Francis Rodd, 2nd Baron Rennell

Rodd was educated at Eton College and Balliol College, Oxford.[1]

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. After the War he travelled twice through the central Sahara desert (1922, 1927), and wrote about his findings in People of the Veil.[2] 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.[3] After the war he joined the civil service. He resigned in 1924 and joined the Bank of England before joining Morgan, Grenfell & Co. where he became a managing director.[1]

During the Second world War he served as a major-general in colonial administration in the middle east, east Aftrica and Italy.[1] After the war he served as president of the Royal Geographical Society 1945–1948 and on the board of British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) 1954–1965.[4] 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 on his death in 1978.[5]

On 3 August 1928, he married the Hon. Mary Constance Vivian Smith, daughter of Vivian Smith, 1st Baron Bicester. They had four daughters:[6]

• Hon. Joanna Phoebe Rodd (1929–2016) married Comte Gerard de Renusson d'Hauteville
• Hon. Juliet Honor Rodd (1930–?) married Brian Boobbyer
• Hon. Mary Elizabeth Jill Rodd (1932–) married firstly Michael Dunne (1928–); married secondly Christopher Bridges Daniell.
• Hon. Rachel Georgiana Rodd (1935–?) married Richard Douglas Blythe.

• Rodd, Francis. (1932) General William Eaton;: The Failure of an Idea, Minton, Balch and company.
• Rodd, Francis. (1926) People of the veil. Being an account of the habits, organisation and history of the wandering Tuareg tribes which inhabit the mountains of Air or Asben in the Central Sahara, London, MacMillan & Co.
• Rodd, Francis. (1970) British Military Administration of Occupied Territories in Africa during the Years 1941–1947, Greenwood Press.

• Biographical Dictionary of British Generals of the Second World War, Nick Smart. ISBN 1-84415-049-6.