Clive Loehnis
Sir Clive Loehnis KCMG (24 August 1902 – 23 May 1992)[1] was a director of the British signals intelligence agency, GCHQ, a post he held from 1960 to 1964.
Early life and education[edit]
Loehnis was born in 1902 in Chelsea, London, son of barrister Herman William Loehnis, who was born in New York but was raised in England and became a naturalised British citizen, and Vera Geraldine, née Wood. The Loehnis family originated in Hamburg; his paternal grandfather had been an entrepreneur in Saint Petersburg. Loehnis attended Lockers Park School.[1][2]
Career[edit]
After school Loehnis became a Royal Navy officer cadet, training at the Royal Naval College, Osborne, and graduating from the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, and the Royal Naval College, Greenwich.[1] He became qualified in signals in 1928 and left the Navy in 1935.[1] In 1938 he returned to the Signals Division of the Admiralty, where he earned the silver oak leaves of a commander before retiring in 1942 and going into the Naval Intelligence Division.[1] When he was demobilised after the war, he joined GCHQ, at that time a semi-covert division of the Foreign Office.[3]
Loehnis was appointed deputy to Sir Eric Jones in 1954.[1] When Jones retired in 1960, Loehis was promoted to the directorship, which he held until 1964.[1] He was knighted in 1962.[1] He served as deputy chairman of the Civil Service Selection Board in 1967.[4]
Personal life[edit]
In 1929, Loehnis married Rosemary Beryl (1909-2006), daughter of Major Hon. Robert Nathaniel Dudley Ryder (1882-1917), of the 8th Hussars; her paternal grandfather was the banker Henry Ryder, 4th Earl of Harrowby. They had two sons- one of whom died very young- and a daughter.[5][1] After leaving GCHQ Loehnis retired to Belgravia, where he died in May 1992.[1]
References[edit]
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j D. R. Nicoll, "Loehnis, Sir Clive (1902–1992), naval officer and civil servant", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004
- ^ Burke's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage, 107th edition, vol. 2, ed. Charles Mosley, Burke's Peerage Ltd, 2003, p. 1808
- ^ James Bamford, The Puzzle Palace
- ^ Burke's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage, 107th edition, vol. 2, ed. Charles Mosley, Burke's Peerage Ltd, 2003, p. 1808
- ^ Burke's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage, 107th edition, vol. 2, ed. Charles Mosley, Burke's Peerage Ltd, 2003, p. 1808