Bankers and Codebreakers

There are plenty of good history programmes to watch at the moment. On Tuesday Ian Hislop presents "When Bankers Were Good". He investigates some of the wealthiest Victorian bankers who were also very impressive philanthropists, donating much of the income to good causes and campaigning on social issues such as housing and care for deprived children. George Peabody, for example, provided a huge donation to build affordable housing for London's poor, and today over 50,000 people still live in homes supported by the Peabody Trust. Samuel Gurney used his banking wealth to support the work of his sister, Elizabeth Fry, who campaigned for prison reform. As you can guess from the provocative title, Hislop suggests that today's bankers could learn a great deal from these eminent Victorians if they wish to improve their image.

Also on this week (tonight in fact) on Channel 4 is a documentary about Alan Turing - "Britain's greatest codebreaker". Turing (shown above) was an exceptionally gifted mathematician who was instrumental in helping to break the Enigma code during World War 2 through his development of computer programmes which could run through thousands of possible code combinations every minute. He should have been recognised as a national hero but instead was arrested for "gross indecency" in 1952 - his crime was to be gay at a time when homosexual acts were illegal. Two years later he committed suicide because he had been driven to despair by his treatment - a terrible waste of a great talent.

Also recommended on iPlayer - "Double Agent: The Eddie Chapman Story" - a fantastic tale of a former safe-breaker who was recruited to spy on the Germans, while convincing the Germans he was spying for them at the same time - he was so good that they even awarded him with the Iron Cross, and all the time he was passing secrets back to the British.

If you spot any more good history programmes, please let us know!

Eileen Nearne

Eileen Nearne, an 89 year old lady from Devon, never discussed what she did in the war, but after her death last week it was discovered that she had been a spy for the Special Operations Executive, assisting the French resistance. Aged 23 she was dropped into occupied France and worked as a courier and wireless operator. She was captured and 3 times by the Nazis but managed to escape every time. She was eventually sent to a concentration camp in Germany. On several occasions she was tortured but never revealed the names of her fellow agents. Asked how she coped in such a distressing situation she said, "You should not let yourself go. It seemed that the end would never come, but I have always believed in destiny and I had a hope. If you are a person who is drowning, you put all your efforts into trying to swim."

You can read more about her fascinating story here.

Spy Stories

The official history of MI6, the Secret Intelligence Service, has been published this week. Professor Keith Jeffery was given permission to investigate the archives from 1904-1949, examining MI6's actions in both World Wars and other conflicts, including the Russian Civil War. Jeffery investigates well known actions such as the Bletchley Park code-breaking operation in World War 2 and MI6's support of agents in the French Resistance. He also reveals that the Service helped to prevent a Communist revolution in Brazil in 1935, and employed a Lieutenant Augustus Agar in Russia during the Communist Revolution; he was meant to only support Russian agents, but got rather carried away and sank four Communist warships, which quickly blew his cover.

MI6 agents never had a "licence to kill" but they did have plenty of secret gadgets, such as a camera hidden in a matchbox, a pen that squirted tear gas, and a shaving brush with a secret compartment. These would provide inspiration for one MI6 officer, Ian Fleming, when he turned his hand to writing books about a fictional agent - James Bond.

More information can be found in this Guardian article and Channel 4 News Report (shown above), which includes comments from Sir John Scarlett, Head of MI6 (or "C") till last year. Channel 4 also recently had a fascinating interview with John Le Carre, the spy author who worked for MI6 until he was betrayed by the double agent, Kim Philby.

PS: Here is MI6's official website, where you can learn about their history and apply for a job!

The Russian Spy Ring

While Presidents Obama and Medvedev ate hamburgers in Virginia, the net was closing in on a ring of 11 Russian spies who had operated in America for over 10 years. They have been accused of taking false identities and acting as "sleeper agents", pretending to be American citizens whilst passing back information to Russia. The revelations have led to huge media coverage, particularly over 28 year old Anna Chapman (see picture below), who had a lively Facebook account with photographs of herself in glamourous locations. Although they often used the internet to pass on information, the agents seem to have used remarkably traditional methods as well, such as secret drop off points and codewords, just like in Cold War espionage stories.


There are some interesting comments on the affair, such as this article from the creator of Spooks suggesting fact is often stranger than fiction, and this analysis that the spy ring, despite the huge effort the Russian security service must have put into it, has actually yielded very little of value. Perhaps the inadequacy of their efforts is the reason why both the US and Russia are optimistic that the affair will cause little damage to their relationship in the long-term, once the media have stopped showing pictures of Anna Chapman...

PS: Some more good stuff here from the BBC, including the history of deep-cover spies, like British agent Kim Philby, who spied for the KGB for 20 years, and a profile of the SVR, formally known as the KGB (Committee for State Security), which can trace its roots back to the Russian Civil War in 1920.