Alfred Mond, 1st Baron Melchett

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Iconoclart
Sir Alfred Mond. "I'm sorry to have to disturb Your Majesty, but, owing to the shortage of sites—"
George III. "Shortage of sights, indeed!"
[It is understood that a number of London statues, including that of George III in Cockspur Street, are to be removed by the Office of Works to make room for new ones.]
Cartoon from Punch magazine, August 18th 1920

Alfred Moritz Mond, 1st Baron Melchett, PC, LLD, DSc, FRS (23 October 1868 – 27 December 1930) was a British-Jewish industrialist and politician of German origins.

Mond was the son of the industrialist Ludwig Mond, who had emigrated from Germany to Britain in 1862. His mother was Frieda, daughter of Adolph Meyer Löwenthal, of Cologne. In 1902, he founded the Mond nickel works at Clydach, Wales, the largest in the world at the time. From his interests came ICI (1926), of which he was the first chairman.

Mond was also involved in politics and sat as Liberal Member of Parliament for Chester from 1906 to 1910, for Swansea from 1910 to 1918 and for Swansea West from 1918 to 1923. He served in the coalition government of David Lloyd George as First Commissioner of Works from 1916 to 1921 and as Minister of Health (with a seat in the cabinet) from 1921 to 1922. He later switched party and represented Carmarthen from 1924 to 1928 as a Conservative.

Mond was created a Baronet, of Hartford Hill in Great Budworth in the County of Chester, in 1910, and admitted to the Privy Council in 1913. In 1928 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Melchett, of Landford in the County of Southampton.

Melchett founded the town of Tel Mond, now in Israel. His great-grandson, Peter Mond, was a Labour politician and executive director of Greenpeace UK.

Sir Alfred Mond's wife, Dame Violet Mond, was a noted British political activist and World War I-era humanitarian.

Political offices
Preceded by Lewis Vernon Harcourt	First Commissioner of Works 1916–1921	Succeeded by The Earl of Crawford
Preceded by Christopher Addison	Minister of Health 1921–1922	Succeeded by Sir Arthur Griffith-Boscawen
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Robert Armstrong Yerburgh	Member for Chester 1906–1910	Succeeded by Robert Armstrong Yerburgh
Preceded by Sir George Newnes, Bt	Member for Swansea 1910–1918	Succeeded by Constituency abolished
Preceded by Constituency created	Member for Swansea West 1918–1923	Succeeded by Howel Walter Samuel
Preceded by Sir Ellis Jones Ellis-Griffith, Bt	Member for Carmarthen 1924–1928	Succeeded by William Nathaniel Jones
Peerage of the United Kingdom
Preceded by New Creation	Baron Melchett 1928–1930	Succeeded by Henry Mond