Air Commodore Sir Charles Jocelyn Hambro, (3 October 1897 – 28 August 1963) was a British merchant banker and intelligence officer.
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Life
Hambro was born into a banking family of Danish Jewish origin which had settled in Dorset and the City of 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 for Wimbledon between 1900 and 1907.
Between 1910 and 1915, he was educated at Eton College, joining the cricket team in 1914 and becoming the Captain in 1915. After leaving Eton he immediately went to the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, being made an ensign in the Coldstream Guards on 22 December 1915. He was immediately posted to the Western Front, serving for two years as an officer until demobilisation. Promoted to lieutenant on 10 July 1916 (back-dated to 9 June 1916), he was awarded the Military Cross on 26 September 1917 for conspicuous bravery in action. His citation reads as follows:
For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. Accompanied by a private, he crossed to the enemy's side of a canal and rescued two wounded men, one of whom was unable to walk, from close under the enemy's parapet. Later in the day, he went forward in charge of the leading patrol of an advance, personally accounting for four of the enemy with his revolver and capturing several prisoners with his party. On reaching his objective, he sent back correct and valuable information, and has at all times displayed the utmost coolness and gallantry.
Hambro resigned his commission on 12 August 1919, receiving a regular commission as a reserve officer from the same date. After initial training with the Guaranty Trust Company in New York City (where he and his wife lived with Harry Morgan) he joined his family bank J.C. Hambro & Sons, playing a large part in its merger with Wallenbergs' British Bank of Northern Commerce in 1920, with the combined bank taking the name Hambros Bank in 1921. 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. In 1937 Hambro was asked to succeed Norman as director, but he turned it down as he was suffering from oral cancer, although surgical operations and radiotherapy later helped him recover.