverted to his family's Judaism in the 1930s and became a champion of Zionism, hoping that the Jews and Arabs could live harmoniously with 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 British Agency for Palestine and took an interest in the Maccabean Jewish youth organisation.

Personal life

He married Amy Gwen Wilson, originally from South Africa, at Chelsea Register Office on 30 January 1920 She was described as: "a show stopping beauty and artist".

The couple lived in a London home, Mulberry House in Smith Square, Westminster, in a ménage à trois relationship with writer Gilbert Cannan, a friend of D H Lawrence. Paying homage to the relationship, they commissioned a 1.6m high relief from the era's prominent artist Charles Sargeant Jagger called "Scandal", which they displayed in their living room. 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. The work was bought by the Victoria and Albert Museum for £106,000 where it is on display.

Family

They had had two sons and one daughter. The elder son, Derek, was killed in a flying accident while he was serving with the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve in 1945. 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 and to house Jewish refugees. He sold the house to Unilever in 1947 due to his wife's conviction that moving to Florida would restore his health. He died at Miami Beach, Florida in 1949 and the title passed to his surviving son Julian.

Publications

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

Notes

External links