Ernest Tennant

Ernest William Dalrymple Tennant OBE (5 May 1887 – 31 July 1962) was an English merchant banker and industrialist. An advocate of closer links between the United Kingdom and Germany, he was a prominent voice for co-operation between the countries in the years before the Second World War. He was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1919.

Early years

Tennant served in the First World War with the Intelligence Corps, rising to the rank of captain. After the war, he was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1919. A merchant banker by profession, he was highly successful and developed extensive business interests in Germany. He was associated with various financial institutions, including what is now called the Bank Leumi in Israel.

Links to Germany

Early connections

A frequent visitor to Germany, Tennant hoped to encourage greater trade links with the UK. He was initially enthusiastic about Nazism and in 1933 his article "Herr Hitler and His Policy: March 1933" was published in Douglas Francis Jerrold's The English Review, a journal that was otherwise sceptical about the Nazis despite largely admiring Italian fascism. He wrote again for the journal in January 1935, claiming in his article "Herr Hitler's Constructive Policy" that many of the stories of Nazi excesses that appeared in the British press were exaggerations and part of "a smoke-screen of anti-Hitler propaganda". In order to encourage links, he led a trade delegation to Germany on 9 May 1934.