Henry Mond, 2nd Baron Melchett

Infobox Person
name = Henry Ludwig Mond


image_size =
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birth_date = May 10 1898
birth_place = London, England
death_date = January 22 1949
death_place = Miami Beach, Florida, USA
education = Winchester College
occupation = Politician, industrialist, financier
title = Baron
spouse = Amy Gwen Wilson
parents = Alfred Mond, 1st Baron Melchett
Violet Goetze
children = Julian, 3rd Baron Melchett
nationality = English
website =

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.Greenaway, Frank (2004) 'Mond family ("per". 1867-1973)', "Oxford Dictionary of National Biography", Oxford University Press, [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/51124] Retrieved on 9 March 2007.]

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. [http://www.angeltowns.com/town/peerage/peersm3.htm Leigh Rayment's Peerage Page] , accessed 9 March 2007] 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 was converted to 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 and family

He married Amy Gwen Wilson, from South Africa, in 1920. 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.Fact|date=April 2007 He sold the house to Unilever in 1947 due to his wife's conviction that moving to Florida would restore his health.Fact|date=April 2007 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