Well, that was fun. For the last 9-10 months, I’ve been working through the published blog posts bringing their formatting into line with the WordPress. In the process, I checked external and internal links and I think everything is now working… or I hope so. If anyone finds any hiccups, please use the contact form to reach out. With that done, I can now redirect my energy back to writing blogs!
Blog Backlog
I have a number of blogs in various draft stages, so am looking to get those out and published. There is also an ever increasing list of topics. I keep thinking I might be reaching the end of finding something to write about but… such does not appear to be the case!
Robin William George Stephens
Ah, our old friend Tin-Eye Stephens. Where to begin…
For the last few months I’ve been sifting through the BritishNewspaperArchive site using various search parameters to pry out articles that mention Stephens. I’ve amassed quite an array of articles, mostly from the 1930s and am slowly working my way through the windfall of articles.
The holy grail of this quest is finding when and where Stephens passed away. I’ve been flipping through the dusty pages of old books searching for some clue and while I’ve found some fascinating information and photographs… nothing pointing to a final resting place.
On the other hand… Stephens’ aunt’s grandson (or Stephens’ father’s nephew’s son a.k.a. Stephens’ cousin’s son) reached out to MI5 but their initial response was not all that helpful. Stephens apparently died overseas (think we had figured that out already), sometime in mid-1977. Right then… somewhere between May and September of 1977, Stephens died somewhere in the world (but not in the UK). We had thought perhaps, given that Stephens silver cup from the staff at Camp 020, was auctioned off in Italy, that he might have passed away in Italy. But Italian genealogical records are all held locally soooo… one needs to know where someone died before one can begin a fruitful search for a death registration.
A few months later, however, Stephens’ cousin’s son received more concrete information from MI5… an actual date (yes, a day, a month and a year) and a district within which to search for a death registration. The hay stack just shrank from the world to a much smaller area, albeit one with several local registration offices. We are looking at writing to each registration office asking for a death registration… Stay tuned…
In the meantime, I’m ploughing my way through all of the accumulated information I have on Stephens, getting it organized and creating the framework of a manuscript. At some point in the future, I’m hoping to get back to the National Archives at Kew and sift through the court martial records from 1948. If/when Covid loosens its grip…
I had a rather intriguing tip from blog reader Giles who pointed me in the direction of a Sydney Sun (New South Wales) article from 1938. A mysterious aviatrix actually met Robin Stephens in Abyssinia and thought he was “most interesting”. Blog post coming soon…
Hello Giselle
Thank you for publishing my last note.
This is really intriguing. I’ve been reading through your various posts on Stephens and recall that his (de facto) wife’s death notice referred to him as “Caesar”. That name is popular in the Iberian peninsular as well as Italy.
Some observations. [Apologies for the formalistic style; I have to dash off, and don’t want to forget anything!]
1. Given that MI5 replied with date, year and so on, that suggests they were well aware of his death, the location and so on. [Or they had a ferret around latterly, and passed on the information. Like most intelligence services, MI5 is populated with historians and people that revel in a puzzle. I understand they are particularly proud of their WWII work and officers like Stephens, who seems to combine an intriguing mix of utter eccentricity with genius.]
2. I don’t recall seeing your post on the silver cup being auctioned in Italy, which is a most intriguing development. To be auctioned in Italy suggests he was a long term resident. Perhaps the auction house has some records.
3. Likewise, I must have missed your post where you said that Stephens apparently died overseas, sometime in mid-1977. That confirms the conjecture of another person making comments that, when the television drama was written, assumed around 1978, and Stephens was defended by the surviving secretaries, he had already died.
4. Given Stephens died in 1977, it is highly likely there are people still alive who remember him.
5. All the work you have done is very impressive & I believe you have the basis for a ripping biography of a very intriguing character. I look forward to it.
6. As for the article in the Sydney Sun, this link will find it: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/231030039
7. Finally, I find is puzzling that a man who had lived a life of such derring-do could retire to relative obscurity and more than that, in 1977, many of his MI5 colleagues were still alive. Yet, none seem to have thought it sufficiently worthwhile to place a death notice in the Times. [Or perhaps they did, but I can’t find it.]
—
I did a quick search on findmypast, looking at overseas deaths, Italy, for 1977. Although some records were returned using “Stephens” as the surname with a Dod of 1977 +/- five years, the records come from the wrong data set.
I also had a look at the times digital archive, for 1977, searching “Stephens” and variations of “deaths” and “Italy” and then for the period 1977 – 1978, for “wills”.
Alas, no records lept off the page.
Hi Giles!
Thanks for the comment. I am in the midst of a deep dive into Mrs. Charles Lloyd, mysterious aviatrix. Have discovered her identity and blog post coming out soon. Interestingly… Stephens mentioned her in his St. Bart’s Hospital Journal article!
1. Yes, they do have the information but I hazard it’s just second-hand and not a primary document like a death reg.
2. Oversight on my part! I’ve been meaning to do a post on the silver cup and I forget that I haven’t. I have also been toying with the idea of writing to the auction house. My to-do list keeps multiplying and it keeps sliding down the priority list.
3. Well, I don’t think the overseas location was stated quite so explicitly. Suffice to say I have been unable to find him in the UK death registers. I’ve also sifted through Find-My-Past for the overseas deaths and found nothing. But from what I can gather, it wasn’t technically necessary to register the death of an ex-pat with the British officials… so that complicates matters. As for the date, I figured some time between 1963 and 1980ish. As you say, given that the Spy! series could have started pre-production in 1978… I tend to think his death may have cleared the deck for a retrospective on Camp 020.
4. True! Somewhere, someone knows something. It’s just a matter of finding them. Although, my blog does have a tendency to flush people out of the woodwork sometimes…
5. Thanks! I’m kind of amazed at the material I’ve amassed.
6. Thanks for the link. I had found it on newspaperarchives.com (snuck in with a free week trial). Fascinating stuff!
7. I know, right!? Hinchley-Cooke received some write-ups in the newspaper when he passed. And so did TAR. It’s strange.
Yes… Find-My-Past (as noted above) hasn’t yielded much.
Times – I’ve not found anything either. And even if a citizen dies overseas (as our mysterious aviatrix did), if there is a will, it goes through probate and shows up in the index. No sign of Stephens.
Thanks for the conversation!
Hello again, Giselle,
Further to my earlier comment puzzling over the silver cup, which I had not before heard of. I took to google and found it!
Here is the auction entry, with photo: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/a-very-fine-and-rare-wwii-memorabilia-a-tiffany-c-70-c-e6b412492b#
The auction house has a link to request more information and the house may be disposed to provide more on the item’s provenance (it has been away from public view for some years – where?; and in what circumstances it was acquired, etc.)
The google translation from the Italian is further intriguing, as it was, according to the description, presented to him by the Americans:
Google Translation
SILVER CUP OF LT. COLONEL ROBIN WILLIAM GEORGE STEPHENS, CAMP COMMANDER 020 embossed silver cup signed Tiffany & Co. 550 Broadway NY, n. 8984 h cm 20 – diam 25 Colonel Robin “Tin Eye” Stephens was the Commander of CAMP 020 located at Latchmere House in South London and was an English interrogation center for German prisoners during the Second World War . One of the most famous prisoners interrogated here was Jorian Jenks. The cup was given to the Colonel by the Americans after the end of the war. A VERY FINE AND RARE WWII MEMORABILIA A TIFFANY & CO. STERLING SILVER CUP NR. 8984 MADE FOR LT. WITH THE. ROBIN “TIN EYE” WILLIAM GEORGE STEPHENS COMMANDANT OF CAMP 020 high. 7.87 in. diam. 9.84 in.
Yep – it’s a pretty cool bit of memorabilia. How/why it ended up in Italy is a bit of a mystery. I will have to message the auction house and see what I can pry out of them…
Done. Signed up with Invaluable and sent a message to the auctioneers (Livebid). Apparently the cup was estimated (pre-auction) to sell for €1500-2000.
Hello again Giselle
Thank you so much for your replies. I look forward to your post detailing the when and where of Lt Col. Stephens passing and, as intriguing, your path to receiving the information. The journey is often as interesting as the destination. [I had assumed he died in Italy, but from your comment, I see that the assumption may not be correct. I await your post, with much anticipation…]
A few years ago I started a tentative chronology on Stephens, but gave up as most of the files were not easily available to me and i had not yet seen your www site. However, from the little I could piece together, Stephens’ 1930s were particularly interesting, including his divorce, his adventures in Abyssinia, his court appearance on an allegation of theft and his bankruptcy. But there appear to be gaps, particularly from 1936 to his joining the security service in 1939. (Or rather, I don’t have access here to the records, such as his court marshal, which contains some details).
On Stephens divorce, the petition he made, and my apologies as you likely know this, is available in the UK National Archives. Unfortunately, it has not been digitised. The reference no. is: J 77/3611/1933 and I have not been able to identify the co-respondent, beyond the surname given: “Cathcart Jones”.
I forgot I had, and you know of this I am sure, an article from a UK newspaper, The Daily Herald, Saturday, 04 April, 1936, carrying a small story of the atrocities, in the form of gas attacks, inflicted upon “helpless Abyssinian civilians” by the Italian fascists. Stephens, whose name is given as “Townshend Stephens”, is reported as describing the attacks as “The most cruel form of butchery”. What is also of interest is a photograph of a sullen, glowering Stephens and Dr Melly.
As for the noted aviatrix, Mrs Charles Lloyd. I too had a brief google. Again, you’ve likely discovered this. The Palmerston North “Times” (New Zealand), carried a short article on Saturday, July 23, 1938, briefly & breathlessly recounting Mrs Lloyd’s adventures in Abyssinia:
“To have been held for ransom by Abyssinian natives after a forced landing while flying from Khartoum to Addis Ababa has been the experience of Mrs. Ursula Lloyd, an English traveller who has led and unusually active and adventurous life. She has been in New Zealand for the past week, and is now at the Chateau Tongariro. Flying, bear shooting, fishing and skiing are among the activities which have claimed Mrs. Lloyd’s attention. A keen airwoman, Mrs. Lloyd owns her own aeroplane, and when she married Captain Charles Lloyd, an air surveyor, in 1933, she flew with him to Abyssinia, Mrs. Lloyd is a member of tho Hanworth Aviation Club in England and is also a Fellow of the Royal Geographic Society.” [Note: the chateau mentioned still exists and is magnificent: https://www.chateau.co.nz/%5D
The air accident in which Mrs Lloyd and her husband Charles were involved is detailed here: https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/181384. The particulars more or less agree with the account provided by Stephens in the Barts article.
Alamy has a photo of the Lloyd’s crashed aircraft: https://www.alamy.com/search/imageresults.aspx?cid=FTN3279ZHTY66SGANTX32PLUA9HNJM2LR3QXPWZXLBDS97VFVXAP5ZFRMSAG9EB6.
The caption reads:
British couple’s adventurous flight to Abyssinia , forced down, arrested in Italy then crash . These pictures , which have just reached London , show the adventures in Abyssinia of Captain and Mrs Charles Lloyd, who flying to Addis Ababa from England , were forced down in the Adda district, north of the Abyssinian capital . They were mistaken for Italians and arrested by Abyssinians, who held them captive until orders for their release were received from the authorities. Soon after they had taken off again, however their plane crashed . Photo shows, the crashed plane of Captain and Mrs Charles Lloyd in the Adda district north of Adddis Ababa . 6 March 1936.
I would be interested in finding out more about Mrs Lloyd. her husband, Charles operated an aerial survey business that appears reasonably successful. Charles Lloyd is noteworthy in that Mr Lloyd employed female pilots, as recounted in “Lettice Curtis: her autobiography”. Although pre-war there were quite a number of famous aviatrix (Amelia Earhart, Amy Johnson, Nancy-Bird Walton, among many) employment was difficult to find in a male dominated industry.
I look forward to your blog post on Mrs Lloyd, who seems quite a character.
Hi Giles
Think I missed replying to this comment of yours. You raise a bunch of interesting information! I actually had a look at the divorce papers a few years ago and took pics of the docs. I will email them to you. The offending party was Owen Cathcart-Jones (a well-known flamboyant aviator – is there any other type??!). He was splashed all over the newspapers as well with hints of flings with under-age actresses… and Errol Flynn thrown into the mix. I will send you a newspaper clipping… makes for entertaining reading. I’m surprised Ursula and Owen never hitched up – the newspapers would have gone mad!
Thanks!
Giselle
Giselle, this does indeed seem a breakthrough. It would seem that MI5 (or at least the Army Pensions Office) would always have had full details on file regarding Robin’s death because they would have sought appropriate evidence (including death certificate) to stop paying his army pension after he died.
This leads on to another point: notwithstanding the earlier finding that Joan simply changed her surname by deed poll, did Robin and Joan actually marry later so that she could prove entitlement to any widow’s pension payable under Army pension rules if she survived him? Prior to 1978, I believe only legal widows qualified for an Army widow’s pension (ie just being a ‘dependant’ wasn’t good enough), and further they had to have been married while the husband was still in service – in this case, pre-1960. However, no obvious UK record in ‘Stephens marrying Stephens’; but maybe they married abroad… One again, the Pensions Office would have sought any supporting evidence upon Robin’s death.
Hi Stephen,
Thanks for the comment. Yes, you would think MI5 would have this sort of information in their file.
As for the marriage – I’ve not been able to find any hint of a Stephens/Stephens marriage (nor a Stephens/Dowling marriage). As you say, they could have married abroad… mystery upon mystery!
Giselle