- George William Rendel
Sir George William Rendel (
1889 -6 May 1979 ) was a Britishdiplomat . Eid Al Yahya, "Travellers in Arabia", (Stacey International, 2006). ISBN 9780955219313]Rendel, the son of the engineer
George Wightwick Rendel was educated atDownside School and at Queen's College, Oxford, graduating in Modern History in 1911.He then entered the
Diplomatic Service . He was head of the Eastern Department of the Foreign Office, 1930-1938. In 1937 he and his wife Geraldine (1884-1965) crossedArabia . His wife, Geraldine, was the first European woman to be received for dinner at the royal palace inRiyadh .Rendel said of Riyadh:
":"...it was a revelation to me of how fine in line and proportion modern Arabian architecture can be."
He had two daughters, Ann and Rosemary.
He was ambassador to the
Yugoslav Government in London , 1941-1943, knighted in 1943, and Ambassador toBelgium , between 1947-1950.Whilst Rendel was His Britannic Majesty's Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Bulgaria, The
United Kingdom broke off diplomatic relations as the country was now under the control of theNazi s. It fell to Rendel to take his staff of 50 by train toIstanbul , inTurkey . His party was caught in a huge bomb explosion at the Pera Palace Hotel. Rendel was upstairs when the bomb in the baggage room exploded with devastating consequences. His daughter Ann, then 21 and acting as Legation Hostess, was knocked down and slightly injured. In all there were four deaths and 30 injured. It was later claimed by the Germans that various bombs had been placed in the Legation's luggage before it leftSofia . Time. Monday, Mar. 24, 1941. "Bombs in the Baggage Room" [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,884300-2,00.html] ]Rendel also served on various
UN committees. Though officially retired, he continued to be employed by the Foreign Office until 1964. His 1957-publishedmemoirs are entitled "The Sword and the Olive".References
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