Richard Rees

Sir Richard Lodowick Edward Montagu Rees, 2nd Baronet (4 April 1900 – 24 July 1970) was a British diplomat, writer, humanitarian and painter.

Life Rees was the son of Sir John Rees, 1st Baronet and his wife Mary Catherine Dormer. His sister was the pilot Rosemary Rees, Lady du Cros, MBE. He was educated at West Downs School, Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge. Reflecting on his education, Rees later remarked:

Rees's father, who had been an administrator in British India and a Liberal (later Conservative) politician, died in 1922, and Rees inherited the baronetcy. He was for a while an attache at the British Embassy in Berlin. Having in the interim become a member of the Labour Party, in 1925 Rees became a lecturer at the Workers' Educational Association in London, and also acted as Treasurer there.

John Middleton Murry appointed him editor of Adelphi in 1930, where he provided encouragement to George Orwell among others. Rees followed Murry into the Independent Labour Party when it disaffiliated from Labour soon afterwards, although he considered this to be an "error" even at the time. As he recalled: