Caillard in Vanity Fair, 1897

Sir Vincent Henry Penalver Caillard (23 October 1856 – 18 March 1930) was a British Army officer, diplomat, financier, company director and municipal politician.[1]

Education and career

The fifth child and eldest son of Camille Felix Désiré Caillard, a county court judge, he was educated at Eton College and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. He was commissioned in the Royal Engineers in 1876.[1] In 1882 he spent short periods in the Intelligence Department and among headquarters staff during the invasion of Egypt.

He served as President of the Ottoman Public Debt Council from 1883 to 1898, receiving a knighthood in 1896.[2] He was then a director of the National Bank of Egypt until 1908.[1] From 1898 he was a director of the armaments manufacturer Vickers, becoming financial director in 1906 and overseeing much of the company's overseas operations.[3] Vickers entered a long decline, and he was forced to resign in 1927.[1] A director of several other undertakings, including railway companies, he co-founded the Federation of British Industries in 1916 and was its president in 1919.[1]

He was an energetic supporter of Joseph Chamberlain's campaign to protect British companies by imposing tariffs on imports, and in 1904 was the chairman of Chamberlain's Tariff Commission.[1] He was a county alderman on the London County Council for the Municipal Reform Party. In 1920 he was commissioned as a Deputy Lieutenant of Wiltshire.[4]

A close associate of Sir Basil Zaharoff, Caillard played a key role in making Zaharoff's services available to H. H. Asquith and David Lloyd George as an agent of influence in the Levant.[5]

Personal life

Caillard married his stepsister Eliza Frances Hanham in 1881; she was a sister of Sir John Alexander Hanham, 9th Baronet. They had a son and a daughter. In 1927, the year after Eliza's death, he married Zoë Gertrude (1868–1935), widow of the banker, businessman and mountaineer John Oakley Maund.

On the death of his father in 1898, Caillard inherited Wingfield House, near Bradford-on-Avon in Wiltshire. Around that time he made further purchases which resulted in his owning much of the land in Wingfield parish.[6][7]

Caillard died in Paris on 18 March 1930, aged 73.[3] His funeral was held at Wingfield church on 26 March, and a memorial service took place on the same day at St Margaret's, Westminster.[8]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Davenport-Hines, Richard. "Caillard, Sir Vincent Henry Penalver". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/32236. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  2. ↑ "No. 26752". The London Gazette. 26 June 1896. p. 3703.
  3. 1 2 "Obituary: From Diplomacy to Finance". The Times. No. 45466. 20 March 1930. p. 10. Gale CS168108660.
  4. ↑ "No. 31991". The London Gazette. 23 July 1920. p. 7776.
  5. ↑ Maiolo, Joseph; Insall, Tony (December 2012). "Sir Basil Zaharoff and Sir Vincent Caillard as Instruments of British Policy towards Greece and the Ottoman Empire during the Asquith and Lloyd George Administrations, 1915–8". The International History Review. 34 (4): 819–839. doi:10.1080/07075332.2012.690200. JSTOR 24701359. S2CID 154352381 – via JSTOR.
  6. ↑ Chettle, H. F.; Powell, W. R.; Spalding, P. A.; Tillott, P. M. (1953). "Parishes: Wingfield". In Pugh, R. B.; Crittall, Elizabeth (eds.). A History of the County of Wiltshire, Volume 7. Victoria County History. University of London. pp. 69–76. Retrieved 31 August 2023 – via British History Online.
  7. ↑ "Caillard". Bradford on Avon Museum. Retrieved 31 August 2023.
  8. ↑ "Arrangements For To-Day". The Times. No. 45471. 26 March 1930. p. 19. Gale CS320807546.
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