The Spy Who Painted the Queen

by Phil Tomaselli

  There were a couple of Germans said to have connections with the enemy secret services. One was Rudolph Said-Ruete, formerly of 39 Bramham Gardens, a German subject now in Switzerland, married to one of the Monds and formerly manager of the Cairo branch of Deutsche Orient Bank. Said-Ruete wrote articles entitled ‘England’s War Guiltiness’ and ‘Interviewed at Potsdam’ etc. He was a promoter of the British Progressive Club, Zurich, the leader of which was Mostevitch, a ‘notorious Hungarian spy’. Then there was Hans R. Schulze of Berlin. In addition to appearing in De László’s address book, his name was also found in the papers of one Holzamner, a ‘known Austrian spy’.

  One curious inclusion was the Asiatic Trading Co. chairman, H.N. Anderson, a Dane described as ‘a man of low origin who has made his money in doubtful ways’. A friend of the Kaiser, Anderson had visited him in Berlin in the summer of 1916. As a neutral, Anderson travelled to and from Petrograd, Berlin, Copenhagen and London, which presumably gave him ample opportunities for both spying and carrying secret messages. His company now ran the German Kosmos shipping line along routes on the west coast of South and Central America. Anderson was a friend of Queen Alexandra’s; her brother Prince Waldemar was said to be a shareholder in East Asiatic Co. Other shareholders were George of Greece, the King of Siam, the Czar and the Kaiser, also the Danske Bank, the Danish branch of Deutsche Bank. MI5 noted, ‘It is believed that not a single ship of EAST ASIATIC CO has been sunk during the war.’ Someone added a pencil note later, ‘Not likely on the West Coast of America’ which is, of course, correct, but given Anderson’s movements it would seem likely the company ran other routes.

  There were a few others. Baron Francis Elanger was a naturalised British subject of German origin, now living in Tunis and suspected of being in enemy pay. Francis Trippel, alias Franz Heinrich Trippel of St James Street, Piccadilly, was an ex-soldier in the German army. He had been a crammer and schoolmaster between 1895 and 1910, then secretary to Sir Max Waechter, German entrepreneur, art collector and philanthropist. Trippel travelled with him abroad and met the Kaiser in 1910. Still based in London, Trippel was obviously being watched as MI5 knew he was suddenly in possession of large sums of money and had given £1,000 to the Union Jack Club. He apparently made money by commission on subscriptions from the public for war charities. MI5 considered him a ‘Very suspicious character, unscrupulous and connected with the Peace League’.

  Baron Schroeder, a German, had, like De László, naturalised after the start of the war, but had a son in the German army. He was known to have subscribed to the Kaiser’s Jubilee Fund and been present at the celebratory dinner. He had, said MI5, provided money to pay off the mortgage on the German Club after the start of the war. There is a further note, ‘According to young [sic] De László is keeping champagne to drink to “Der Tag”.’ A pencilled remark next to this entry reads, ‘This is a ridiculous note.’

  Linked to Baron Schroeder was Frank Tiarks, his business partner. MI5 said he was married to a German woman who had two sons fighting for Germany. He had also been reported to have German sympathies. The reference is peculiar, especially as Tiarks was, at the time MI5 wrote about him, a lieutenant commander in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve and engaged in particularly secret work for Naval Intelligence, working in Admiralty Room 40 where the naval code breakers were busily engaged in breaking German ciphers. There’s also absolutely no truth in the story that his German-born wife, whom he had married in 1900 when she was just 24, had two sons serving in the German army. It looks horribly as if MI5 had just jotted down some rumours about him and not bothered to investigate them before passing them on.

  Given De László’s supposed peace propaganda activities, why was he holding an address for Robert Dell, a keen pacifist and Fabian Society member, living in Paris and acting as correspondent for the Manchester Guardian? As early as 1915, Dell had written that France had lost all her men and could not go on, and should make a separate peace if England insisted on fighting further. He later wrote a book on peace. He was described by MI5 as blaming England and France for the war as much as Germany.

  Only one person on the list had the dubious honour of already having a file prepared on them. This was Lady Suffolk (file reference V.F. 370/15), née Leiter, who, MI5 noted, ‘After outbreak of war went from Paris to Baden-Baden. Reported to have received a visit and a bouquet of flowers from Kaiser’s second son, who provided passports out of Germany for her and her maid.’

  It’s a hard list to analyse given there’s nothing to say how many people were in the address book in total and some of the entries (that of Frank Tiarks, for example) are quite simply wrong. Many of the people were the kind of ‘high society’ contacts that an internationally famous portrait painter might be expected to know – and whose cosmopolitan (we might these days call it celebrity) lifestyle meant that they in turn were in close contact with, related to, or married into foreign families. Lady Suffolk is one of these, as were Countess Portales and the various German aristocrats. De László’s former Hungarian nationality and known support for charities that helped poorer members of the community in Britain would surely explain his contacts with many of his former countrymen.

  One or two alleged contacts with people suspected (at least) of being enemy agents are harder to explain. Why an address for Jonkheer Greven, for example? Jonkheer is a very minor Dutch noble rank, hardly on a par with the German, Austrian and British nobility De László knew. He was only a lieutenant so he was probably quite young. That the Dutch themselves might send a young officer to Britain, officially or unofficially, to gather information is hardly surprising – but Maxse’s intelligence organisation, which reached into the heart of the Dutch government and made use of contacts he had built up over years as British consul, tended to produce accurate information, based as it frequently was on Dutch police and military sources. Greven was, almost certainly, some kind of German spy. Wilhelm von Mallinckrodt, provided the identification is correct, is also hard to understand, not being of the normal class of De László’s contacts and, again, having been identified by Maxse’s agency, likely to have been a German agent.

  Most telling, perhaps, are the number of contacts who were known, or said to be, involved in peace propaganda on behalf of the Central Powers or in advocating anti-war sentiment. There was Robert Dell, with his own Dutch connections through his work for Der Telegraaf; Rudolph Said-Ruete, with his own articles condemning England’s part in the war; Princess Salm-Salm, in Switzerland making her violent propaganda in favour of the Central Empires; and Countess Helena Pourtales, with her English-language German newspapers for America.

  7

  INTERNMENT AND CONTROVERSY

  MI5’S REPORT ON the address book was submitted to the Home Office on 18 December, just in time to be presented to the forthcoming review of De László’s case. Though nothing conclusive could be proven from De László’s contacts in his address book, the presence of certain names, linked to either espionage or enemy peace propaganda, were bound to strengthen MI5’s concerns that here was a man who was a risk to the security of the realm.

  As well as their analysis of his address book, MI5 presented a letter from Colonel Kell setting out his objections to an immediate release:

  Short of the war being over by the 21st December and unless any new factors arise which will conclusively prove that an injustice has been committed in interning László or that his health is in grave peril, I cannot foresee any circumstances which are likely to call for any alteration in the committee’s decision of internment.

  I cannot agree that in so short a time the threads of which he might have between Holland and this country would probably be snapped and that he would not be able to resume communications, if he should desire to do so.

  His channel of communication still remains and his friends in Holland will doubtless still exist, who can transmit whatever he chooses to send them, either by bag or by hand.

  I admit the case has been one of considerable
difficulty and I have, I think, been privileged to have been consulted in this case by the committee more than in any other. I have therefore had the opportunity of realizing some if not all of the difficulties with which the Committee have been confronted and their endeavours to arrive at a just and fair solution of the case.

  M.I.5.

  Signed by Vernon Kell

  Once again there is no transcript of the actual hearing, but the committee conclusion exists and is given here in its entirety:

  The committee sat to reconsider the case of Mr De László. They heard Mr De László himself and several other witnesses who he desired to call.

  Since the last occasion a list had been prepared for the committee of the names and addresses of certain people appearing in Mr László’s address books. The committee were informed that many of these people are strongly pro-German in sympathy and some of them were said to be in touch with German spies. The committee were not able to say whether this is so or not, but they put some of the names to Mr László, whose reply was that they were persons who had come to him either to be painted, or upon subjects connected to art, or art criticism.

  In addition to this there was a letter from Geneva purporting to be written on 16th July last (gives detail of letter) … The letter is unsigned, but purports to be addressed to a member of the German Legation at Berlin. Beyond that the committee know nothing about it, but it appears to be of a similar character to those scheduled to the committee’s last report to which they beg to refer.

  A great grievance was made by all the witnesses that it was generally thought that some sinister interpretation could be attached to the fact that Mr László applied for naturalisation after the war.

  The committee dealt specifically with this matter on page 3 of their previous report and they sum it up by saying ‘no sinister conclusion can be drawn from the circumstances surrounding his naturalisation’.

  In the event of future questions being asked in the House of Commons on this point the authorities might consider whether it would not be an act of justice both to Mr László and to sponsors, that this point should be made clear.

  Coming to the main point of the case, the committee do not see their way to alter the advice which they gave to the home secretary in their first report, and they are of the opinion that Mr De László’s internment should be continued.

  John Hankey, on behalf of the advisory committee

  20th December 1917

  De László’s friends campaigned to have him released, to no avail. Jerome K. Jerome, author of Three Men in a Boat, launched a campaign among his fellow artists but was surprised by the poor response. In part this was because of a continuing campaign by the press against De László, but also because, De László later claimed, his fellow portrait painter Sir Arthur Stockdale Cope RA organised a surreptitious campaign of his own against him, assisted by his friend Admiral Sir Reginald Hall, Director of Naval Intelligence. Hall was without doubt the most important man in the British intelligence community, with huge resources, huge influence and a finger in every intelligence pie. He would have known the full details of MI5’s case if any man outside the organisation did. It’s interesting that he might have had some influence, behind the scenes, in keeping De László interned. The internment was now set, unless there was an unexpected development, to last until the end of the war.

  Despite the more relaxed conditions in the Holloway Internment Camp, the stress of De László’s situation continued to bear down on him. Many of his friends seemed to have abandoned him, virtually all the clubs he had been a member of removed his name from their lists, Eton College refused to accept his sons though they had been on its books for many years, and, with no new income coming in, many sitters who owed him money were reluctant to pay up. He was paying for his own food as he had done throughout his internment and he had many other financial commitments. Though it is claimed that he had a nervous breakdown as a result of his worries, this isn’t borne out by the Home Office files, but a succession of medical reports commissioned by Lucy, even if written by sympathetic doctors, show a steady decline in his condition.

  On 5 March 1918, Dr E.F. Eyre, the Islington camp doctor reported:

  P de László’s condition is becoming serious, he is suffering from intense headache of a constricting type and neuritis of right side, also intestinal muscular ateny, which causes constipation. Mentally his depression is very great. The most serious point about his condition is the weakening of his Cardio-Vascular System, his pulse having been irregular (Arrhythmia) but is now changed to a very weak and slow action (Brachychardia).

  His condition at present is one that if not very early relieved will develop into Arterio-Schlerosis. This condition has the effect of reducing even a man of abilities to mediocrity.

  The one and only treatment for the case is release from internment as soon as possible.

  A doctor appointed by the Home Office visited the camp and reported:

  On the 26th February 1918 I examined Mr P A Lazlo de Lombas … He presents a healthy appearance, has a good colour, and his circulation to all outward appearance is normal. He says he suffers much from constipation but he looks well nourished, his tongue is clean, and there is no apparent accumulation of faeces in the lower bowel. He says that this condition is much improved by the abdominal massage which he is obtaining at the Cornwallis Road Institution, but complains much of his nerves and is very emotional, but his reflexes are not exaggerated and there is no fibrillar twitching of the muscles of the face and tongue, nor any signs of physical deterioration due to psychasthenia. The pulse is slow, though regular, and equal at both wrists, and there are no signs of thickening of the arteries anywhere.

  He presents all the appearance of a very emotional man of the nervous type, but I am inclined to discount the possibility suggested by Dr Craig of a nervous breakdown.

  Internment to a man who has lived under the conditions under which Mr László has lived is of course a great hardship, but I do not anticipate any real danger to life or reason or a serious breakdown in health if the authorities consider it advisable that it should be continued.

  At the request of the worried Mrs De László, reports were commissioned on him by his normal doctors, Dr Keightley and Dr Lund, as well as by Dr Maurice Craig, a ‘nerve specialist’. Dr Keightley wrote:

  The lack of exercise and the condition of his liver tend to produce the alternate conditions of excitement and depression, and his whole constitution tends therefore to nerve fatigue. If these conditions can be ameliorated, or he can obtain his release, I believe they will pass off under proper conditions otherwise it is quite possible that these mental conditions of excitement and depression may become permanent.

  Dr Craig saw De László on 4 February 1918 and reported:

  I find him in a restless condition; he is evidently getting loss of power of concentration; sleep is becoming defective; his circulation is bad, the pulse is slow and low tensioned, and he is losing weight.

  The strain of the last few months has evidently told and is telling upon him, and if this restlessness continues, there is a grave danger of his having a mental breakdown.

  I am of the opinion that it would be wise to let him have a ten grain dose of potassium bromide once a day, and if necessary he ought to be given a definite hypnotic. It would be wise for him to be in bed for a few weeks, but I do not know whether this is possible.

  On 6 February Dr Lund sent a more worrying letter:

  I saw Dr Keightley today and I find that he, Dr Craig and I all agreed to the risk, if not actual danger to your husband’s mental condition by a prolongation of his present internment.

  I have never seen him in such an unnerved state. His ordinarily highly strung mentality is suffering acutely under the strain of his present circumstances and life of inactivity, and I feel most strongly that it is running an unnecessary risk, and endangering his life by keeping him there.

  The cumulative effect of the reports was to persuade th
e Home Office to allow him to be moved to a nursing home in Ladbroke Gardens, Notting Hill, and he was released there on 14 May 1918 having signed a promise not to go outside the home and its grounds or to communicate with anyone other than his wife. No doubt he was discreetly watched, but he seems to have kept his promise.

  While De László languished in semi-captivity, events in the outside world began to shape in a way that was to have a profound influence on his future. There was still an intense feeling of hostility abroad in the country against aliens, perhaps unsurprising given it was the fourth year of a war that had been ghastly and expensive in terms of casualties and money. To most people it looked as though it was likely to extend well into 1919 or even beyond. There was also a lingering feeling that there were highly placed German sympathisers or dupes in the establishment who were deliberately sabotaging the war effort.

  In May 1918 the eccentric and right wing MP Noel Pemberton Billing was sued for libel by the actress Maud Allan for alleging that her play Salomé was part of a German conspiracy to promote homosexuality and corrupt the manhood of Britain. He further alleged that there was a secret German list of 47,000 highly-placed British perverts who were being blackmailed into sabotaging the war effort. This was based on evidence that had been provided to him by an American named Harold Sherwood Spencer who had claimed British nationality because his grandparents were British and been commissioned into the Royal Irish Fusiliers in order to transfer to the Royal Flying Corps. On the basis of his speaking Albanian and a claim that he had spent time in the Balkans before the war, Spencer was sent to Italy to join the British Adriatic Mission where he served for some months in 1916.

  It was Spencer’s evidence that helped clinch the trial; he claimed to have seen the actual list, in the form of a ‘Black Book’, which was shown to him before the war by the German Prince Wied, who was king of Albania and to whom he had been a personal aide de camp. He had seen the names, their perversions and the means by which it was recommended the German Secret Service should approach them. He had passed the list, he said, to the British authorities who had suppressed it. The trial resulted in Pemberton Billing being acquitted of the charge of libel in a spectacular fashion after the jury deliberated for an hour and twenty-five minutes. There was a near riot in the court, with the gallery cheering and shouting ‘Hurrah’, and the ushers and police were directed to clear the court. A cheering crowd of a thousand people saw Pemberton Billing walk from the court and mobbed his car as he drove away.