James Rennell Rodd

James Rennell Rodd, first Baron Rennell was born in November 1858. He won the Newdigate prize for English verse in 1880 for a poem on Sir Walter Raleigh. He undertook a diplomatic career, which saw him posted to Berlin, Athens, Rome, Paris, Zanzibar, British East Africa, and Cairo and in 1905 Stockholm. Prior to the outbreak of the First World War (1914-1918) he was again serving in Italy (1908-1919). He retired in 1921. Throughout his career he continued with his literary and scholarly works including Customs and lore of modern Greece, Ballades of the fleet . He died on 26 July 1941.

From the guide to the James Rennell Rodd collection, 1905, (Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge)