ED 421

Reference code

ED 421

Title

Papers relating to Lionel George Archer Cust

Level

Series

Administrative / Biographical history

Son of Sir Lionel Cust the art historian, Director of the National Gallery, and Surveyor of the King's Pictures, and his wife Sybil, daughter of the 4th Lord Lyttelton, Cust attended Eton in Lubbock's house (where his aunt Hester's husband was Head Master) from 1910 - 1915. He won a scholarship but entered as an Oppidan and was Captain of the Oppidans in 1915, in which year he was in the Newcastle Select. He then joined the RFA and served in France before becoming a POW. After the war he entered the Colonial Service and from 1920 - 1936 was in Palestine, where his duties included serving as ADC and Private Secretary to the High Commissioner and District Officer for Jaffa and Jerusalem. He subsequently became Secretary-General of the Royal Commonwealth Society. He resumed an army career in WW2, serving in intelligence. He married Margaret Clowes in 1925 and was knighted in 1959.