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LOEHNIS, Clive (1902-1992) – Royal Navy

PS-LOEHNIS%20Clive.jpgClive Loehnis RN (1902-1992) had a home base of Wickhamford during the first few years of the Second World War when his wife and young children lived at Hodys Place.  He was the son of Herman Loehnis, a barrister of German extraction who had been born in the New York and later adopted British nationality.

Clive enrolled as a cadet in the Royal Navy in 1915 and he attended the Royal Naval Colleges at Dartmouth, Osborne and Greenwich.  

Clive Loehnis was promoted to Lieutenant on 15th October 1924 and Flag Lieutenant on 27th April 1931. He was Lieutenant-Commander on the destroyer HMS Walker in 1934 and retired in 1935.  He was then re-appointed Lieutenant-Commander in the Signals Department on 28th November 1938, and later promoted to the rank of Commander.

During the Second World War, in 1942, he moved to the Operational Intelligence Division of the Admiralty and, after demobilisation, to GCHQ.   He rose to be Director of GCHQ (1960-1964) and was knighted (KCMG) in 1962.

His connection with Wickhamford, is that his wife, Rosemary (née Ryder) and two young children were living at Hodys Place, Manor Road in 1939-41.  Another son, Peter John, died there at 4 months old in 1940 and is buried in the Churchyard.