#3399, John (Jack) Henry HAMBRO

Extract from The Merchant Bankers by Joseph Wechsberg.

The last chairman, J H ("Jack") Hambro was not a Hollywood casting director's idea of the formal City banker. Casual and charming, a cheerful optimist with the slightly ruffled appearance of the born-and-bred country squire, he often laughed but there was a thoughtful expression in his eyes. During the last war this relaxed-looking Englishman helped to run an economic cloak-and-dagger outfit known as the United Kingdom Corporation. Operating in the Balkans and in Turkey they systematically weakened the German war machine by preemptive buying, setting up and feeding black markets in the German-occupied countries, dumping certain goods and making others disappear. It was the right job for the descendant of the shrewd Viking sea captain who had cornered Copenhagen's black-crepe market a few centuries earlier.
Jack considered it significant that Hambros had managed to retain the family flavor and the atmosphere of partnership in spite of the bank's growing structure. The "fundamental traditions" are something one can feel at Hambros. The ablest man takes over as chairman. "No problem", said Jack. "It just happens." The ablest man after the sudden death of Jack Hambro at the end of 1965, was Jocelyn Hambro, Olaf's son.