Sir

Howard William Kennard

GCMG CVO
Born(1878-03-23)23 March 1878
Brighton
Died12 November 1955(1955-11-12) (aged 77)
NationalityBritish
OccupationBritish diplomat

Sir Howard William Kennard GCMG, CVO (23 March 1878 – 12 November 1955) was a British diplomat.

Early life

Kennard was born on 23 March 1878 in Brighton, the son of Arthur Challis Kennard and Anne Homan Mulock, and educated at Wixenford School[1] and Eton College.[2]

In Poland

He was a British Chargé d'affaires, and subsequently Ambassador to Poland until 1939. Despite being pro-Polish, he nevertheless urged Poland to negotiate moderation with Germany. During the Czechoslovak Crisis, he briefed Viscount Halifax on 10 September 1938 by pointing out that "the Poles, especially the ruling classes, do not feel the same horror of Nazism as is felt in democratic countries... among the peasants there is a dislike of Jews which counterbalances the disgust with which other countries regard the manifestations of German anti-Semitism" and that there was a great dislike by Poland towards the Czechs. He made it clear to London, which was then in negotiations with the Soviet Union for a defensive alliance, that Russia was "violently disliked and distrusted in Poland" and that any kind of transit on land or by air to Czecho-Slovakia over Polish territory would be resisted by force of arms.[3]

In March the following year, he gave his support to the Anglo-Polish defensive guarantee, which ultimately drew England into the war. He became ambassador to the Polish government-in-exile until 1941.[4] and was also ambassador to Switzerland and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.[5][6]

Somerset

In 1939, Kennard was listed as occupying Langham House, Rode Hill, Somerset.[7]

References

  1. ↑ 'Howard William Kennard (1878–1955)' in Frank C. Roberts, ed., Obituaries from the Times (1951), p. 410
  2. ↑ Bewley 1905, pp. 25-26
  3. ↑ Documents on British Foreign Policy 1919-1939 edited by Professor E.L.Woodward, M.A.,F.B.A., Rohan Butler, M.A., and Margaret Lambert, PhD., HMSO, London, 1949, Third Series, vol.ii, p.287-8.
  4. ↑ Mullock-Morgans, Robert; Hughes-Mullock, Robert (17 November 2010). "The Irish Bomfords 1617 to the Present". Retrieved 26 October 2012.
  5. ↑ "No. 33735". The London Gazette. 14 July 1931. p. 4626.
  6. ↑ "No. 33054". The London Gazette. 5 June 1925. p. 3788.
  7. ↑ "Rode Hill Private Residents", in Kelly's Directory for Somerset 1939 (1939), p. 372, col. 3

Bibliography

  • The Story of Mulock: The Pedigree of the Mulock Family of Ireland by Sir Edmund Thomas Bewley (Ponsonby & Gibbs, 1905)
  • By Virtue & Faith: A History of the Mulock & Mullock Families by Robert Hughes-Mullock FRAS (2012)
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