From the Mailbox: Spies, Interrogators, Fraudsters and Attorneys – November 2024

I must admit that I have a bit of a backlog of communications from the last couple of years. I seem to have held them in my email inbox with a mental note to: (a) report this in the blog and (b) reply to the sender. It seems I didn’t manage either of those all the time. I surely am not the only one who loses track of emails in my inbox and then, when I do find them, am so mortified to find how much time has elapsed that I simply let them sit there again with a mental note of “Must respond to this… some day!”. Funny how the human brain works… or does not work! Right then, let’s tackle some messages from 2022.

SPIES – Harm Knol Bruins

I had written a couple of posts on Harm Knol Bruins a few years ago. He had popped onto my radar after reading Guy Liddell’s diaries. A spy who was caught with a radio transmitter AND a cypher? Who had apparently transmitted weather reports to the Germans? How did he manage to escape execution? And why was his wife executed while he escaped with his life?

After the first Bruins blog, Ivar, a Dutch reader, reached out to me. It turns out that Bruins’ second wife was Ivar’s father-in-law’s aunt. So Ivar’s Great Aunt-in-Law, if my calculations are correct. Ivar started out researching Anna (the second wife of Bruins) and then naturally included Bruins. Like me, Ivar wondered why Anna had been killed and Bruins had been shipped off to Camp 020 and then warehoused at Camp 001 for the duration of the war.

In late 2022, Ivar sent me another email with a very detailed genealogical report on Bruins, as well as a mini-family tree. He also included a copy of the cypher that was found on Bruins and instructions on how to use it. Ivar has also learned that the French archives in Caen have a file on Anna but one needs to visit the archives in-person in order to access the material. Pity.

I’ve recently had several emails from Ivar with a number of fascinating updates on the case, including photographs of Harm Knol Bruins AND his second wife Anna. Ivar also managed to get a copy of some key documents from the French archives. I’ll have to do a full update on the case later, once I’ve had a chance to review everything.

INTERROGATORS – Robin William George Stephens

British Red Cross in Ethiopia

Speaking of Camp 020… I had an email from a regular reader of this blog, Giles, in **cough** early 2022. Giles is as fascinated with Robin W.G. Stephens as I am. He had a few helpful thoughts…

Giles thinks it’s likely that Stephens segued into the British intelligence services after his “retirement” from the Indian Army. He washed up on the shores of England in early 1930 and swiftly declared bankruptcy, followed a few years later by a divorce from his first wife. Giles also noted that:

Being second in command of the British Red Cross  team afforded Stephens access to a wide array of people in the Ethiopian government as well as the “foreign milieu” that resided in Ethiopia at the time. His access likely included the Emperor himself… Given Stephens flamboyant persona it is odd that, during the Second Italo-Ethiopian War, we do not see more news reports of the time mentioning him.

I heartily concur with this assessment of Stephens’ time in Ethiopia. Even if he wasn’t formally recruited into the intelligence services by this point, it would seem likely that he was at least “encouraged” to be their eyes and ears.

Steeplechase Runner at Dulwich College

I received an email from Zeb M., another reader of this blog in mid-2022. Zeb had purchased a medal that Stephens had won in Steeplechase in 1917, when he attended Dulwich College. Zeb sent me a couple of nice photos of the medal against the backdrop of an Old Alleynian tie (Dulwich College alumni association).

FRAUDSTERS – Johannes (Hans) Wolpe & Beatrice Engers

I had an email last month from Howard E., a Canadian scientist working in Switzerland. He had come across my posts on Hans Wolpe and Beatrice Engers while researching his family history. It always pleases me when random people find my blogs useful. And it fascinates me to see how all of our stories are interwoven together.

ATTORNEYS – Eric Vincent Ewart White

I received a similar email last month from Will R. whose great uncle (brother of Will’s grandmother) was Eric V.E. White. White had served as defence attorney for Josef Jakobs during his court martial. Will had gone on a tour of the Tower of London and had a vague recollection that the Jakobs and White family stories were intertwined. Indeed they are. We are all probably far more interconnected than we think!

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