The Ron Penhall Collection: Important Awards and Memorabilia of Lawrence of Arabia Interest

An interesting Second World War K.B.E., C.B. group of thirteen awarded to Major-General Lord Rennell of Rodd, Royal Artillery, who served with distinction as a Chief of Civil Affairs in the Mediterranean theatre of war 1941-44: as a young Intelligence Officer in Egypt and Palestine in the Great War, he met and befriended Lawrence of Arabia, and was subsequently approached by the Governor of the Bank of England to offer Lawrence the appointment of Secretary to the Bank in 1934 - the latter declined the offer but invited his old friend to come and visit him at his newly acquired cottage, “Clouds Hill” in Dorset

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, K.B.E. (Military) Knight Commander’s 2nd type set of insignia, comprising neck badge, silver-gilt and enamel, the reverse of the arms privately engraved, ‘Major-General Lord Rennell of Rodd, 23.III.44’, and breast star, silver, gilt and enamel centre, the reverse privately engraved as before, in its Garrard, London case of issue; The Most Honourable Order of The Bath, C.B. (Military) Companion’s neck badge, silver-gilt and enamel, in its Garrard, London case of issue; 1914-15 Star (2 Lieut., R.F.A,); British War and Victory Medals, M.I.D. oak leaf (Capt.); 1939-45 Star; Africa Star; Italy Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45; Coronation 1953; Italy, Order of St. Maurice and St. Lazarus, Knight’s breast badge, gold and enamel, mounted as worn where applicable, together with Royal Geographical Society, President’s Badge of Office, silver-gilt and enamel, the reverse officially inscribed, ‘Lord Rennell of Rodd, President 1945-48’, in its Spink, London case of issue; French Association for the Advancement of the Sciences Medal, reverse officially engraved, ‘Lord Rennell’ and the edge, ‘Angers, 1959’, 68mm., silvered-bronze; French Geographical Society Commemorative Medal 1821-1971, silver, 44mm., in its fitted case of issue, and a quantity of the recipient’s General Officer uniform rank insignia and buttons, generally good very fine (Lot) £2500-3000

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Ron Penhall Collection: Important Awards and Memorabilia of Lawrence of Arabia Interest.

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K.B.E. London Gazette 23 March 1944.

C.B. London Gazette 8 July 1943.

Francis James Rennell Rodd was born in October 1895, the son of the distinguished diplomat, James Rennell Rodd, the 1st Baron Rennell, G.C.B., G.C.M.G., G.C.V.O., and was educated at Eton and Balliol College, Oxford.

The Great War and the Lawrence connection

Commissioned into the Royal Field Artillery soon after the outbreak of hostilities, he served in France in 1915 and in Italy as an Intelligence Officer in 1916, following which he acted in a similar role - and as a Staff Officer - in Libya, Egypt, Sinai and Palestine 1917-18, gaining a “mention” to add to his earlier award of the Italian Order of St. Maurice and St. Lazarus (London Gazette 29 November 1918 refers). It was in this latter period that he met Lawrence of Arabia, and a long-standing friendship ensued - thus the occasion he was able to help Lawrence in May 1919, when the latter was seriously injured in an air crash in Italy. By that stage serving in the Diplomatic Service in Rome, Rodd was able to secure accommodation for Lawrence’s convalescence in his father’s official residence - the British Embassy.

Explorer

In was also during his time as a junior diplomat, in 1922, that Rodd embarked on an acclaimed expedition to the Touareg in the Sahara, work that won the praise of the Royal Geographical Society, and led to a second expedition in 1927 - he duly published People of the Veil and was awarded the Society’s Cuthbert Peake Grant and Founder’s Medal. Interestingly, he was accompanied by his younger brother Peter on one of these expeditions, having once more come to his sibling’s rescue after assorted and embarrassing excesses on the Continent - Peter afterwards married Nancy, one of the famous Mitford sisters.

Offer of post to Lawrence

In between these periods of exploration, which were no doubt inspired by the example of his ancestor, the leading geographer and ‘founder of oceanography’, Major James Rennell - and quite possibly Lawrence - Rodd resigned his post with the Diplomatic Service in favour of pursuing a career in the City. Thus his appointment to the Bank of England 1929-32, in addition to him acting as Manager of the Bank for International Settlements in the same period, an association that led to him being approached by Sir Montague Norman, the Governor of the Bank, in November 1934, to see whether he could persuade Lawrence to become Secretary for the Bank - the latter wrote to his old friend in the following terms:

‘Dear F.R.

By the accident that a friend of mine was passing my old lodgings in Southampton as my older landlady was handing your letter back to the postman, it reaches me here, only ten days late. I expect to work in Bridlington (on the ten Air Force boats that are refitting for next season) till the end of February when the R.A.F. goes on its way without me.
I shall feel unutterably lost without my blue covering. Twelve years it has been, of engrossing work with a very happy companionship for the off-duty hours. Few war-relics have been so fortunate as I am in the aftermath.

I’ve even saved money and Robin Buxton has invested it for me until it brings in more than 25/- a week. So if you bogeymen (I read the New English Weekly!) don’t crash the solar system shortly I should be able to live at peace in my cottage, with all the twenty four hours of the day to myself. Forty-six I am, and never yet had a whole week of leisure. What will ‘for ever’ feel like, and can I use it at all. Please note my new address from March onwards - Clouds Hill, Moreton, Dorset - and visit it, sometime, if you still stravage the roads of England in a great car. The cottage has two rooms, one, upstairs, for music (a gramaphone and records) and one downstairs for books. There is a bath, in a demi-cupboard. For food one goes a mile, to Bovington (near the Tank Corps Depot) and at sleeptime I take a great sleeping bag, embroidered MEUM, and spread it on what seems the nicest floor. There is a second bag, embroidered TUUM, for guests.

The cottage looks simple, outside, and does no hurt to its setting which is twenty miles of broken heath and a river valley filled with rhododendrons run wild. I think everything, inside and outside my place, approaches perfection.

Now to business. That enclosed message ought to have been instantly dealt with, by a plain Yes or No. Will you please say No, for me, but not a plain No. Make it a coloured No, for the Elizabethan of Herbert Baker’s naming had given me a moment of very rare pleasure which I shall not tell to anyone, nor forget.

Please explain how by accident it only came to me tonight, when I got back from work, too late to catch the evening mail from this pretty seaboard town.

These newspaper praises lead a fellow to write himself down as a proper fraud - and then along comes a real man to stake himself on the contrary opinion. It is heartening and I am more than grateful.

There - please work all that into your ‘No’: explain that I have a chance (if only I have the guts to take it) of the next year possessing all my time.

Yours ever

T. E. Shaw’

The 1939-45 War - dirty politics and the Mafia

By this time, Rodd had joined Morgan Grenfell & Co., of which company he ultimately became Managing Director, but not before the intervention of the 1939-45 War, a conflict in which he served with distinction as a Major-General and Chief of Civil Affairs in the Middle East and East Africa 1941-43 (C.B.; despatches), and in Sicily and Italy 1943-44 (K.B.E.); see his history, British Military Administration of Africa Territories 1940-45, for further details.

The process of setting up both military and civilian authorities in occupied territories was a notoriously difficult one, and often beset with charges of “dirty politics” from friend and foe alike. In fact, Rodd’s later experiences, particularly when the Allied Military Government of Occupied Territory (A.M.G.O.T.) was merged with the Allied Control Commission (A.C.M.), were largely unhappy, if only because he was accused of being too sympathetic to the Italians. Yet because he was dealing with territories where virtually every known official had owed allegiance to the Fascist movement, it is understandable that he felt bound to keep some of them in office, if only to maintain temporary control over known local troublespots. A case in point was his employment of the Carabinieri in Sicily to counter a resurgent Mafia:

‘The other element which may be of considerable importance is the Mafia. This organisation is less a secret society than an attitude of mind which no Italian Government has yet succeeded in stamping out completely, though Mussolini made a strenuous effort to do so when he sent Mori as Prefect to Palermo in the 1925-30 period ... There is some evidence of Mafia activity increasing. There has been one murder of a land owner which looks like Mafia work. The aftermath of war and the breakdown of central and provincial authority provide a good culture ground for the virus. The only formation capable of dealing with the Mafia with proper support is the Corps of Carabinieri. These with Civil Affairs Police Officers and military patrols may be able to check a recudescence of activity. I say deliberately “may”, because with the “Omorta”, or Sicilian code of honour, which precludes recourse of the injured parties even in cases of murder to the Government, it has been notoriously difficult to secure evidence of guilt, or even willingness to make charges ... ’ (Rodd’s official report refers).

The emergence of assorted Communist groups also led to further violence:

‘Instances in point are the riots that took place at Irisina in Potchza Province, and at a village in Matera Province. In both cases the mob invaded the Municipal Offices and lynched the Communal Secretary, who in both cases was an ardent Fascist. One Carabinieri’s throat was also cut. In one of these two cases the mob also attacked and injured, but not fatally, the wife and family of the Communal Secretary. These instances have been accompanied by brutality and mutilation. There have been one or two other cases in areas further North where similar incidents might have taken place but for the intervention of my officers arriving with the troops and calming the crowd ... ’ (Rodd’s official report refers).

As he would later conclude in a lecture on his return to the U.K., ‘It does not appear to be obvious to everybody, judging by the comments and remarks made at many discussions I have had - even with serving soldiers - either what a Military Government is for, or why there is one at all’.

On one matter, however, few could criticise Rodd, for he stridently pursued A.M.G.O.T’s aim to protect the physical symbols of the true Italy - buildings, libraries, monuments, archives and works of art - all of which he knew well from his upbringing in Rome when his father was ambassador - and when he was himself a diplomat there in the 1920s.

The latter years

Post-war, he expanded both his business and official activities, serving as President of the Royal Geographical Society 1945-48 and as a Member of the Board of the British Overseas Airways Corporation 1954-65. And, having become active as a Liberal peer on succeeding to his father’s title back in 1941, he crossed to the Conservative benches in the early 1950s. He also served as a Deputy Lieutenant and later Vice-Lieutenant of Herefordshire. The General died in March 1978 and his title passed to his nephew, Tremayne Rodd, a gifted sportsman who as a young Lieutenant in the Royal Navy became Boxing Champion of the Home Fleet, and afterwards represented Scotland as a scrum half; sold with an extensive file of research.