Dancer Mata Hari was executed for causing the deaths of 50,000 soldiers by spying for the Germans[PA]The database will feature for the first time some of history’s most famous spies and the secrets in which they traded.
Among the names detailed in more than 150 digitised dossiers is Dutch-born Hari, tried for causing the deaths of 50,000 soldiers by spying for German intelligence.
She was arrested in February 1917 in Paris before being executed in France aged 41.
The documents also include Edith Cavell, a British nurse who helped rescue Allied soldiers but was executed in war-torn Belgium.
Others include Arthur Ransome, author of the children’s novel Swallows And Amazons and Sidney Reilly, a Russian-born adventurer whose exploits with the British Secret Service were the inspiration for James Bond.
They have been released by the National Archives in Kew, south-west London, to mark the 100th anniversary of the war’s outbreak.
Dr Stephen Twigge, records specialist at Kew, said: “They reveal the importance of the security service in safeguarding the nation during the First World War.
“Now people across the globe can discover the secret history behind the war for themselves.”
Now people across the globe can discover the secret history behind the war for themselves
Less well-known agents include Leopold Vieyra, a German spy who moved to London as manager of a performing troupe called The Midgets.
The material includes interrogation reports, letters, postcards and photographs relating to individuals and groups under surveillance by MI5.
It covers organisations and intelligence reports on the Bolshevik Party, British Communist Party and the Boy Scout Association.
Intelligence reports on major political figures such as Russian revolutionaries Leon Trotsky and Vladimir Lenin are also contained in the database.
Among the documents is an inventory of Mata Hari’s possessions when she was detained by Scotland Yard.
They include a hat box with six hats, a feather boa, one veil, two fur necklets and an imitation peach.
The files also contain a detailed account of her interrogation by British police in the same year – in which she gives away nothing.
Another MI5 memo, referring to the spy by her real name of Margreet Zelle MacLeod, says their contact in Paris warned the agency of his suspicions.
“He informs us that he has suspected her for some time and pretended to employ her in order, if possible, to obtain definite proof.”
Evidence emerged decades later that she did compile reports for the Germans.
The files can be accessed at nationalarchives.gov.uk/first-world-war
No comments:
Post a Comment