Agent Provocateur for Hitler or Churchill?: The Mysterious Life of Stella Lonsdale
There have been many remarkable women who served British Intelligence during the Second World War. One whose dubious claim to have worked for them is a fascinating tale involving three marriages – the first, to a spurious White Russian prince; the second to a playboy-turned-criminal involved in a major jewellery robbery in the heart of London’s Mayfair in the late 1930s. After the war she became romantically involved with a well-known British Fascist, but finally married another notorious criminal whom she had met earlier during the war. The descriptions variously ascribed to her ranged from ‘remarkable’ and ‘quite ravishing’ to ‘…a woman whose loose living would make her an object of shame on any farm-yard’. Until now, very little has been recorded about Stella Lonsdale’s life. She doesn’t even merit a mention in the two official histories of MI5, even though she managed to tie them up in knots for years. This book will explore the role this strange woman may or may not have played in working for British Intelligence, the French Deuxième Bureau, or the Abwehr – German military intelligence – during the Second World War, using her MI5 files as a primary source.
1138891647
Agent Provocateur for Hitler or Churchill?: The Mysterious Life of Stella Lonsdale
There have been many remarkable women who served British Intelligence during the Second World War. One whose dubious claim to have worked for them is a fascinating tale involving three marriages – the first, to a spurious White Russian prince; the second to a playboy-turned-criminal involved in a major jewellery robbery in the heart of London’s Mayfair in the late 1930s. After the war she became romantically involved with a well-known British Fascist, but finally married another notorious criminal whom she had met earlier during the war. The descriptions variously ascribed to her ranged from ‘remarkable’ and ‘quite ravishing’ to ‘…a woman whose loose living would make her an object of shame on any farm-yard’. Until now, very little has been recorded about Stella Lonsdale’s life. She doesn’t even merit a mention in the two official histories of MI5, even though she managed to tie them up in knots for years. This book will explore the role this strange woman may or may not have played in working for British Intelligence, the French Deuxième Bureau, or the Abwehr – German military intelligence – during the Second World War, using her MI5 files as a primary source.
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Agent Provocateur for Hitler or Churchill?: The Mysterious Life of Stella Lonsdale

Agent Provocateur for Hitler or Churchill?: The Mysterious Life of Stella Lonsdale

by David Tremain
Agent Provocateur for Hitler or Churchill?: The Mysterious Life of Stella Lonsdale

Agent Provocateur for Hitler or Churchill?: The Mysterious Life of Stella Lonsdale

by David Tremain

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Overview

There have been many remarkable women who served British Intelligence during the Second World War. One whose dubious claim to have worked for them is a fascinating tale involving three marriages – the first, to a spurious White Russian prince; the second to a playboy-turned-criminal involved in a major jewellery robbery in the heart of London’s Mayfair in the late 1930s. After the war she became romantically involved with a well-known British Fascist, but finally married another notorious criminal whom she had met earlier during the war. The descriptions variously ascribed to her ranged from ‘remarkable’ and ‘quite ravishing’ to ‘…a woman whose loose living would make her an object of shame on any farm-yard’. Until now, very little has been recorded about Stella Lonsdale’s life. She doesn’t even merit a mention in the two official histories of MI5, even though she managed to tie them up in knots for years. This book will explore the role this strange woman may or may not have played in working for British Intelligence, the French Deuxième Bureau, or the Abwehr – German military intelligence – during the Second World War, using her MI5 files as a primary source.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781526779632
Publisher: Pen & Sword Books Limited
Publication date: 09/30/2021
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 296
File size: 21 MB
Note: This product may take a few minutes to download.

Table of Contents

Author's Note vii

Acknowledgements viii

Abbreviations and Acronyms x

Introduction xvi

Chapter 1 The Beginnings of a Covert Life 1

Chapter 2 The Mayfair Playboy 9

Chapter 3 'Some Interesting Work' 17

Chapter 4 Capture and Recruitment 21

Chapter 5 'Pat O'Leary' 29

Chapter 6 The Gifted Liar 39

Chapter 7 The Man in Grey 47

Chapter 8 Flight from France 51

Chapter 9 The RENÉ Enigma 55

Chapter 10 'Keeping the Lady on Tap' 68

Chapter 11 Telegrams and Telephone Checks 91

Chapter 12 Major Masterman's Report 97

Chapter 13 'Damn the Torpedoes!' 100

Chapter 14 Jean Castelain 107

Chapter 15 A Parting of the Ways 112

Chapter 16 Declarations of Love 118

Chapter 17 'A Person of Hostile Associations' 121

Chapter 18 'Well, There is Only One Lie …' 129

Chapter 19 Aylesbury or Bust! 138

Chapter 20 A Very Cheap Specimen of a Human Being' 146

Chapter 21 The 'Pot Calling the Kettle Black' 156

Chapter 22 Stella's Circle 162

Chapter 23 The Advisory Committee 168

Chapter 24 'If I Had Been a Nasty Piece of Work 176

Chapter 25 'A Fog of Falsehood and Misrepresentation' 184

Chapter 26 The Advisory Committees Report 191

Chapter 27 "The Woman Who Laughs Like a Horse 198

Chapter 28 Stella's Statement to the Abwehr 208

Chapter 29 The Sunday Express Affair 217

Chapter 30 'A Champagne-loving Brunette' 234

Afterword 237

Appendix I Mrs Lonsdale's Secret Ink & Code 241

Appendix II The 'Siegfried' Letters 243

Appendix III Notes for Purposes of Investigation in France 249

Notes 252

Selected Bibliography 277

Index 279

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