Frank Nelson (politician)

Sir Frank Nelson KCMG (1883 – 11 August 1966) was a British civil servant and Conservative Party politician.

He was educated at Bedford School and Neuenheim College, Heidelberg. After leaving school he travelled to India as an assistant with Symons, Barlow and Co, rising to be a senior partner. During the First World War he served with the Bombay Light Horse. In 1922 he was made chairman of the Bombay Chamber of Commerce, and was then made President of the Associatied Chambers of Commerce of India and Ceylon in 1923.

From 1922 to 1924 Nelson was a member of the legislative council of Bombay. In 1924 he was knighted and returned to England, where he was elected Member of Parliament (MP) for Stroud at the general election in October 1924. He was reelected in 1929 but resigned his seat in May 1931 in order to go into business.

At the outbreak of the Second World War he was the Consul to Basel, but as Germany invaded France in 1940, he was driven by Richard Arnold-Baker to the mouth of the Gironde where the Nariva took them back to London so that he could take over the Special Operations Executive or SOE, a position to which he was appointed as its chief by order of the War Office. He wore himself out establishing the organisation, and retired in 1942 due to ill-health.

S.O.E. CD1 - The Life and Times of Sir Frank Nelson by Mike Palmer: Date of publication August 5, 2018.

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