John Dodson, 2nd Baron Monk Bretton

Who was John Dodson, 2nd Baron Monk Bretton?

John William Dodson, 2nd Baron Monk Bretton, CB, diplomat, sometime chairman of London County Council, and landowner.

The only son of the first Lord Monk Bretton, Dodson was educated at Eton, and New College, Oxford,.

In 1894 he entered the Diplomatic Service. He was an Honorary Attache in Paris and Constantinople and returned to England after succeeding to the barony in May 1897. He resigned on 1 October 1897.

From March 1899 to November 1900 he was assistant Private Secretary to the Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Lord Salisbury, and then 1900-1903 he was Principal Private Secretary to Secretary of State for the Colonies, Joseph Chamberlain, in South Africa.

Between 1912-1914 he was Alderman of the London County Council; after the war he represented Wandsworth from 1922; he was chairman of the Parliamentary Committee; and he was chairman of the Council itself, 1929-1930. This was a suitable peak as Joe Chamberlain had once said of him: 'Monk Bretton knows more about local government than any other man of my acquaintance'.