Nevile Bland

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.

His siblings included brothers Hugh Michael and Francis Lawrence Bland, and sisters Edith Richenda ("Chenda") and Esther.

Bland was educated at Eton, and then at King's College, Cambridge, graduating with a BA degree in 1908, upgraded to MA in 1912.

[3] After a long spell serving as Private Secretary to various senior diplomats and then as Counsellor, Nevile Bland was knighted KCVO in the 1937 Coronation Honours.

On his return to England, he was instrumental in creating at atmosphere of hostility toward anti-Nazi Germans who had fled Hitler through the 1930s, identifying them as dangerous “Fifth Columnists”, leading directly to their mass round-up, internment and deportation to the Dominions.