Nevile Bland

Sir Nevile Bland with wife in 1946

Sir George Nevile Maltby Bland KCMG KCVO (6 December 1886 – 19 August 1972)^[1] was a British diplomat who served as Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the Netherlands from 1938 through the war years until 1948. He also authored or edited several legal books and articles.

Bland was born the youngest son of Francis Maltby Bland, DL, JP and his wife Edith Richenda Bland (née Barclay). His maternal uncle Sir George Barclay had been the British Minister in Bucharest during the First World War. His siblings included brothers Hugh Michael and Francis Lawrence Bland, and sisters Chenda (Richenda?) and Esther. Bland was educated at Eton, and then at King's College, Cambridge, graduating with a BA in 1908, and an MA 1912. He entered the Foreign Office in 1911.^[2]

After a long spell serving as Private Secretary to various senior diplomats and then as Counsellor, Nevile Bland received his KCVO in 1937. He was appointed Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the Netherlands in 1938, and narrowly escaped internment by the Nazis by escaping in 1940. He remained ambassador or minister to the government-in-exile, and served as Minister from September 1942 until March 1948 (the post was upgraded to Ambassador in 1942).^[3] From 1952 to 1962, he was also King of Arms of the Order of St Michael and St George.

Honours

• Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George, 1927
• Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order, 1937
• Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George, 1947
• Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Orange-Nassau, 1950
• King of Arms of the Order of St Michael and St George, 1952–1961

Family

In 1919, Nevile Bland became engaged and then married Portia Christabel Irene Ottley. They had at least three children, of whom a baby daughter Corinna died in late 1924, and a son David was killed in action in Tunisia in 1943. Another son Simon survived the Second World War and a spell of duty in British Malaya to marry and father children; he was a former royal equerry who most recently represents junior royals at memorial services.

See also

• List of Ambassadors from the United Kingdom to the Netherlands

Works edited

A guide to diplomatic practice, edited by Nevile Bland

Notes and references

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Nevile Bland.

• Churchill Archives Centre. The Papers of Sir (George) Nevile (Maltby) Bland have been deposited in 1992 and 1994 by his son Sir Simon Bland at the Churchill Archives Centre, University of Cambridge, UK.