Churchill's Iceman_The True Story of Geoffrey Pyke_Genius, Fugitive, Spy

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Churchill's Iceman_The True Story of Geoffrey Pyke_Genius, Fugitive, Spy Page 48

by Henry Hemming


  Overy, Richard, 1939: Countdown to War (London: Viking), 2009

  Parrish, Thomas, To Keep the British Isles Afloat: FDR’s Men in Churchill’s London, 1941 (New York: Smithsonian), 2009

  Perutz, Max F., I Wish I’d Made You Angry Earlier: Essays on Science, Scientists, and Humanity (New York: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press), 1998

  Pincher, Chapman, Their Trade Is Treachery (London: Sidgwick & Jackson), 1981

  Pines, Malcolm, ‘Susan S. Isaacs’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2004

  Pyke, David & Medawar, Jean, Hitler’s Gift (New York: Arcade), 2012

  Pyke, Geoffrey, ‘Utilization of Muscle’, Cycling, 5 September 1945

  Pyke, Geoffrey, ‘The Mobilisation of Muscle’, The Economist, 11 August 1945

  Pyke, Geoffrey, The Fortnightly Review, 1 January 1916

  Pyke, Geoffrey, Manchester Guardian, ‘Europe’s Coal Famine: The Problem Analysed’, 20 August 1945; ‘Europe’s Coal Famine: A Solution Outlined’, 21 August 1945; ‘Europe’s Coal Famine: The Organisation of Muscle-Power’, 24 September 1945

  Pyke, Geoffrey, ‘Politics and Witchcraft’, The New Statesman and Nation, 5 September 1936

  Pyke, Geoffrey, The Times, 1 July 1936, 21 September 1945, 3 December 1947, 18 January 1948

  Pyke, Geoffrey, To Ruhleben – And Back (New York: Collins Library / McSweeney’s), 2002

  Pyke, Richard, The Lives and Deaths of Roland Greer (London: Richard Cobden-Sanderson), 1928

  Quennell, Peter, The Wanton Chase (London: Collins), 1980

  Rafferty, Anne Marie, The Politics of Nursing Knowledge (London: Routledge), 1996

  Roberts, Andrew, Eminent Churchillians (New York: Simon & Schuster), 1994

  Read, Donald, The Power of News: The History of Reuters (Oxford: Oxford University Press), 1999

  Rees, Goronwy, A Bundle of Sensations (London: Chatto & Windus), 1960

  Rickman, John, ‘Susan Sutherland Isaacs’, The International Journal of Psycho-Analysis, Vol. 31, 1950

  Shaw, G. Bernard, Prefaces (London: Paul Hamlyn), 1965

  Sherwood, Robert E., Roosevelt and Hopkins (New York: Harper), 1948

  Smith, Lydia A. H., To Understand and to Help (London and Toronto: Associated University Presses), 1985

  Snow, C. P., ‘Bernal, a Personal Portrait’, The Science of Science (London: Penguin), 1966

  Steinweis, Alan, Studying the Jew (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press), 2006

  Taylor, A. J. P., The Trouble Makers (London: Penguin), 1957

  Trevelyan, Raleigh, Grand Dukes and Diamonds (London: Secker & Warburg), 1991

  Uglow, Jennifer S., Hendry, Maggy & Hinton, Frances, The Northeastern Dictionary of Women’s Biography (Boston: Northeastern University Press), 1998

  Uhlman, Fred, The Making of an Englishman (London: Victor Gollancz), 1960

  Van der Eyken, William & Turner, Barry, Adventures in Education (London: Allen Lane), 1969

  Waiser, Bill, Park Prisoners (Saskatoon & Calgary: Fifth House), 1995

  Waugh, Evelyn, A Little Learning (London: Penguin), 1990

  Waugh, Evelyn, Men at Arms (London: Penguin), 1967

  Waugh, Evelyn, Officers and Gentlemen (London: Penguin), 1967

  Waugh, Evelyn, Michael Davie (ed.), The Diaries of Evelyn Waugh (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson), 1976

  Weatherburn, Michael, ‘Motorcycles, Mattresses, and Microscopes: Geoffrey Pyke, the Communist Party, and Voluntary Industrial Aid for Spain, 1936–9’, paper presented to the Voluntary Action History Society Workshop, Southampton University, 10 October 2012

  Webb, Sidney and Beatrice, Soviet Communism: A New Civilization? (London: Longmans), 1935

  Werner, Brett, First Special Service Force 1942–44 (New York: Osprey), 2006

  Wernher, Harold, World War II: Personal Experiences (London: Worrall & Robey), 1950

  West, Nigel, Mask (London: Routledge), 2006

  West, Nigel & Tsarev, Oleg, The Crown Jewels (London: HarperCollins), 1998

  Whyte, Lancelot Law, Focus and Diversions (New York: George Braziller), 1963

  Williams, Robert Chadwell, Klaus Fuchs (London: Harvard University Press), 1987

  Wilson, Ben, Empire of the Deep (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson), 2013

  Windsor, The Duchess of, The Heart Has Its Reasons (London: Michael Joseph), 1956

  Windsor, The Duke of, A King’s Story (London: Cassell), 1951

  Wood, James A., We Move Only Forward (St Chatarines, Ontario: Vanwell), 2006

  Wooldridge, Adrian, Measuring the Mind: Education and Psychology in England, c. 1860-c.1990 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 1994

  Woolf, Leonard, Beginning Again: An Autobiography of the Years 1911 to 1918 (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich), 1975

  Woolf, Virginia, The Question of Things Happening: The Letters of Virginia Woolf, Vol. 2: 1912–1922 (London: Hogarth), 1976

  Wright, Peter & Paul Greengrass, Spycatcher (Australia: William Heinemann), 1987

  Ziegler, Philip, Mountbatten (London: Fontana), 1986

  Zuckerman, Solly, From Apes to Warlords (London: Collins), 1988

  LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

  1 – Lionel Pyke: courtesy of the Geoffrey Pyke Archive.

  2 – Mandragora, May Week 1914: copyright expired.

  3 – Teddy Falk: courtesy of the Liddle Collection, Leeds University.

  4 – Map: © Henry Hemming.

  5 – Geoffrey Pyke on his yacht: courtesy of the Geoffrey Pyke Archive.

  6 – Margaret Pyke in the Daily Sketch: copyright expired.

  7 – Lionel and Mary Pyke with their daughter Dorothy: courtesy of the Geoffrey Pyke Archive.

  8 – The four Pyke siblings: courtesy of the Geoffrey Pyke Archive.

  9 – Geoffrey Pyke with his son David: courtesy of the Geoffrey Pyke Archive.

  10 – Geoffrey and Margaret Pyke on honeymoon: courtesy of the Geoffrey Pyke Archive.

  11 – Frank Ramsey: photograph by Lettice Ramsey, reproduced with kind permission of her grandson Stephen Burch.

  12 – Geoffrey Pyke in Switzerland: courtesy of the Geoffrey Pyke Archive.

  13 – Two young scientists at Malting House: courtesy of the Geoffrey Pyke Archive.

  14 – Susie Isaacs with the children at Malting House: courtesy of the Geoffrey Pyke Archive.

  15 – Geoffrey and Margaret Pyke with their son David: courtesy of the Geoffrey Pyke Archive.

  16 – Geoffrey Pyke, early 1930s: courtesy of the Geoffrey Pyke Archive.

  17 – VIAS truck: courtesy of the Geoffrey Pyke Archive.

  18 – Stanley Smith: reproduced with kind permission of his son, Nicholas Smith.

  19 – Peter Raleigh: reproduced with kind permission of his family.

  20 – Rolf Rünkel: reproduced with kind permission of his family.

  21 – Armstead Snow Motor

  22 – Lord Louis Mountbatten: © Corbis.

  23 – J. D. Bernal: photograph by Lettice Ramsey, reproduced with kind permission of her grandson Stephen Burch.

  24 – Solly Zuckerman: © The Royal Society.

  25 – Geoffrey Pyke, 1940s: courtesy of the Geoffrey Pyke Archive.

  26 – Vannevar Bush: © Getty Images.

  27 – Churchill and Mountbatten in Casablanca, 1943: © Imperial War Museum.

  28, 29 – Two photographs of work on Habbakuk at Lake Louise: courtesy of National Research Council Canada Archives.

  30 – Churchill in his siren suit: © Imperial War Museum.

  31 – General Henry H. Arnold: reproduced with kind permission of the US Air Force.

  32, 33 – Superman ™ comic strips: © DC Comics.

  34 – The ‘MFFF’: courtesy of the Geoffrey Pyke Archive.

  35 – M-29 Weasel

  36 – Katz note: courtesy of the Geoffrey Pyke Archive.

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  I still remember the thrill of being shown into the dusty attic, in south London, which contained almost all of Geoffrey Pyke’s papers. It w
as 2008, and by my side was Pyke’s daughter-in-law, Janet. The sight before me was a biographer’s dream – papers which had not been touched for decades gathered together in bulging bin liners, wasp-strewn trunks and khaki folders fastened long ago with pins. Not only did Geoffrey Pyke write prolifically but he tried to keep everything he put down on paper. My greatest debt in writing this book is to Janet Pyke and her family for allowing me to see these papers and for providing assistance and encouragement over the last six years.

  Just months after I decided to write this life of Pyke, MI5 released almost all of its papers on him to the National Archives in Kew. I am grateful both to the Security Service for choosing to do so at this particular moment and to the staff at the National Archives, particularly Ed Hampshire. I’d also like to acknowledge the assistance I received at the British Library, the Lambeth Archive, Nuffield College Library, the new defunct newspaper library at Colindale, Cambridge University Library, the Archive Centre at King’s College, Cambridge, the National Archives and Library of Congress in Washington DC and the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library at Hyde Park, New York State. Michael Meredith at Eton College Library, Glyn Hughes at the National Meteorological Archive, Catherine Wise at the Cambridge Union Society, John Entwistle at the Reuters Archive, Cindy Tsegmid and Lucy Arnold at the Leeds University Archive, Dr G. E. Edwards at Pembroke College, Steven Leclair at the National Research Council Canada in Ottawa and Katharine Thomson at the Churchill Archives Centre in Cambridge were equally helpful.

  Further assistance, for which I am indebted, came from Bernd Barth-Rainer, Peter Morris, Georgina Ferry, Michael Weatherburn, Jeremy Lewis, Paul Collins, Jared Bond, Jonathan Ray, Janet Sayers, Kevin Morgan, Gordon Corera, Thomas Rünkel, Reinhard Müller, Charles Faringdon, John Monson, Amir Sam, John Betteridge, Philip Womack, Lindsay Merriman, Hugo Macpherson, Sarah and Tom Carter, Robin Lane Fox, George Weidenfeld, Artemis Cooper, John Julius Norwich, Leonora Lichfield, Harriet Crawley, Dickie Wallis, Cutler Cook, Alexander Kan, Jeremy Bigwood, Andrew Lownie, Nigel West, Boris Jardine, Nicolas Smith, Karen Ganilsy, Stephen Raleigh, Anthony Hentschel and Charles Leadbeater.

  Jonathan Conway showed tenacity and skill in helping to shape the outline of this book. Trevor Dolby at Preface has been hugely supportive throughout and great fun to work with. Will Sulkin was an extraordinarily thoughtful editor. John Sugar and Rose Tremlett at Preface have both been immensely helpful. Thanks also to my dad, for his feedback, and to Bea, my sister, to whom this book is dedicated and who has been, from the start, full of imaginative advice.

  Finally my love and thanks to the two women in my life, Helena and our daughter Matilda, the latter for splashing me each evening at bathtime, the former for her unending love, silliness and unconditional encouragement. I can’t imagine doing any of this without you – you make the whole thing worthwhile.

  INDEX

  The page references in this index correspond to the printed edition from which this ebook was created. To find a specific word or phrase from the index, please use the search feature of your ebook reader.

  Entries in italics indicate photographs.

  abdication crisis, 1936 168–71

  Aberdeen Free Press, the 97

  ‘ABO’ (Soviet mole) 410

  Acland, Sir Richard 222, 225, 292

  Adams, Harry 175, 210

  Adams, Vyvyan 292

  Addison’s Disease 403–4, 405, 425, 437–8

  Admiralty 13, 102, 242, 243, 247, 264, 344, 355, 359, 360, 361, 362, 363, 376, 378, 381, 393–4

  Aid Spain Movement 172, 173

  Aid to Russia Fund 256

  Air Ministry 210

  Aircraft Shop Stewards National Council 210

  Aleutian Islands 382

  Alexander, A. V. 242, 243

  Aliens War Service Department 233–4

  Amalgamated Engineers Union (AEU) 209–10

  Amalgamated Society of Woodcutting Machinists 176, 209–10

  American Army see US Army

  American Communist Party 414

  American Institute of Public Opinion 192, 199

  Amery, John 242

  Amery, Leo 222, 223, 225, 241–2, 243–4, 245, 249, 254, 262, 381, 426

  ‘Amiens Dispatches’, 1914 20

  Anchluss, 1938 184, 200, 333

  Andrew, Christopher 221, 326, 411

  Angell, Norman 190

  anti-Semitism 119, 158–67, 170, 174, 176, 181, 200–1, 259, 326, 404, 413, 414, 426, 428, 430

  Arendt, Hannah 227

  Armstead Snow Motor 239–40, 240, 274, 300

  Armstrong, H. E. 132–3, 434

  Arnold, General Henry H. 368–9, 368

  Ascension Island 353

  Ashley, Edwina 247

  Asquith, Herbert 97

  Associated Equipment Company (‘AEC’) 209–10

  Association of Scientific Workers 381, 392

  Astbury, Peter 408

  Astor, David 290, 413

  Atlantic, Battle of the, 1939–45 331–2, 333–4, 345, 346, 359, 366, 367, 370, 372, 393, 432

  Attlee, Clement 168

  Austria 127, 184, 200, 281, 330, 333, 335, 348, 350

  Austria-Hungary 16, 17, 67

  Axis Powers 191, 282

  Azores 366–7

  B-Dienst 366

  Bacon, Major 324–5

  Bagot, Milicent 256, 257–8, 259–60, 287, 290–1, 292, 293, 325, 342, 409, 410, 413

  Baker, Lettice 138

  Baldwin, Stanley 168, 172, 244

  Balfour Declaration, 1917 165, 242

  Ball, George 318

  Banff National Park, Canada 347–8, 356

  Barbarossa, Operation, 1941 226, 232, 233

  Basque Children’s Committee 172

  BBC 186, 192, 205–6, 212, 220, 233, 234, 270, 397, 398, 402–3, 411

  Beaverbrook, Lord 343

  Beddington, Jack 157

  Beit, Sir Albert 165

  Bell, Tommy 422, 425

  Benedikt, Friedl 388

  Berlin 16, 17, 19, 21, 22, 23, 30, 32, 33, 34–43, 44, 50, 55, 56, 57, 63, 71–5, 89, 94, 95, 98, 109, 136, 141, 185, 203, 205, 206, 207, 208, 215, 226, 258, 259, 293, 413, 425, 434

  Bernal, J. D. ‘Sage’ 333, 345, 348, 381; appearance 269, 270, 271; background 270; bemoans British ruling class attitude towards risk taking 270; Brains Trust 270; as part of GP’s Cambridge circle of friends 141; Combined Operations, role at 269, 270–1, 272, 287, 302–3; Communist Party member 270; feud with GP 389–90, 396; GP consults on Combined Operations salary 255; on GP’s genius 3; on GP’s solution to problem of plane measuring it’s own drift 263; Habbakuk and 345, 346, 352, 353–4, 355, 356, 357–8, 359, 360, 362–3, 364, 373–4, 375, 376, 396; India, asked to go to 377–8; Jewishness 270, 426; Margaret Gardiner and 387; MI5 suggest Mountbatten drop from Combined Operations 327, 342; Research Experimental Headquarters work 270; VIAS and 174, 175, 176; warns GP on Whitehall attitudes 244

  Betjeman, John 157

  Bevan, Aneurin 394

  Beveridge, Sir William 394

  Bismarck 332

  Bletchley Park 366

  Bloomsbury, London 110, 124, 134, 172, 174, 184,217, 279

  Bloomsbury Group 110–11, 134, 154

  Blunt, Anthony 6, 327, 408, 412, 425

  Blunt, Bishop of Bradford, Dr Alfred 167, 168

  Bogue-class escort carriers 366

  Bourne, Major-General 242, 243

  Bragg, Sir Lawrence 348, 361

  Brierley, William 130

  Britain by Mass-Observation 200

  British Expeditionary Force (BEF) 20

  British Guiana 353

  British Security Coordination (BSC) 297, 330

  British Social Attitudes Survey 430

  British Union of Fascists 219

  Brooke, Field Marshal Sir Alan 275, 276, 339, 340, 343, 367–8, 369, 383

  Brooke, Rupert 13

  Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute 333

  Brown, Andrew 270

  Buchan, John 108, 219<
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  Buchenwald Concentration Camp 229

  Buckatzsch, E. J. 283

  Burgess, Guy 6, 272, 300, 407, 408, 409–10, 412, 421

  Burton, Lal 203, 206

  Bush, Dr Vannevar 299, 313, 313, 314–15, 317, 318, 373–4, 383, 426

  Cabinet Office 290, 394

  Cairncross, John 408

  Cambridge 125, 127, 130, 132, 134, 135, 137, 140–1, 150–1, 158, 174, 178

  Cambridge Apostles 125

  Cambridge Heretics 12–14, 16, 24, 49, 387

  Cambridge Magazine 13, 22, 24, 49, 104–5, 109, 111, 121–2, 140, 420

  Cambridge Review 24

  Cambridge Scientists Anti-War Group 172

  Cambridge Spies 288, 407, 410 see also under individual spy name

  Cambridge Union 24, 48

  Cambridge University 7, 11, 12–14, 22, 24, 40, 42, 48–9, 50, 100–2, 104, 108, 109, 119, 129–30, 138, 140, 164–5, 170, 172, 183, 188, 206, 213, 272, 288, 348, 349, 361, 387, 407, 410 see also Pyke, Geoffrey: Cambridge University and under individual college name

  Campbell, Sir Malcolm 262

  Canada 4, 44, 223, 244, 274, 278, 309, 310, 311–12, 315, 319, 232, 330, 335, 343, 344, 345, 346–8, 349, 350, 351, 352, 353, 354, 359, 360–1, 362, 370, 373, 375, 382, 383, 388, 424, 430

  Canadian Army 4, 244, 274, 278, 309, 310, 311–12, 323, 382, 424, 430

  Canadian Department of Finance 347

  Canadian Special Forces 4, 323, 424, 430

  Canadian War Committee 361

  Canetti, Elias 4, 255, 388

  Carter, Bobby 230, 231–2, 388, 389

  Carter, Deborah 231–2, 232, 388, 389

  Carter, Tom 231

  Casablanca conference, 1943 340, 351

  Chadwick, James 52–3

  Chamberlain, Sir Neville 186, 214, 222, 244, 285, 360, 417

  Chesterton, G.K. 13, 331

  Chicago Tribune 108

  Chubb, Margaret (wife) 111, 111, 112, 122–3, 123, 124, 125–8, 137, 138–9, 149, 153–4, 158, 388, 400, 402

  Churchill, Winston 241, 261, 273, 295, 327, 364; Amiens Dispatches, reaction to 20; Battle of the Atlantic and 331, 332, 346; becomes Prime Minister 222; Dieppe raid and 339; First World War, on outbreak of 16; GP’s projects in general, on 3–4, 273; Habbakuk and 338, 341–2, 344, 346, 351, 359, 360, 362, 364, 365, 366, 368–9, 376; Harry Hopkins and 275–6, 277, 320; internment of ‘enemy aliens’ and 221–2; Operation Jupiter and 308, 365; MD1 and 273; Mountbatten, relationship with 248, 276, 339–40, 340, 341–2, 351, 372, 377; Nye and 261; Plough and 242, 273–4, 277, 278, 293, 295, 305, 308, 313, 320; Pykrete and 368–9, 370, 436; second front, reaction to US case for 275–6, 308, 309; South Africa war correspondent 21; on ‘U-boat peril’ 346

 

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