More Stories of Spies in England

Here are some more reports published in the Times on 17th August 1914, with regard to the action of spies.

It is obvious that not all relate to spies, but the story of the boat across the Medway is priceless soldiers firing at policemen who couldn’t hear them is great.

“Sentry Wounded at Brooklands

Private Robertson of the Royal West Surrey Regiment, while guarding the aviation sheds at Brooklands Aerodrome early yesterday morning, was shot by a supposed spy. Robertson stated that he challenged the man three times and the fired. The man immediately returned the fire, wounding Robertson severely in the arm. The aerodrome was searched without success, although a man was seen to disappear in the woods as the motor car conveying Robertson was on its way to hospital.

While patrolling the railway on Friday night after the last train to Portsmouth had passed, two members of the Civil Guard at Worthing found a body on one of their comrades, named A.G. Wright, lying by the side of the line a few yards from the edge of the station platform, with a fractured skull. It is believed that he may have been struck by an open carriage door of a train entering the station.

A police patrol which was rowing in a boat across the Medway was fired on by a guard of soldiers stationed on Rochester Bridge. It is stated that the police did not hear the challenge of the soldiers who, on the other hand, could not see the occupants of the boat. No one was hit.

The occupants of a compartment on a train from Whitstable which reached Faversham on Saturday morning stated that the train had been shot at just as it entered the marshland at Graveney. The windows were broken.

A railway “chair” 13 inches long, was found on Saturday near Glenboig on the main railway line, over which many military trains are running at present. It was cut in two, the larger half having been carried yards as the result of an impact with an express train.”

German Spies in England.

This news item was reported in The Times on 17th August 1914.

The cases of spying ranged from being suspicious around Belfast Docks with a knowledge of submarines, to considering oneself to be English having lived in England for a number of year. Although the exact details of the case is not know, 3 months hard labour for not registering himself, seems a bit excess for Wilhelm Stiewe.


"German Spies in England

Order to London Police.

That the search for German spies in England is being actively continued was shown again on Saturday by the number of charges before the magistrates in various parts of the country. Orders have been issued to the Metropolitan Police to proceed on and after today to enforce the provisions of the Aliens Restriction Order in Council against all German subjects who have not registered themselves according to the terms of the order.

At Old Street Police Court Wiliiam HAEK was charged with failing to register. The prisoner was arrested at the headquarters of the Royal Engineers Territorial Regiment, Victoria Park Square. He admitted that he was a German subject and had not registered himself, saying that he did not think the order applied to him as he had been 25 years in England. He was at the time in the uniform of a sergeant of the regiment and said he had been in a Volunteer corps in England for 20 years. A captain of the Engineers said that this was a fact and gave the prisoner a very good character. Mr. Chester Jones remanded the prisoner for a week.

At Belfast John ROCKMANN, stated to be a German subject, was committed for trial on a charge of having been found at Belfast Docks for the purpose of prejudicial to the State. The Crown Solicitor said he believed Rockmann was a Bachelor of Science at London University. Since January he had been employed in the drawing shop of Messers. Harland and Wolfe and before that he was in the submarine department of Messers. Vickers, Son and Maxim.

At Bridgwater Henry HANNACK, a German subject, was remanded on a charge of failing to register himself. The prisoner said he liked to regard himself as an Englishman. He hoped that England would be successful in the war and that the German Emperor would lose his throne.

A well dressed German, named Wilhelm STIEWE, a traveller, of Southampton. was sentenced by Matlock magistrates to three months hard labour for failing to register.

A correspondent informs us that the German pastor at Forest Hill, Herr Goehling, has been detained by the police."

Belgian Girl caught spying by Australian.

This article comes from “OVER THERE" WITH THE AUSTRALIANS by CAPTAIN R. HUGH KNYVETT. He was an ANZAC Scout and Intelligence Officer, 15th Battalion A.I.F.

Captain Knyvett was able to identify a Belgian girl who was spying for the enemy and subsequently arrested her, this was the story: -

“One of the hardest things I ever did was to arrest a young Belgian girl nineteen years of age who undoubtedly was the means of the death of thousands of our boys. It was in this wise. One night I observed a light a good way behind our trenches go out then come again. I watched it very carefully, and found it was signalling by the Morse code with dashes ten seconds long and the dots five. If you were not watching it very carefully you would never have dreamt it was anything but a flicker of light. The letters I read were--NRUDTVEAUAOILN, which, when decoded, gave important information regarding the movement of troops.

I took a line through some trees of the direction from which the light came and walked toward it. Just off an old drain I found an overturned wagon with a loophole cut through the backboard. There were footprints in the drain, and the grass was pressed down where a body had been lying. For five nights I lay in wait, my hopes keyed up to the highest point of expectation. At last to me was to fall the good fortune of capturing a spy-perhaps to end the leakage of information of our plans that we knew the Germans were getting. But on these five nights nothing happened.

The day afterward, some boys of a battery whom I asked to watch this drain caught an old farmer in it. This farmer, however, who lived next door to our brigade headquarters had been carefully watched, and the information had come from outside the zone which he never left. Some one must have brought the information to him. Everybody using those roads had to have a passport issued by theFrench intelligence service, and countersigned by the intelligence officer of the area. Elimination narrowed suspicion to a paper girl who, it was found, sold out her papers round the batteries and billets at ten o'clock, and did not return until after three. The excuse she gave was that she was visiting her brother's grave, but on looking up her records we found that she had never had a brother.

One day I kept her in sight on the road while I rode across the fields. After she entered the house where she was living at Estaires I followed and opened the door. As soon as she saw me she fainted. I blew my whistle, and on arrival of the picket we searched the house and found the German code with some maps and other incriminating documents. I never did a harder task in my life than hand that girl over to the French authorities for possible execution. She was a very pretty, happy little girl, red-haired and blue-eyed, and, although one could show no pity because the safety and life of thousands were at stake, yet it wrung the heart to think of the wastage of the young, bright life, the victim of German gold, and the treachery that is the handmaiden of war, and preys on the weakness of the moral nature.”

Arrested carrying a camera near fortifications.

This article appeared in the West Wimmera Mail, Australia on August 28, 1914. Early in the war there was a lot of fear and suspicion, spies were found everywhere.

Poor Horace Woolmer arrested for carrying a camera near ‘fortifications’ on holiday. A bit silly, some would say, but it could have been a scene from the ’39 steps’.

“Mr. Horace WOOLMER, who is away on holidays, in a letter to his parents at Natimuk, says that when at Botany Bay, New South Wales, he was nearly being placed under arrest as a spy. He had his camera with him and was in the neighborhood of fortifications, when, being regarded with suspicion, he was accosted by a party of cadets.

Fortunately he was able to satisfy the authorities that he came from the peaceful little village of Natimuk, and that he had not the slightest intention of giving the internal arrangements of his country away. “

Women Spy from Pevensey.

This article from the Eastbourne Gazette published on 11th November 1914 concerns an ex-Eastbourne resident who was convicted of spying in France.

She sounds like a very resourceful lady and I like the comment that when she lived in Pevensey she styled herself as a ‘baroness’, I would think that typical of many at that time.


“Women Spy Sentenced

In a letter dated November 8 and sent from Paris, H.J. Greenwood (a correspondent of the “Daily Express”) states that a women spy has been caught and sentenced to two years imprisonment and a fine of a thousand francs. The allegations made against her are that she dressed as a Red Cross nurse, met British wounded at the Railway Station (Gare du Nord), invited British officers to dine with her and endeavoured to wheedle military information out of them. Mr. Greenwall adds: “This woman’s card has been shown to me by an officer. Her real name is Juliette Zarkowska. She is the divorced wife of a German officer and is of British and Russian descent.”

It is stated that the women formerly resided in the Pevenesey District and styled herself as a baroness. She left Eastbourne before the war began.”