Francis Rodd, 2nd Baron Rennell

Major General Francis James Rennell Rodd, 2nd Baron Rennell KBE CB JP (25 October 1895 – 15 March 1978) was the second but eldest surviving son of the diplomat Rennell Rodd, 1st Baron Rennell.

During the First World War he served in the artillery and, since he spoke four languages fluently, as an intelligence officer in France, Italy North Africa, Egypt, Libya, Palestine and Syria. Rodd would later make two great expeditions into the central Sahara (in 1922 and 1927) which provided him for the material of his book about the Tuareg, entitled People of the Veil. In 1939, Rodd was re-commissioned into the army and served as Chief of Civil Affairs, Staff Officer of the Allied Military Government in Sicily, and as Major General, Civil Affairs Administration Middle East Command, East Africa Command, and Italy. After the war he joined the civil service.

On the 3 August 1928, he married The Hon. Mary Constance Vivian Smith, daughter of Vivian Smith, 1st Baron Bicester. They had four daughters.

He was president of the Royal Geographic Society 1945–1948 and on the board of British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) 1954–1965. On the death of his father on 26 July 1941 he gained the title of 2nd Baron Rennell and, as he had no sons, the barony passed to his nephew Tremayne Rodd, 3rd Baron Rennell, on his death in 1978.

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