MI5 in the Great War

by Nigel West

  Melin was tried on the charges of having twice come to England with intent to collect information, of having in his possession lemon juice for the purpose of unlawful communication of naval and military information, and of having attempted to collect information by recording the names of units of His Majesty’s Forces. The summary of evidence was taken on 4 August; he was tried by court martial on 20 and 21 August, found guilty and shot on 10 September 1915.

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  At the end of June 1915 the Censor took exception to a note written on one side of the sheet and referring vaguely to business and a journey that might take place in a fortnight’s time. Posted in London, this letter was addressed to Mr B. Goedhardt, 147 von Blankenburgestraat, The Hague. The Censor ironed the back and discovered a secret message conveying information about the Thames defences, Chatham Dockyard and so forth. A ‘first’ letter was also referred to.

  The address was put on check for letters and telegrams on 2 July; it was circulated to the ports with instructions to arrest any traveller on whom it was found. On 13 July, a postcard containing another secret message and addressed to the same street and house but to the name Niendecker, spelt also Niendieker and Niendikker, was intercepted. It was signed Lopez.

  The signatures of the first letter, ‘van Nordensund’ and ‘Sven Person’ were interpreted: ‘Your worker from the North’, and the investigation started on the theory that the writer was a Scandinavian sailor. At the same time enquiries in Holland established the existence at the address of a man named T. Niendiker, and that Goedhardt was an alias. The clue of the signature proved to some extent false, but on the 20th another letter in the same handwriting and also containing information was intercepted. It was signed ‘Belmonte’ and bore the address 38 Greek Street. Both signature and address were false. Finally, a typewritten letter, headed 1 Margaret Street and signed ‘Tommy’ begging for a remittance of £50 resulted in tracing the writer. The police called at the address, discovered that a man and his wife lodging there had not yet filled up their registration form, gained access to the room and identified the handwriting on a label as that of the writer of the letters.

  Albert Meyer and his wife Katherine were arrested 30 August. He was by a turn hotel-waiter, cook, tailor, commercial traveller, and was in all probability a German. He claimed to have been born in Constantinople of Danish parents, but the Danish embassy subsequently could find no trace of his birth. Everything about Meyer was false; in business and in the lodging he used the alias Marcelle, and for business purposes he gave an accommodation address, 96 Shaftesbury Avenue, at which place he called for his letters. Among his papers were found testimonials of his work as a waiter dating from September 1910 to August 1914, but these do not agree with the records of his movements as shown by the books of the Geneva Association. From these books it would appear that Meyer came to England from Hamburg on 25 August 1911, went on 14 March 1912 to Harrogate and returned on 22 August to London. On 17 October he took his membership book saying he was going to Spain and returned to London on 6 June 1914, saying he had come from Nice. On 24 July he took his book saying he was going to India, but it would appear he went instead to Blackpool. On 10 August he brought his book back but fetched it away again on 30 March 1915, saying he was going to Copenhagen. The testimonials in Meyer’s possession contained no reference to his first visit to England but showed that he had been in Seville, Spain, from October 1911 to June 1913, and in Pamplona from July 1913 to May 1914.

  These facts are certain: early in August, Meyer was stopped at Folkestone as he was trying to embark and detained as a German. He was interned until 25 or 29 September when he succeeded in convincing the authorities that he was an Ottoman subject. He came to London and with Katherine Gray took a room at 40 Albany Street. He stated then that he was receiving 30 shillings a week from his father.

  In March he applied for a permit to go to work with his father who owned, he said, the Hotel Bristol, Copenhagen. He produced a birth certificate and the application was granted. But he never got further than Holland, whence he wrote postcards to Katherine Gray bidding her call for correspondence at some address in the Haymarket. She wrote to him on 14 April asking him to return. He came back on 13 May, married her on the 20th and was turned out of his lodging owing to their joint misconduct on the 26th. He then moved to 134 Albany Street, although he had stated he was going to Edinburgh as a waiter. On 20 July, the Meyers moved to 1 Margaret Street.

  Meyer had registered under the National Registration Act giving his occupation as a traveller. Among his effects were found a letter of appointment as a picture vendor made out to J. Smith by a genuine firm of printers in Amsterdam; a letter of appointment as a cigar vendor together with other letters from the Amsterdamsche Sigarenfabrick of van Hulst; a letter from Siegfried Meyer, who purported to be his father, from the Hotel Bristol, Copenhagen; a catalogue of various brands of cigars; the blotting-paper which seemed to have been that used in writing the letter signed Tommy; scent; three pens, and a small bottle of green ink with a small brush. A search of receipts for money orders disclosed the fact that on 23 July, Meyer had received £10 by telegraphic order from van Yselmuide, 13 Sleephellingstr, The Hague, and after his arrest sums of £40, £10 and £50 were sent by Niendiker.

  Meyer was charged on 5 November with having attempted to communicate information, with having used secret ink, and with having attempted to communicate with a spy. Meyer applied to be defended by Crussmann but this was not allowed.

  At the trial, evidence was given that Meyer had sent correct information and that F. Niendiker was a wholesale tobacconist at Nieuwe Haven, Rotterdam, who resided at 147 van Blankenburgstraat, The Hague, and was in touch with The Hague Secret Service. As regards secret writing it would seem that Meyer confined himself to the use of lemon juice, but that he had the materials for developing another process which was doubtless the one in use by his employers.

  He was found guilty on all the charges and sentenced to be shot. He was executed on 2 December. There was no evidence against Katherine Meyer, but she was a woman of bad morals and it was thought that Meyer had obtained some of his information through her associations. She had been released from prison before Meyer’s trial, but as she failed to notify her change of address she was again arrested and sentenced to three weeks’ imprisonment on 27 October 1915, and in December she was recommended for internment. The order was made in January 1916 and upheld by the Advisory Committee. Eventually she was removed to a lunatic asylum.

  Of these agents Robert Rosenthal was in direct touch with Berlin, and Josef Marks was reported to have been sent out by Berlin. Ludovico Hurwitz y Zender and de Rysbach may have been recruited by Hilmar Dierks, who went frequently to Norway, to which country they sent their reports. Ernest Melin was one of Dierks’ men but he had transferred to the Wesel Bureau. Carl Meyer is doubtful, as Niendiker, to whom he sent his reports, was, in 1915, working apparently for Antwerp and Wesel and was connected with Frankfurt. Niendiker’s name does not appear on the Antwerp list, but in May 1918 he undertook a confidential errand for the Antwerp branch. In August 1915, Niendiker seems to have replaced Dierks in Holland and to have been engaging spies on a pretext of having some translations made. As regards the activities of these men, Rosenthal was at work as early as November 1914.

  Marks’ previous history lays him open to great suspicion; and Meyer may very well have been a professional spy. His faked testimonials, his connection with the Hotel Bristol, Copenhagen, his knowledge of Crussmann all point to his having been a spy before the war. His methods in 1915, however, are those of the Antwerp school. It will be noted that he married after he had joined the Secret Service.

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  A fourth group of enemy agents consists of those spies or would-be spies whose cases either were handed over to the Belgian government to deal with or, although not in themselves of much importance, were interesting to the bureau for some feature of the enquiry. These are Adolphe and Charles Dittmar, and the two Scherers, bot
h German, and their gang, nine in all, being a Tunisian, Israel Khiat, and two letter-carriers; an American of German origin who used the alias Kenneth Triest and Mahon; Abdon Jappe, a Dane; a Briton, May Higgs, and Edward Edwin, a Swede.

  Advice received from Mr Webber and Captain Beliard that a Belgian refugee named Pervost, formerly lock-keeper at Boesinghe, was suspect led to the arrest of this man and his two daughters at Folkestone. They carried documents proving that espionage had been going on behind the Allied lines, and they confessed to being in touch with a German agent named Dittmar. In consequence Adolphe Dittmar and his brother Charles, and two brothers named Frederick and Otto Scherer were arrested at the Christian Waiters’ Home, 48 Charlotte Street, in Soho. These Germans had come over at the outbreak of war from Belgium on the pretext of avoiding German military service; all had been placed under some restriction and one of the Dittmars had been interned for a short time and then liberated.

  Grupe and Madame Fontaine, who were also connected with the Dittmars, were arrested and the whole gang was handed over to the Belgian authorities and deported for trial abroad on 4 April 1915.

  A Belgian who was in communication with a German espionage agent named van Lodz, denounced a Tunisian Jew named Israel Khiat and indicated a source of further information about him. Khiat could not be induced to come to England but two letter-carriers Mrs Schletien and Charles Craserts, and Maurice Dupriez, all of whom had been connected with Khiat, were arrested. Information about Mrs Schletien had been received from the port officer.

  A private citizen of Cardiff received advice from a friend in America that a German, passing under the name of Lathom Mahon, had enlisted in the Naval Division and was stationed at the Crystal Palace. This was reported to the Chief Constable at Cardiff who communicated with MI5. Lathom Ramsey Mahon was found to be the assumed name of Kenneth Gustav Triest, a boy of nineteen, son of an American of German origin. He was arrested, interrogated and released, but he wrote to Baron von Schroeder offering services on behalf of Germany and the Baron handed in the letter to the authorities.

  He was re-arrested and it was proposed to try him by naval court martial. The American ambassador intervened. Triest was found to be not quite sane and was handed over to his father who took him back to America.

  On about 20 May 1915 a detective of the intelligence office, Plymouth Garrison, got in touch with Abdon Jappe, a Danish electrician, and by pretending to be contemplating illicit traffic in copper induced the man to show his hand. Jappe was arrested by order of the competent military authorities and handed over to civil custody on 29 May 1915, He carried two codes. He was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment on 2 November 1915. The action of the detectives had forestalled the bureau and improper methods of detection having been pursued, evidence of hostile association was not procurable, hence when the Home Office wished to shorten Jappe’s sentence, he could not be interned under DRR 14B. Eventually he seems to have been deported.

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  In July 1915 the Censor intercepted a letter from May Higgs, a British subject, addressed to her mother in Holland, through whom Higgs offered her services to the Germans. Three difficulties were encountered in dealing with this case: (1) the question of sex, (2) the question of mixed parentage, (3) want of co-ordination between various departments of government and between the various branches of the bureau itself.

  May Higgs was eventually found to be not a suitable subject for trial. Restriction under DRR 14B was adopted and she was entrusted to the care of relatives. Then she applied to go abroad and as it was impossible owing to her nationality to issue a no return permit, arrangements were in making to watch her and otherwise hinder her return, but before these were completed, she slipped abroad on a provisional pass from the Home Office at the end of 1916, In a very few weeks she returned, and was then interned under DRR 14B. Eventually she was sent to a convent for the duration of the war.

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  Edward Edwin, a Swedish masseur, was engaged to treat wounded soldiers at the Duke of York’s School, Dover, on 27 March 1915. For this purpose he had left a private practice which he had carried on in conjunction with Nurse A. M. Humphreys from 39 Beauchamp Road, Lavender Hill, their joint home in south-west London.

  Edwin was brought to the notice of the bureau by the intelligence officer at Dover, who had received independent statements from two wounded soldiers, Private Phillips and Private MacNaught, to the effect that Edwin had asked specific questions as to the number, organisation, etc. of British troops in Belgium and France. Edwin also wished to ascertain the position of minefields in the Channel and the measures taken to protect hospital-ships. He incited the men to desert and promised to get them out of the country if they did.

  Edwin was much interested in the sale of an ointment, Vetterim, and alleged that it would irritate a wound and so retard recovery. Wishing to advertise the ointment in the Dover Standard, he became abusive and uttered pro-German sentiments when told the advertisement could not be inserted that week.

  Edwin was arrested on a charge of espionage on 5 August but the case presented some difficulty as neither of the witnesses against him had a completely clean record. Afterwards it was discovered that Edwin had been arrested early in April for examining certain military works near Dover and that towards the end of March he had put specific questions as to the numbers and training of recruits going to France. He was tried by court martial on 2 October, found guilty on three counts of attempting to elicit information and sentenced to seven days’ imprisonment with hard labour and deportation on the expiry of his sentence. He left the United Kingdom voluntarily.

  Nurse Humphreys was allowed to go to Sweden in December 1915 but she returned destitute in September 1916, and then made ineffectual efforts to procure reconsideration of Edwin’s case.

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  In his report on the work of the Admiralstab Zweigstelle at Antwerp, Hans Eils declared that Mrs Lizzie Wertheim was the first spy sent out by that branch. It is almost certain she is the ‘Mrs Wertheimer’ alluded to in the February report and in that case her activities had begun probably in November. Mrs Wertheim’s connection with Miss Brandes forms a link between the pre-war and the war organisation of the German Secret Service, for in February 1913, Miss Brandes had been in close touch with Heddy Glauer, wife of Heinrich Grosse, and Heddy Glauer in making this confession insinuated that Miss Brandes and her sister, Mrs Claassen, were at that time engaged in espionage. In 1915, however, the Special Bureau knew nothing of such contacts, but they rightly esteemed Miss Brandes to be a dangerous agent. It is interesting to note that Miss Brandes was then working for Baron Bruno von Schroeder in connection with his charitable efforts and consequently must have been in daily contact with Adolf Evers.

  Eils also declares that Georg Breckow came to England in December 1914, which is of course possible, although there is no hint of it in the file. Other agents of the Antwerp branch who came early to England were Ernest Melin who was here from 13 to 29 January, and Haicke Janssen who came probably at the end of January. Melin afterwards transferred to the Wesel branch, but Janssen’s visit is specially interesting since it seems to have marked a turning-point in the development of German methods. Up until May 1915, Lizzie Wertheim worked for a man called Dr Brandt, who is reported as living at Dordrecht, and concerning whom nothing more seems to be known except that early in May, he wrote to her from 166 Loosduinschekade, The Hague, which connects him with Hilmar Dierks, Heinrich Grund, Hochenholz, Jan van Brandwijk, Vollrath and Cark Ritzkey. Of these men only four, Grund, who was German, Carl Ritzkey, a Russian, van Brandwijk, Dutch, and Heinrich Flores, another German, appear on the Antwerp list and are listed respectively as agents A-1, A-19, A-51 and A-68. But Richard Sanderson, alias Dierks, may possibly be connected with A-2. Carl Schroeder, a German confidential agent in Hamburg, who is described as very intelligent, energetic and the introducer of many agents and confidential agents. Even in 1915 Dierks was frequently in Hamburg and introduced many agents to the service.


  Hilmar Dierks first appears in our records in February under the name of Sanderson. Janssen came over to England on a genuine pretext, namely to receive a medal for saving life at sea. This was given to him at Liverpool on 13 February. He then visited several British ports and presumably returned to report at Antwerp. On 9 March he received a communication from ‘Hilmar Dierks’ and on the 30th the two men signed an agreement establishing a bogus firm of export and commission agents at Loosduinschekade, in The Hague. They went to live there en pension and a waiter named Olthuis took care of the rooms occupied by them. Janssen was continually away on journeys but Dierks’ part was to recruit and equip the agents sent out and to maintain correspondence with them.

  From early April 1915 onwards, telegraphic money orders seem to have been sent by Dierks. Dierks was arrested by the Dutch government in June and his wife carried on the work of paymaster under the name of Madame Cleton. In May Heinrich Flores seems to have joined the business. He was a teacher in the German school at Rotterdam, a war invalid who had returned to his pre-war occupation. Later on he is said to have taken the alias Frank and to have lived at Zwaardecroonstraat. He was in daily touch with the German consulate at Rotterdam.