Esme Cromer's first husband was the  third Earl of Cromer, who was born into the Baring banking  family. He was British Ambassador in Washington during  Edward Heath’s premiership  and achieved great success in the international financial community. This culminated in his appointment as the youngest Governor of the Bank of England for 200 years.

In her published memoirs, Lady Cromer recalled how her husband, known as Rowley, worked through the night dealing with the crisis, staving off disaster by arranging international loans of $3billion. via dailymail.co.uk