James Lonsdale-Bryans was a writer, British diplomat and Nazi sympathiser who was educated at Eton College. In 1940, Lonsdale-Bryans travelled to Italy to meet Ulrich von Hassell, the German ambassador to Italy. He believed von Hassell would be receptive to the idea of a pact between Britain and Germany at the outbreak of World War II. The terms of this pact were that Germany would have a free hand in Europe in return for Britain running the rest of the world. However, he unsuccessfully attempted to arrange a meeting with both U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower and British General Bernard Montgomery.