{"id":2279,"date":"2021-03-29T08:30:55","date_gmt":"2021-03-29T08:30:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/?p=2279"},"modified":"2023-10-13T14:38:41","modified_gmt":"2023-10-13T14:38:41","slug":"how-poole-helped-capture-a-wartime-spy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/2021\/03\/29\/how-poole-helped-capture-a-wartime-spy\/","title":{"rendered":"How Poole helped capture a wartime spy"},"content":{"rendered":"

On 1 November 1943, a man, claiming to be refugee, arrived in Poole by flying boat and told a story of how he had escaped from a German internment camp in Occupied France.<\/p>\n

Little did he know then how short his stay in Britain would be.<\/p>\n

This was wartime Britain and ports and airports like Poole were watchful for anything suspicious. Thanks to a sharp-eyed MI5 port security officer at Poole terminal, within five months that flying boat passenger was hanged as a spy in Pentonville jail.<\/p>\n

Much of the story of the traitor, Oswald John Job, was been unearthed in The National Archives, in the \u2018KV\u2019 files released by the Security Service. Ed Perkins, author of Britain\u2019s Forgotten Traitor<\/em>, argues that there may have been a miscarriage of justice.<\/p>\n

Interned<\/h2>\n

Job, known as John, was born in London (the son of German immigrants) and grew up in the East End; married and served time abroad for his part in a gem raid.<\/p>\n

Then he abandoned his wife and young daughter.<\/p>\n

Job went to Paris where, bigamously, he married a French woman and ran two businesses, one making artificial eyes. All was going well until war broke out and soon Nazi boots were marching down the Paris boulevards. With much of France under German Occupation, Job was interned and thrown into prisons, ending up at the St Denis internment camp.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Oswald John Job (Copyright, The National Archives)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Nearly three years later, Job, who despised life behind the wire, said he was close to breakdown. Desperate, he struck a deal with the Nazis. They would free him if he agreed to return to Britain and spy for them.<\/p>\n

Arrival at Poole<\/h2>\n

Within weeks, after being taught spycraft, he arrived at Poole flying boat terminal, waiting to be interrogated in the requisitioned Poole Pottery building.<\/p>\n

It was 1 November 1943 and, in confident mood, he approached an officer. Job told him he was a special passenger because he had escaped. He was given a curt reply.<\/p>\n

\u2018Wait your turn.\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Little did he know that that security officer, Lt Desmond Burke, would later seal his fate. He was a port security officer, answerable to MI5, who had their Poole HQ at 18 High Street in what is now a Thai restaurant with solicitors\u2019 offices above.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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No. 18 High Street, Poole as it is today. During the war it was the base for MI5\u2019s Port Security Control in the town.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When Job\u2019s turn arrived, three men sat waiting to interrogate him. There was Lt Burke plus an Intelligence Corps sergeant and a local immigration officer, Arthur Clarke.<\/p>\n

Job recounted the story of how he had escaped from internment and made it over the border to Spain, then Portugal.<\/p>\n

Suspicion<\/h2>\n

The Poole men, now joined by their chief, Major Edward Humphries, smelt a rat.<\/p>\n

Job was taken away to be searched by Humphries and the sergeant. He had a ready answer to everything and even pulled out his trouser waistband to show how much weight he had lost.<\/p>\n

Pinned on his waistcoat was a gold tiepin and in a pocket they found a wrapped-up, valuable diamond ring. It was one, he claimed, he had given to his wife.<\/p>\n

\u2018I could never sell my dear wife\u2019s ring,\u2019 he vowed.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Leaving him to dress, the searchers returned to the interrogation room. Humphries told Burke about Job\u2019s impressive jewellery. Burke suddenly reacted. The jewellery matched the description MI5 had circulated weeks before in a \u2018Most Secret\u2019 message.<\/p>\n

A British double agent had received a message from his German masters to say a courier would be bringing such jewellery into the country as payment for him. What the British did not know was who, where or when?<\/p>\n

The Poole security men had identified him. They followed instructions. They let Job leave\u2026 but they tracked him.<\/p>\n

Tailed<\/h2>\n

John Job stayed his first night back in England at the Merville Hotel in Bournemouth, by the Winter Gardens. It was the evening of a German air raid.<\/p>\n

Next day Poole\u2019s port security officers alerted their MI5 headquarters to say he was a train to Waterloo. When he arrived, MI5 watchers were waiting to tail him again. Meanwhile, counter-intelligence ordered Humphries, at Poole, to draw for them a sketch of the tiepin and ring.<\/p>\n

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The sketch of the ring and tiepin drawn by Poole Security Control Officer Major Edward Humphries (Copyright, The National Archives)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Three weeks later, Job was arrested. He denied everything at first. But after being whisked off to a specialist prison interrogation centre, he cracked.<\/p>\n

Confession<\/h2>\n

He admitted he had been recruited for a mission by the Nazis. He was to bring in the ring and tiepin and deliver it to a certain address.<\/p>\n

And he was to report on bomb damage and morale in London.<\/p>\n