BarhamHistory.com
Calmon
Curt Calmon
Curt Calmon was born on 24th August 1884
in Kyritz, Germany. His early education was in Kyritz, following which
he went to university in Freiberg, Berlin, Munich and Heidelberg. He
studied law and economics, becoming a Doctor of Law in 1906 and worked
as a solicitor at the High Court in Berlin until October 1911, when he
joined the Darmstaedter Bank of Berlin.
On 25th December 1913 he married
Margrete Winternitz, the youngest daughter of Sigmund Winternitz,
Chairman of the Prague Stock Exchange.
He served in the German Army from 1915 to 1918
after which he returned to the bank, becoming a director in 1921. From
1921 to 1933 he acted as legal adviser to the big Berlin banks and took
on many industrial and trade directorships, including the Bata Shoe
Company.
In 1933, when Hitler came to power, he was forced
to leave Germany. This was
possibly on the advice of a senior Nazi, perhaps Hermann Goering.
He went to Czechoslovakia where
he was appointed legal and economic adviser at the head office of the
Bata Shoe Company in Zlin.
On 1st January 1936 he was appointed
export manager of the British Bata Shoe Company at Tilbury and came to
work in England later that year. In July 1937 he was appointed managing
director and financial and economic adviser of the Omnipol Trading and
Shipping Co. Ltd., which was controlled by the Czech government. At the
same time, he was economic adviser to Industrial Facilities Corporation
Ltd., which was engaged in negotiating trade agreements to combat the
barter system of trade by which Germany imported raw materials.
However, after the occupation of
Prague in 1939, he resigned from these positions and became manager in
the export department of Mercantile Overseas Trust Ltd., exporters and
general agents.
In September 1939 according to the England and
Wales Register, he was living at 34, Ferncroft Avenue, London NW3,
together with his wife, son Claude and sister-in-law Malvina Kompert.
His daughter, Claudia, was at
boarding school in Devon. He later purchased and moved to 14, Ferncroft
Avenue.
He suffered a period of severe illness in June 1944
(probably a stroke) and ceased his business activities while he
recuperated, but by April 1945 he had made a sufficient recovery to be
appointed manager of the export department of the Anglo-Mercantile Co.
Ltd.
He died on 16th January 1948 of
pulmonary oedema, with cerebral thrombosis cited as a contributory
factor.