Hervey Rhodes, Baron Rhodes

Who was Hervey Rhodes, Baron Rhodes?

Hervey Rhodes, Baron Rhodes, KG, DFC and Bar, PC, DL was a British Labour Party politician.

Born in Saddleworth in the West Riding of Yorkshire, Rhodes was educated at St Mary's School, Greenfield, then at Huddersfield Technical College. He was employed within the woolen industry.

During the Great War he served initially with the King's Own Royal Lancashire Regiment, and later the Yorkshire Regiment. Seconded to the Royal Flying Corps, Rhodes served as an Observer/gunner with No. 12 Squadron flying the RE 8. Despite the fact the Squadron was mainly engaged on reconnaissance and artillery spotting duties, Rhodes, with his usual pilot South African Lt. Croye Pithey, claimed as a crew a total of 5 enemy aircraft destroyed and a further 5 claimed 'out of control', Rhodes winning the Distinguished Flying Cross and Bar. He was badly wounded in September 1918, and walked with a limp for the rest of his life. He left with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel.

During the Second World War, Rhodes, by then a mill-owner and Chairman of the Saddleworth Rural District Council, became the Commanding Officer of the Local Defence Volunteers, formed in 1940 to defend England against the Armies of the Third Reich, then in occupation of much of North Europe and having succeeded in expelling the British Expeditionary Force from Europe at Dunkirk.