James Lonsdale-Bryans was a British writer, amateur diplomat and Nazi sympathiser.
21 Facts About James Lonsdale-Bryans
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James Lonsdale-Bryans was born in Harrow, North London, in 1893 and was the eldest child of stained-glass artist Herbert William Bryans and his wife, Louisa Bryans, nee Richardson.
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James Lonsdale-Bryans had a younger sister, Katherine, born in 1895, and a younger brother, George, born in 1896.
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James Lonsdale-Bryans had moved to Rome in October 1939 and, in November 1939 first met Count Detalmo Biroli.
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In 1940, James Lonsdale-Bryans travelled to Switzerland to meet Hassell, the former German ambassador to Italy.
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Halifax had claimed that Longsdale-Bryans was not a representative of the British government, but James Lonsdale-Bryans introduced himself to Hassell as the "English Envoy Extraordinary of the First Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs for His Britannic Majesty".
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Hassell believed that James Lonsdale-Bryans had more authority than in reality.
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James Lonsdale-Bryans cited the Soviet aggression against Poland, the Baltic states and Finland to such an extent that Lonsdale-Bryans believed that Hassell feared the communists more much than the Nazis.
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On 17 March 1940, Lonsdale-Bryan's patron, Lord Brocket, wrote to Alexander Cadogan, the Permanent Undersecretary at the Foreign Office, to explain that James Lonsdale-Bryans was deeply in debt and had a massive bank overdraft and so wanted lavish financial rewards for his work as an amateur diplomat.
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James Lonsdale-Bryans met with Chamberlain and Halifax, both of whom were sympathetic to Hassell but not James Lonsdale-Bryans.
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Nonetheless, James Lonsdale-Bryans returned to Arosa to meet Hassell again on 14 April 1940 but offered little more than words of encouragement.
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James Lonsdale-Bryans then returned to Italy, where he continued his amateur diplomatic work until June 1940, when Italy entered the war.
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In October 1940, James Lonsdale-Bryans continued his amateur diplomatic work by trying to set up a meeting with Hitler in Switzerland to discuss peace terms.
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James Lonsdale-Bryans sent a letter from Portugal to the director of the Schwarzhaupter publishing house in Leipzig, Germany, which had agreed to translate his book The Curve of Fate into German before the war.
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James Lonsdale-Bryans wrote that he willing to meet Hitler in Switzerland to discuss Anglo-German peace terms and again demanded generous monetary rewards.
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James Lonsdale-Bryans finally returned to Britain in 1941, much to the relief of the Foreign Office.
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Until 1943, James Lonsdale-Bryans continued to seek money from the Foreign Office despite its statements that it wanted nothing to do with him.
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James Lonsdale-Bryans was on friendly terms with powerful members of the British aristocracy, including the Duke of Buccleuch and Lord Brocket, who were Nazi sympathizers.
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However, Lonsdale-Bryans "tried to discuss his plans with senior American officials, including Dwight D Eisenhower", and British General Bernard Montgomery.
20.
That caused the British government to assure the Americans that James Lonsdale-Bryans was "unreliable, though not disloyal".
21.
James Lonsdale-Bryans was a contemporary at Eton of Evan Morgan, 2nd Viscount Tredegar.