Charles Jocelyn Hambro

Charles Jocelyn Hambro   (spook, banker)
Born	3 October 1897
Died	1963 (Age 66)
Parents	Charles Eric Hambro
Children	Baron Hambro
Relatives	Peter Hambro
spooky UK banker. SOE head  CD of The Special Operations Executive In office May 1942 - September 1943 Preceded by Frank Nelson Succeeded by Colin Gubbins Resigned in protest.

Charles Jocelyn Hambro served as head of the Special Operations Executive for a period during the Second World War. His first major action as head of the SOE was to meet with Colonel William Joseph Donovan, the head of the OSS and his opposite number.

Background

Hambro was born into a banking family of Danish origin which had settled in London in the early 19th century. He was the son of Sir Eric Hambro, a partner in C. J. Hambro & Son (later to become Hambros Bank), and a Conservative Member of Parliament.

In general, the historical Hambros Bank is regarded as being close to the British intelligence services.

Career

After service in WW1, he joined the family bank. In 1928, when only 30, Hambro was elected a director of the Bank of England, and between 1932 and 1933 he put all work outside the bank to one side to work on establishing the bank's exchange control division under the direction of Montagu C. Norman, the Bank of England director.

World War 2

At the start of the Second World War he was asked by Ronald Cross to join the "Ministry of Economic Warfare", a cover organisation for the Special Operations Executive. Hambro was placed in charge of activities in Scandinavia, arranging smuggling and sabotage operations. Through his contact with Ebbe Munck, an anti-Nazi journalist, Hambro linked up with the Danish resistance, and was knighted as a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire for his work in 1941. Together with his closest collaborater, Henry Sporborg, he managed a large part of the war trade policy concerning Sweden until 1943. The rich Hambro refused to accept any wages for his military work during wartime.

Between December 1940 and November 1941, Hambro was also in charge of overseeing the French, Belgian, German and Dutch sections of the SOE, and from November 1941 he was deputy leader of SOE for 5 months. In 1942 he succeeded in persuading the British and Norwegian organisations to form a planning commission, which devised important sabotage missions.

Resignation

Hambro resigned in September 1943 after GHQ Middle East, the Foreign Office, and the Joint Intelligence Committee mounted an attack on SOE's autonomy.

For the rest of the war he acted as head of the "British raw materials mission" in Washington; a cover for exchanging information and technology between Britain and the United States which led to the detonation of the first Atomic Bomb as part of the Manhattan Project.

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References

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