Grandi, Count Dino

Grandi, Count Dino (1895–1988),Italian undersecretary, then minister, of foreign affairs from 1925 to 1932 before being appointed ambassador in London. He was too moderate for Mussolini's liking and in July 1939 he became minister of justice. In early 1941 he was sent to the Albanian Front (see Balkan campaign) when Mussolini abruptly mobilized his ministers and high officials to try to restore public morale. This caused considerable rancour and Grandi later said that it was at the front that he planned with others the resolution which led to Mussolini's downfall in July 1943. He was offered, but refused, the governorship of Greece, and in February 1943, despite his earlier ‘grovelling protestations of loyalty to the regime’ ( M. Knox, Mussolini Unleashed, Cambridge, 1982, p. 268), he was dismissed from the cabinet. That July he tabled the motion at the Fascist Grand Council which led to Mussolini's deposition and arrest. He fled abroad before the armistice with the Allies was declared in September 1943 and was subsequently refused re-entry into Italy. In his absence he was sentenced to death at the Verona trials and after the war was acquitted by a commission enquiring into fascist crimes. He lived in Brazil before returning to Italy in 1973.