Mary Watson And The Departed Doctor

by Fred Thursfield

  “Mademoiselle it is important that I have an answer to my question.” Feeling that she had been boxed in Mata Hari’s demeanour and attitude changed as well and then she shot back at him “You are Holmes, the meddler.”

  My friend smiled. “Holmes, the busybody!” His smile broadened. “Holmes, perhaps the Prefecture of Police Jack-in-office!” Holmes chuckled heartily.

  But seeing no end to this battle of wits, Holmes demeanour changed and he replied “What you have done, or have not done in this world, may be of little or no consequence.”

  “The question becomes what can you make people believe that you have done, or not done?” The brief encounter ended when a back stage employee knocking on Mata Hari’s door and announcing “cinq minutes jusqu’àce que voussoyez sur la scène Mademoiselle.”

  Departing from the Moulin Rouge with what he thought of as rare certainty Holmes knew what his next step would be. February 13. Mata Hari was arrested by Captaine Gustave Arnaud of The Prefecture of Policein her room at the Hotel Plaza Athénée in Paris.

  She (Mata Hari) was put on trial, accused of spying for Germany and consequently causing the deaths of at least 50,000 soldiers. Although the French and British intelligence suspected her of spying for Germany, neither (at the time) could produce definite evidence against her.

  Her military trial was riddled with bias and circumstantial evidence. Secret ink was found in her room, which was incriminating evidence at the time. She contended that it was part of her make-up.

  She wrote several letters to the Dutch Consul in Paris, claiming her innocence. “My international connections are due of my work as a dancer, nothing else [...]. Because I really did not spy, it is terrible that I cannot defend myself.”

  It is probable that French authorities trumped her up as “the greatest woman spy of the century” as a distraction for the huge losses the French army was suffering on the western front.

  She was found guilty and was executed by firing squad on 15 October 1917, at the age of 41. Her only real crimes may have been an elaborate stage fallacy and a weakness for men in uniform

  ***

  German documents unsealed later in the 1920s however proved that Mata Hari was truly a German agent. In the autumn of 1915, she entered German service, and on orders of section III B-Chief Walter Nicolai, she was instructed about her duties by Major Roepell during a stay in Cologne.

  Her reports were to be sent to the Kriegs nachrichtenstelle West (War News Post West) in Düsseldorf under Roepell as well as to the Agent mission in the German embassy in Madrid under Major Kalle, with her direct handler being Captain Hoffmann, who gave her the code name H-21.

  Several of Mata Hari’s former lovers held prominent positions in the French military and diplomatic hierarchy. Because of her connections, Colonel Walter Nicolai, head of the German General Staff’s intelligence service (Section 3B) regarded Mata Hari as a potentially excellent agent.

  Nicolai interviewed her personally in Cologne, but was rather disconcerted when she attempted to seduce him. Despite this, he assigned Mata Hari to gather information from her highly placed friends and lovers in Paris. Adolphe Messimy being one of many was to be the prime target.

  Adolphe Messimy Born in Lyon in 1869 was the eldest son of notary Paul Charles Léon Messimy and Laurette Marie Anne Girodon. Messimy graduated from the military school of Saint-Cyr and started a career as a line officer.

  When the First World War started Messimy was blamed for the failed French Plan XVII and had to resign on 26 August 1914 because his office going to Alexandre Millerand was the price for a unity government under Viviani.

  After his resignation Messimy joined the army as a reserve captain. By 1915 Messimy had been promoted to lieutenant-colonel and on 27 July 1915 he was wounded in the Vosges, leading a unit of Chasseurs Alpins.

  Promoted to colonel, he was given command of the 6th brigade of chasseurs. Wounded again on 4 September 1916 on the Somme, Messimy was promoted to general de brigade on 11 September 1917 and transferred to command the 213th brigade of infantry.

  Chapter 13

  Continuing with John’s journal.

  (Sherlock wrote...) I must first start by profoundly apologizing to you both (Sherlock meaning John and I) for not returning to London after my time in Paris.

  As you have no doubt already read in the newspapers the eventual fate of Margaretha Geertruida “Margreet” Zelle or Mata Hari. You have known from past cases Watson, whenever I have handed over a criminal into the custody of the police there was never any doubt that I was serving the law and that this was the right action to take.

  However, with the case of Mata Hari there will always be some doubt as to whether she was in fact a genuine German spy who could have caused great harm, or if in fact, because of her career, only believed that she was a spy and held the idea she was capable of extracting important secrets from the men who came into her life while she was an exotic entertainer.

  In either case, it’s a wicked world when a clever woman turns her brain to what she may believe is a crime. That is the worst of all.”

  Once or twice in my career I feel that I have done more real harm by my discovery of the criminal than ever he or she had done by his or her crime. I thought I had learned caution now, and I should have rather played tricks with the law of the land than with my own conscience.”

  ***

  With reading this last paragraph of the chronicle I felt that if I could arrange it I would set out and search for all the people who may have had any association with this supposed exotic spy. While investigating I also intended to find out if she or any of her romantic assignations were in any way connected to John’s death.

  But I had a suspicion that if I undertook such an examination it would be revealed that there would be certain respectable individuals within our government and other governments who, with what had taken place may have wanted Sherlock’s or for that matter John’s death to come about for reasons best known only to them.

  This questionable course may have been a plot with the purpose of eliminating one person to further the ambitions of others. However I definitely intended to follow up on Dr. Briggs list by writing to the various companies in the suggested countries that dealt with the manufacture of porcelain and poison. There was a slight chance they might reveal the person or persons who had brought the two into a lethal combination.

  Whether by chance or coincidence I came across this article I had cut out (and saved) from a newspaper some time ago.

  ***

  During the raid on the home of a man and son located in Brixton January 1920, a very small amount of ricin was allegedly found in a sealed jam jar kept in a kitchen cupboard. A father and son, Jack and Nicky Davidson were arrested under the War Emergency Laws (Continuance) 1920 Act.

  The arrests followed a long-running police led investigation against the German Workers Party which is presently involved in extreme right-wing political activity in Germany and in the United Kingdom.

  Jack Davidson was sentenced to ten years in May 1920, for preparing acts of hostility, three counts of possessing material useful to commit acts of violence and possessing a prohibited weapon; his son was given two years for possessing material useful to commit acts of violence.

  Chapter 14

  Prime Minister Willem Bastiaan van Steenwyk, OM, CH, ED, KC, FRS PC (born 24 May 1870) is a prominent South African and British Commonwealth statesman, military leader and philosopher. In addition to holding various cabinet posts, he served as Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa. He is a supporter of racial segregation and white minority rule in this African country.

  ***

  I would learn of this man for the sinister and treacherous acts he had undertaken during the First World War... for his far reaching course of action following the armistice and of his uncaring and callous actions und
ertaken during the Rand Rebellion.

  ***

  The Rand Rebellion was an armed uprising of white miners in the Witwatersrand region of South Africa, in March 1922. Jimmy Green, a prominent politician in the Labour Party, was one of the leaders of the strike.

  Following a drop in the world price of gold from 130 shillings (£6 10s) a fine troy ounce in 1919 to 95s/oz. (£4 15s) in December 1921, the companies tried to cut their operating costs by decreasing wages, and by weakening the colour bar to enable the promotion of cheaper black miners to skilled and supervisory positions.

  The rebellion started as a strike by white mineworkers on 28 December 1921 and shortly thereafter, it became an open rebellion against the state. Subsequently the workers, who had armed themselves, took over the cities of Benoni and Brakpan, and the Johannesburg suburbs of Fordsburg and Jeppe.

  The young Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA) took an active part in the uprising on grounds of class struggle while opposing racist aspects of the strike, which were typified by the slogan; “Workers of the world unite and fight for a white South Africa!”

  Several communists, including the strike leaders Percy Fisher and Harry Spendiff, were killed as the rebellion was quelled by state forces. The rebellion was eventually crushed by “considerable military firepower and at the cost of over 200 lives”.

  Prime Minister van Steenwyk crushed the rebellion with 20,000 troops, artillery, tanks, and bomber aircraft. By this time the rebels had dug trenches across Fordsburg Square and the air force tried to bomb but missed and hit a local church. However the army’s bombardment finally overran them.

  ***

  During the First World War, van Steenwyk had formed the South African Defence Force. His first task was to suppress a rebellion, which was accomplished by November 1914. While the campaign went fairly well, the German forces involved were not destroyed.

  Van Steenwyk was criticised by his chief Intelligence officer, Colonel Richard Meinertzhagen, for avoiding frontal attacks which, in Meinertzhagen’s view, would have been less costly than the inconsequential flanking movements that prolonged the campaign where thousands of Imperial troops died of disease.

  As for van Steenwyk, Meinertzhagen wrote: “van Steenwyk has cost Britain many hundreds of thousands of lives and many millions of pounds by his (assumed) caution... van Steenwyk was never an astute soldier; a brilliant statesman and politician but no soldier.”

  However he was promoted to honorary lieutenant general for distinguished service in the field on 1 January 1917. Early in 1917van Steenwyk left Africa and went to London as he had been invited to join the Imperial War Cabinet and the War Policy Committee by Prime Minister David Lloyd George

  ***

  It should be noted like most British Empire political and military leaders in World War I, van Steenwyk thought the American Expeditionary Forces (who had entered the war in 1918) lacked the proper leadership and experience to be effective quickly. He supported the Anglo-French amalgamation policy towards the Americans.

  In particular, he had a low opinion of General John J. Pershing’s (the general officer of the United States Army who led the American Expeditionary Forces in World War I) leadership skills.

  So much so that he wrote a confidential letter to David Lloyd George proposing Pershing be relieved of his command and that the US forces be placed “under someone more confident, like himself”. This did not endear him to the Americans once it was leaked.

  Chapter 15

  My only experience of armed conflict up until this time had come solely from my husband. This being John relating his experiences as a medical doctor of a hospital... his chief duty had been to attend to the terribly wounded soldiers returning home from combat at the front.

  My only other experience came (albeit vicariously) from noticing the brash and boldly published war related headlines.

  Each expressed below the banner of the respective daily newspapers that were collectively and prominently displayed by outdoor news agent shops located throughout the city in hope of catching the attention of pedestrians as they walked by.

  My, as well as The Fawcett Society members experience of armed conflict would be considerably broadened when the plight of Susan Fisher and Emily Spendiff, the widows of Percy Fisher and Harry Spendiff (the strike leaders killed during the Rand Rebellion) came to our attention.

  During the later stages of the Rebellion, the South African Defence Force pursued the policy of rounding up and isolating the civilian population in concentration camps, one of the earliest uses of this method by modern powers.

  Women and children were sent to these camps. A report after the rebellion concluded that 27,927 (of whom 22,074 were children under 16) and 14,154 black Africans had died of starvation, disease and exposure in the camps.

  Although the government had comfortably won the parliamentary debate by a margin of 252 to 149, it was stung by the criticism and concerned by the escalating public outcry, and called on Willem Bastiaan van Steenwyk for a detailed report. In response, complete statistical returns from camps were sent in July 1922. By August 1922, it was clear to government and opposition alike that their worst fears were being confirmed - 93,940 women and children and 24,457 black Africans were reported to be in “camps of refuge” and the crisis was becoming a catastrophe as the death rates appeared very high, especially among the children.

  The government responded to the growing clamour by appointing a commission. The Fawcett Commission, as it would become known was, uniquely for its time, an all-woman affair headed by Millicent Fawcett who despite being the leader of the women’s suffrage movement was a Liberal Unionist and thus a government supporter and considered a safe pair of hands.

  Between August and December, 1922, the Fawcett Commission conducted its own tour of the camps in South Africa. While it is probable that the British government expected the Commission to produce a report that could be used to fend off criticism, in the end it confirmed everything that Emily Hobhouse (one of the members of the commission) had said. Indeed, if anything the Commission’s recommendations went even further.

  The Commission insisted that rations should be increased and that additional nurses be sent out immediately, and included a long list of other practical measures designed to improve conditions in the camp. Millicent Fawcett was quite blunt in expressing her opinion that much of the catastrophe was owed to a simple failure to observe elementary rules of hygiene.

  Chapter 16

  Pausing my research of John’s journals for a time because of the remembered newspaper article concerning Jack and Nicky Davidson’s arrest I decided to reread the reply letter (regarding the pellet) Dr. Briggs had sent to me.

  ***

  “I am returning the medical certificate of death and the glass vial with a list of possible cities and respective companies where I believe both the pellet and the ricin may have been manufactured. With the information I have provided I hope there will be some connection between the listed cities and manufacturers.”

  ***

  Realizing that taking on the daunting task of writing to all the companies the doctor had brought to my attention would take far more time than I had available I turned again to the one person who would be of help.

  I was confident that he would have the necessary resources and personnel to write to the listed cities and respective companies to see if they were or had been engaged in the manufacturer of porcelain and poison.

  After contacting him by telephone and making a request for assistance Mycroft offered “I will have my personal secretary Jenkins come to your home to pick up the list.

  Leave it with me for a few days Mrs. Watson and I will see what my office can find out about these companies for you.” Then as much to me as to himself he finished the conversation with “I believe I will start with Hewlett’s Industrial directory for the United Kingdom
and Europe.”

  A week later the person who had initially come to the house to pick up Dr. Briggs list returned with the same which I noticed it had now been extensively annotated.

  While it catalogued some North American as well as some European companies as possible manufacturers of ceramic pellets there was a noticeable absence of information as to where the poison may have originated from leaving me unable to connect the two.

  At the bottom of the list I noticed there was a personal hand written foot note from Mycroft...

  “To finish Mrs. Watson in the 17th century, Royal Delft had several factories all over Delft. However, this was very inconvenient and in 1916 all of their activities were centralised in the location which is still the current visiting address of the factory, at the Rotterdamseweg in Delft, Holland.

  Interestingly, and maybe a bit unusual is that one of my staff also located a delft factory that was engaged in the manufacture of munitions during the war which I believe in some way may be associated to the van Steenwyk family. It is known by the Dutch name of Loosdrechts which is located in Selby an industrial district in the South African city of Johannesburg.”

  Mycroft

  Chapter 17

  I had not been a part of the original Fawcett commission that had toured the concentration camps which by some had been euphemistically referred to as ‘camps of refuge’ in The Union of South Africa between August and December 1922.

  The personal reasons I gave (to any one inquiring) for wanting to go to South Africa was to follow in the steps of the commission by taking the journey on my own.

  While there I wished first to conduct a follow up inspection of the camps and then talk more with Susan Fisher and Emily Spendiff the widows of the Rand Rebellion.