On the declaration of war on 9 September 1939, Domvile closed down the Link:
‘The Link is closed down on the declaration of war. That was essential. The King’s enemies become our enemies. We have done our best for better Anglo-German relations and with the outbreak of hostilities there was no more to be done. All the branches are closed.’
A number of reports in the newspapers pointed to some of Link members being detained.
Although this public statement suggested Domvile was severing any links with pro-Germans and Fascists (‘the King’s enemies’) the truth was that he was still involved. The Security Service was aware of two letters from Domvile to Luttman-Johnson, connected to the pro-German groups, Information and Policy and Christian Settlement in Europe. The first letter on 13 September 1939 was to invite him to a meeting in London at Captain Gordon-Canning’s flat. Canning, an extreme fascist and pro-German wanted an accommodation with Hitler. The second letter, on 24 September, to Luttman-Johnson, who did not come to the meeting because he was in Scotland, confirms the meeting happened and comments, ‘the meeting was a great success’ and names those attending as Drummond, Canning, Carroll and others, all pro-German and Fascists. In the first letter, Domvile also expressed the opinion that the war was opposed to the best interests of the Empire. He referred to small pro-German groups, such as Information and Policy, and told Luttman-Johnson that he wanted to ‘rope them all in’. His view expressed in that letter claimed that Germany had ‘checkmated’ the government. The letters to Luttman-Johnson were of great concern and formed part of the case against Domvile. The letters stated, ‘I am having some very interesting negotiations with Oswald Mosley Ramsay and Norman Hay ... Our plans are maturing well.’
Hay was the editor of the pro-German group Information and Policy which we have already noted was a means for German propaganda in Britain.
These comments do seem to implicate Domvile in some sort of ‘plan’ involving three pro-German fascists. Domvile in his diary writes of this meeting on 19 September 1936, ‘A new Council formed. Pudd [his wife] and I are on it’ and of the meeting states, ‘what might become an important meeting’. It is therefore not surprising that by late September 1939, the Special Branch were particularly alarmed by the activity of the Right Club in England. Captain Ramsay and his club were under the closest observation by MI5. A letter from MI5 of 22 September 1939 carried a warning:
‘The activity of the pro-Fascist and anti-Semitic Right Club, of which he [Captain Ramsay] is the leader, is centred principally upon the contacting of sympathisers, especially among officers in the Armed Forces, and by the spreading by personal talks of the Club’s ideals. The talk has now reached the stage of suggestions that a military coup d’état is feasible.’
On 1 November 1939, Domvile wrote a letter to Carroll which also raised suspicions at MI5. In it he wrote, ‘I have a lot to tell you that I cannot write.’
The newspapers were now filled with anger at those who were pro-German, appeasers or pacifists. Domvile could not be in any doubt about the mood of the country nor the terrible conditions in Poland after the Nazi invasion. One report in the Hastings and St Leonard’s Gazette serves as an example:
‘Half the world pleaded with them. Wantonly the Nazi authorities rejected the plea and set their military machine in motion. Warsaw is in ruins. Poland has ceased to exist. She has joined Czechoslovakia in the blood sacrifice demanded by the insatiable devils of domination.’
It was also on 1 November 1939 that Domvile wrote to Olive Baker and referred to ‘these hard luck stories of lying Jews’, which added to the charge of anti-Semitism against him. The Security Service was also aware of a letter of 9 November from Domvile to Luttman-Johnson. In this letter he wrote:
‘Many thanks for yours. CEC [Cola Carroll] is OK. Give us the address.
Be careful of anyone called Drummond, not the bulldog breed. There is a lot of agent provocateurs going on. True to form the Government is frightened. Many details in a paper coming out tomorrow, Information and Policy. We have regular meetings once a fortnight, about a dozen of us discuss the situation. I wish you could come and meet old friends.’
A security service report from an MI5 agent who was employed by Mosley’s BUF ‘since its inception’, reported on these meetings. He reported that both Sir Barry and Lady Domvile (who was also a member of the ‘inner circle’ of the BUF) had attended the meetings and the ‘conversation was little short of treasonable’. MI5 reported on a letter of 5 December 1939 when Domvile wrote to Carroll. He had written:
‘I am not in B.C.C.S [British Council for Christian Settlement in Europe] though always ready to help unofficially. It does them no good if I join because the press call it a disguised Link ... I lunched with Gordon-Canning [a leading Fascist] last week and Newsham [Editor of Truth - a British nationalist newspaper] was there.’
This again caused concern and indicated that Domvile who had stated that he had given up the Link activities was in fact still active. The Security Service used this as evidence that Domvile was acting against British interests and thus deserved to be detained in Brixton.
As Christmas 1939 approached, there could be no misunderstanding about Germany’s actions and the cruelty which Hitler was afflicting on occupied territories. Newspapers filled columns with accounts and the word ‘holocaust’ was beginning to be used. The Express and Echo was graphic:
‘The murder of St Stephen, the massacre of the innocents, the holocaust of Poland, the torpedoing of merchant ships, the prospect of children gasping for life ... Quite apart from actual war, there was enough to make the angels weep before Hitler brewed his hell’s broth.’
Britain was in no mood for pro-German sympathisers. Against this backdrop, Lady Domvile on 28 December 1939 wrote to a Fascist friend of ‘the coming year which I hope one prays will be a year of fulfilment for BUF’. The following day, a Special Branch officer sat down to write a letter to MI5, which he initials ASN. It was regarding the Domviles’ son, Compton. The letter noted that he had left the Royal Naval College ‘but the reason for his leaving was not known’. What was known was that Compton Domvile was due to be called up for military training and was to report for a medical examination on 4 January 1940. However, he had ‘boasted he will obtain exemption from such training, on medical grounds, by producing false certificates’. The writer reports that Compton is ‘a friend of Oswald Mosley’ and had said that he had ‘received letters from Germany via Switzerland, from Unity Mitford’. The letter stated that Compton had travelled widely in Germany and had stayed with Himmler and other Nazi leaders. ‘He was also active with his father in the work of the Link’. The letter ended by accusing him of being a German sympathiser and was ‘a danger to this country’. He would eventually be detained under 18B. The remainder of December of 1939 saw continuing press coverage of the ‘holocaust in Europe’ and the news of the establishment of concentration camps and of the ill-treatment of Jews by the Nazis. Whilst the use of ‘holocaust’ by the press at this time concerned the terrible destruction in Europe, the word would later take on a more sinister meaning when the Nazis moved from the harassment and detention of Jews to their ‘final solution’ in 1942.
January 1940 saw Sir Barry writing more letters, one to Kenneth Duffield, who he later claimed he did not know nor could he remember writing to him.
In that letter, Domvile used phrases that again caused concern with the Security Service, for example, ‘I am in close touch with Oswald Mosley ... our plans are maturing well.’ In another letter he had written, ‘I am having some interesting negotiations with Sir Oswald Mosley, Captain Ramsay and Mr Norman Hay.’
In January, Naval Intelligence were concerned about the admiral writing to the pro-Fascist Truth newspaper. In December of 1939 he had complained in one about Churchill calling the German navy ‘baby killers’ and appeared to offer support to the German seaman involved. Three readers had responded attacking Domvile and quoting specific instances when the German navy ha
d attacked unmanned ships including a hospital ship and they had also bombarded Scarborough civilians. Naval intelligence felt strongly that Domvile ‘approved of such attacks’. They further accused him of being a propagandist for Germany and believed he should be ‘controlled’ using the 18B Defence Regulations.
Further observations of Oswald Mosley by MI5 found him holding a ‘secret meeting’ on 7 February 1940 with Fascists and among the attendees was Admiral Domvile. This meeting is confirmed in Domvile’s diary entry for that day. MI5 also reported that Lady Domvile was attending fortnightly meetings of ‘the inner cabinet’ of Mosley’s BUF and that she was paying ‘the most prominent portion’ of the salary of a BUF activist called Hammond. Further concern was raised by a letter from Lord Tavistock that was personally signed by him and sent to a number of people, including Domvile. It read:
‘Dear Domvile,
‘In view of a most important development which gives grounds for a belief that the war could be immediately ended on reasonable terms, on which I have already been in touch with the Government, I am most anxious to have your advice.
‘I would greatly value it if you could attend a small strictly private meeting here (Belgrave Square) on Tuesday February the 13th at 2.45pm, when I will place information before you for your consideration and discussion.
‘Yours sincerely ‘Tavistock’
This letter was written against a background of Tavistock’s pro-German sympathies. MI5 were monitoring him and their files reflect their great concerns:
‘Throughout the winter of 1939/40 he was actively engaged in propaganda which had as its object a negotiated peace. This propaganda was undertaken through the medium of the British Council for Christian Settlement in Europe. In the early part of 1940 Lord Tavistock, as the Duke of Bedford then was, travelled to Ireland to establish contact with the German Government through the German Legation in Dublin with a view to negotiating peace terms. So obsessed with his aims has he become that he publicly blames the British Government for the war, makes excuses for Hitler and for Nazi methods and atrocities and maintains that the only hope for this country lies in a negotiated peace.’
They gave their frank opinion about Tavistock:
‘Having regard to the known sympathies of the Duke, he is a person who, if there was an invasion of this country, would be likely to cause alarm and despondency by public utterances and to weaken the will of his countrymen to resist the invader. In the event of the Duke falling into the hands of the enemy he would be likely to be set up as a gauleiter [a party leader of a regional branch of the Nazi Party] or the head of a puppet British Government.’
Guy Liddell wrote, ‘Tavistock of course is connected with the British Council for Christian settlement in Europe, which is a mixture of the Link, Nordic League and BUF and a most mischievous body.’ It was no wonder therefore that Domvile was under suspicion for attending a gathering of such people.
It was also in February 1940 that the Admiralty was actively considering a prosecution of Domvile for the letters he was writing, seemingly criticising naval activity. It was considered that he was influencing ‘public opinion in a manner likely to be prejudicial to the defence of the Realm or the efficient prosecution of the war’. They also wanted to remove him from the naval list and remove any retirement benefits from him. It was felt by the Government that such a path may not be possible but that a charge of ‘treasonable activity’ might be considered. It was eventually decided not to proceed down either route.
Domvile was also still writing letters that raised concern. In April 1940, he wrote to Olive Baker. In the letter, he refers to a mention of the German propaganda in Parliament as a ‘jolly advert’. He went on in the letter to say, ‘There’s nothing to be done until the general clean-up comes – we have sunk to such depths of degradation and depravity under our Jewish teachers that nothing can surprise me.’ He continues to give her information on the wavelength he uses to listen to the German broadcasts and remarks that ‘it’s grand’. The file shows underlining of this phrase by MI5. In the same month, MI5 also had a report of a ‘secret’ meeting at the BUF H.Q. which Domvile had attended. He had secretly entered the meeting by a ‘specially cleared passage’ and was part of a discussion on a ‘purity campaign’ that he would lead with Pitt-Rivers. The latter was also pro-Nazi and during the war Pitt-Rivers was a supporter of the appeasement of Hitler and wrote to him a personal letter of congratulations on his annexation of the Sudetenland in 1938. Domvile’s continued connections with fascists raised further con-cerns. The Security Service had evidence that Captain Ramsay was planning to have his Right Club members infiltrated into every right wing, Fascist group. He was particularly targeting Domvile’s organisation, the Link and Mosley’s BUF. Ramsay’s belief, as we have seen, was that they should be ready if they had to take over Britain and provide a new government.
On 1 May 1940, when Captain Ramsay was interviewed by a Fascist journalist, he stated ‘I should welcome civil war with shots in the streets’. The Security Service surveillance of Ramsay threw up further associations between Domvile and Walter Bernard Laurence, a barrister in the service of the Duke of Bedford, who was a member of the Link and very pro-German. He was actively anti-government because of Churchill’s policies on Palestine. There was also a connection between Ramsay and Domvile and Mary Sophie Allen. She was an extreme Fascist, anti-Semitic and a great friend of Germany. She had many German friends and had actually been introduced to Hitler. She was a former militant suffragette and during the Great War she was involved in a volunteer force, Nina Boyle’s Women Police Volunteers, as second in command. This became the Women’s Police Service and was accepted by the government for the duration of the war.
After the war it, was expected to disband but Sophie Allen assumed command in 1920 and became ‘commandant’. The very militaristic uniform was her own design and she wore it, as her standard dress, for the rest of her life. Despite being arrested at one point for wearing it, the government accepted it as ‘harmless’ and even used her to go to Germany and advise on the policing of soldiers in the Rhine area. The name of the group was changed to Women’s Auxiliary Service. She travelled the world in her uniform and was accepted as a representative of the British police, even though she never was. Eventually, she became an embarrassment and the Security Service took a greater interest in her. She publicly admired Hitler and was suspected of spying for Germany during the war but nothing was ever proved. Her Fascist activities with the BUF became more public and extreme. She wrote for Action, the BUF’s newspaper. Because of her previous militant attitudes, she raised concerns as to what activities she might get up to, in terms of her pro-German stance. Because of this background, the Domviles’ association with her brought them further under suspicion. The Security Service’s net was closing in on extremists and on 22 May 1940, Captain Ramsay was put into Brixton Prison.
Around the same time, the Domviles had decided to lie low and moved out of their normal residence in Roehampton to go and stay with their Fascist co-worker, Captain Pitt-Rivers, in Devon. Their arrangements were also a cause to concern the authorities. An agent visiting the Roehampton house found the chief maid un-cooperative as to the Domviles’ whereabouts until a warrant was produced. She then informed them that she was told not to reveal where they had gone and all mail was to be put in an envelope and addressed to Captain Pitt-Rivers in Devon. The Admiral would subsequently write a testy letter to the War Minister complaining about liberty and freedom.
Information was reaching the Security Service about Domvile speaking in defeatist terms about the war. One report from The Star & Garter Home at Richmond, where Domvile was a governor, was particularly alarming for MI5. Colonel Edward Gowlland, a distinguished retired officer who had served his country with great bravery, earning a DSO and who now was the director of the home, was prepared to testify to a conversation Domvile had had with a resident. In it, the admiral had stated that ‘Hitler was going to win the war’ but no one was to worr
y because he would ‘bring the Duke of Windsor over as king and everything would be much better than it is now’. This was not an idle throwaway remark. Count Albrecht Bernstorff of the German Embassy had been reported by Bruce Lockhart to Foreign Office officials, speaking in 1937, that ‘Germans still believe he [The Duke of Windsor] will come back as a social-equalising King, will inaugurate an English form of Fascism and alliance with Germany’. Domvile was a Royalist and believed in an Empire ruled from England and harboured this dream of an anti-Semitic Empire based on fascist lines. The return of the king as a dictator would have suited him. Indeed, the king admired the Italian leadership under Mussolini and supported the invasion of Abyssinia in 1935.
Hitler's Munich Man Page 8