| Honorific Prefix: | The Right Honourable |
| The Lord Brocket | |
| Term Start: | 23 June 1931 |
| Term End: | 1934 |
| Successor: | Joseph Cleary |
| Birth Name: | Arthur Ronald Nall Nall-Cain |
| Birth Date: | 4 August 1904 |
| Residence: | Brocket Hall, Bramshill Park, Knoydart, Carton House |
| Alma Mater: | Oxford University |
| Party: | Conservative |
| Spouse: | Angela Beatrix Pennyman |
| Children: | 3 |
| Father: | Charles Nall-Cain, 1st Baron Brocket |
| Relatives: | Charles Nall-Cain, 3rd Baron Brocket (grandson) Christopher Taylour, 7th Marquess of Headfort (grandson) |
Arthur Ronald Nall Nall-Cain, 2nd Baron Brocket KStJ (4 August 1904 - 24 March 1967) was a prominent British Nazi sympathiser and Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom.
He was born into a millionaire brewing family on 4 August 1904. His father, Charles Nall-Cain, was created a baronet in 1921 and Baron Brocket of Brocket Hall in 1933. After his death a year later, Arthur succeeded to his titles.
Nall-Cain was educated at Eton College and Oxford University, where he captained the golf team. He became a barrister and a Hertfordshire County Councillor.
He was elected as Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for Liverpool Wavertree at a by-election in 1931,[1] and was a close associate of Neville Chamberlain. After his father died, Nall-Cain was required to leave the House of Commons as he was elevated to the House of Lords.
Brocket became known in society as a Nazi sympathiser.[2] He became a committed member of the Anglo-German Fellowship, and his homes were used for entertaining supporters of Germany. Brocket, who considered Minister for Foreign Affairs Joachim von Ribbentrop a close personal friend, was so enamoured with Nazi Germany, he attended Hitler's 50th birthday celebration in Berlin in 1939.[3] According to Neville Chamberlain, Foreign Secretary, the Earl of Halifax used Brocket as a conduit to convey the views of the British government to the leading German Nazis.
At the outbreak of World War II in September 1939, Brocket continued to work for an understanding between Britain and Germany. He urged a negotiated peace settlement and tried to arrange talks with Hitler. He had contact with Hermann Göring through the Swedish ornithologist Bengt Berg. Brocket also worked closely with the historian Arthur Bryant, who shared his far right views, to bring the negotiations to the attention of the UK Foreign Office. However, Brocket was informed that the proposal to grant Germany control over Poland and Czechoslovakia was not acceptable to the British government.[4] Brocket was interned at the outbreak of war and his properties sequestrated by the War Office.[5]
In the 1930s, Brocket bought Inverie House and the Knoydart estate in Lochaber, Scotland. He would eventually own 13,000 acres (53 km2) in England and 62,000 in Scotland.[2] As an absentee landlord, he only used the Knoydart estate for shooting and fishing while opposing the rights of crofters and dismissing and evicting workers. At the outbreak of war, the house and estate was taken over by the British Army when Brocket was interned; it was used to train commandos and SOE agents.[6] After the war, the British government returned ownership of the estate to Brocket. He ordered that anything which might have been used or touched by SOE agents removed from Inverie House; all the cutlery, crockery and toilets were dumped in the sea at the mouth of Loch Nevis.[7]
In 1948, some returning Highland soldiers, who would become known as Seven Men of Knoydart, decided to take a stand against Brocket and the way he managed his estate. The group claimed portions of the Knoydart estate in a land raid. But after Brocket took legal action to get them evicted, the group agreed to vacate the land as a good faith action for court. However, once they left they were dispossessed and they lost the case.[8] Shortly afterwards Brocket sold the Knoydart estate. In 1949, he bought the Carton House estate in Ireland.
Brocket inherited two stately homes in the UK. Brocket Hall in Hertfordshire and Bramshill Park, in Hampshire. In 1927, Brocket married Angela Beatrix Pennyman, younger daughter of Rev. Preb. William Geoffrey Pennyman of Ormesby Hall in Yorkshire.[9] Together, they were the parents of:
Through his eldest son, he was a grandfather to convicted fraudster Charles Ronald George Nall-Cain, 3rd Baron Brocket (b. 1952), of Brocket Hall,[12] and great-grandfather of Princess Antalya of Prussia (daughter of the 3rd Lord Brocket), and through his daughter grandfather to Christopher Taylour, 7th Marquess of Headfort.[13]
| Notes: | Granted 29 October 1928 by Sir Nevile Rodwell Wilkinson, Ulster King of Arms.[14] |
| Escutcheon: | Quarterly 1st & 4th Argent three salmon haurient Gules in chief an oak tree eradicated Proper (Cain) 2nd & 3rd Argent a bee Proper between three roses Gules (Nall). |
| Crest: | On wreaths of the colours 1st a cat saliant guardant Erminois holding between the paws a dexter hand couped Gules (Cain) 2nd a bee Proper between two roses Gules barbed seeded stalked and leaved Proper (Nall). |
| Mantling: | Gules doubled Argent. |
| Motto: | Felis Demucta Mitis |
| Supporters: | Two cats guardant Erminois[15] |
Nall-Cain died on 24 March 1967 and was succeeded by his grandson, Charles.[16]