Sir Clive Loehnis KCMG (24 August 1902 – 23 May 1992)D. R. Nicoll, "Loehnis, Sir Clive (1902–1992), naval officer and civil servant", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004
/ref> was a director of the British

signals intelligence Signals intelligence (SIGINT) is the act and field of intelligence-gathering by interception of ''signals'', whether communications between people (communications intelligence—abbreviated to COMINT) or from electronic signals not directly u ...

agency,

GCHQ Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) is an intelligence and security organisation responsible for providing signals intelligence (SIGINT) and information assurance (IA) to the government and armed forces of the United Kingdom. Primar ...

, a post he held from 1960 to 1964.

Early life and education

Loehnis was born in 1902 in

Chelsea, London Chelsea is an area in West London, England, due south-west of Kilometre zero#Great Britain, Charing Cross by approximately . It lies on the north bank of the River Thames and for postal purposes is part of the SW postcode area, south-western p ...

, son of barrister Herman William Loehnis, who was born in New York but was raised in England and became a naturalised British citizen, and Vera Geraldine, née Wood. The Loehnis family originated in

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

; his paternal grandfather had been an entrepreneur in

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

. Loehnis attended

Lockers Park School Lockers Park School is a day and boarding preparatory and pre-preparatory school for boys, situated in 23 acres of countryside in Boxmoor, Hertfordshire. Its headmaster is Gavin Taylor. History Lockers Park was founded in 1872 by Henry Monta ...

Career

After school Loehnis became a

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

officer cadet Officer cadet is a rank held by military personnel during their training to become commissioned officers. In the United Kingdom, the rank is also used by personnel of University Service Units such as the University Officers' Training Corps. Th ...

, training at the Royal Naval College, Osborne, and graduating from the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, and the Royal Naval College, Greenwich. He became qualified in signals in 1928 and left the Navy in 1935. In 1938 he returned to the Signals Division of the Admiralty, where he earned the silver oak leaves of a commander before retiring in 1942 and going into the Naval Intelligence Division. When he was demobilised after the war, he joined GCHQ, at that time a semi-covert division of the Foreign Office. Loehnis was appointed deputy to Sir Eric Jones in 1954. When Jones retired in 1960, Loehis was promoted to the directorship, which he held until 1964. He was knighted in 1962. He served as deputy chairman of the Civil Service Selection Board in 1967.

Personal life

In 1929, Loehnis married Rosemary Beryl (1909-2006), daughter of Major Hon. Robert Nathaniel Dudley Ryder (1882-1917), of the 8th Hussars; her paternal grandfather was the banker Henry Ryder, 4th Earl of Harrowby. They had two sons- one of whom died very young- and a daughter.Burke's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage, 107th edition, vol. 2, ed. Charles Mosley, Burke's Peerage Ltd, 2003, p. 1808 After leaving GCHQ Loehnis retired to

Belgravia Belgravia () is a district in Central London, covering parts of the areas of the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Belgravia was known as the 'Five Fields' during the Tudor Period, and became a dangerous pla ...

, where he died in May 1992.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Loehnis, Clive 1902 births 1992 deaths Directors of the Government Communications Headquarters People educated at Lockers Park School People from Chelsea, London Royal Navy officers Knights Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George