MI5 in the Great War

by Nigel West

  Further enquiry showed that Hentschel’s statements as to dates, motives and personal circumstances varied. He had about twenty pupils. He had spoken of having been much at sea; he had come to Sheerness for his health or else because he thought it a nice place. He had independent means and was teaching for something to do. He had much correspondence, and was doing well with teaching in spite of frequently changing his address. Two of his landladies suspected him of being a spy. Melville concluded that he was in the German Navy and a spy. Some years later Mr Tozer produced a letter from Dr Meinarius, minister of the Lutheran Church at Munster, Westphalia (which Mr Tozer believed to be in Holland) agreeing to Hentschel’s joining the Congregational Church at Sheerness. This provided cover for Hentschel’s work and nationality. Cover for his journeys abroad and correspondence was provided by Hentschel’s engagement to Amelie Wetzel, of whom he would sometimes speak as his wife. She lived at Maastricht. When it became inconvenient he broke off the engagement, and after a hurried journey abroad announced that his ‘wife’ had died.

  On receipt of Melville’s report NID and the GOC East Coast defences were informed and officers were warned not to patronise Hentschel. On 15 December 1909 Hentschel married a shop assistant, Patricia Riley, and within a few weeks moved to Chatham and set up a school at 7 Waghorn Terrace. He intended to visit Sheerness three days a week. This move portended the breaking of fresh ground. It is possible that, owing to the action of MO5, Hentschel’s clientele in Sheerness had diminished; it is certain that through his wife and her family he was adding largely to his sources of information. The Rileys lived at Chatham. They had seen better days. John Riley the father, a broken-down deputy bank manager, had become traveller to a tailoring firm, had embezzled money, and disappeared. The mother, Emily Riley, was a heavy drinker and in the habit of raising money in any way she could. There were at least four attractive daughters, Patricia Hentschel, Emily (afterwards Mrs Pelling), Nellie and Edith. These girls had many admirers and friends among naval men in Chatham.

  It was in February 1910 that his wife Patricia found out her husband’s real work and offered to help him. He meanwhile was procuring from abroad better cover of his supposed Dutch nationality. There are in his file three, to all appearances, official Dutch papers emanating from Rotterdam: his parents’ marriage certificate; a curious passport for inland use only; and a kind of identity book, valid for one year, extracted from the National Register on 5 April 1910.

  Concerning these papers, Karl Hentschel subsequently told William Melville that they were given him by Robert Tornow; his father’s name was correctly given, his mother’s name was spurious. The father’s name, Ferdinand Wilhelm Johann Hentschel, is pure German, the mother’s, Elise Wilhelraine Elisabeth van Dyke seem a mixture of German and Dutch. The copies of the marriage and birth certificate were made on 20 June 1899.

  These false papers recall those carried by Dr Max Bolton in 1910 and a statement made by Theisen to the effect that Steinhauer had his offices in Rotterdam. It is to be supposed that the official Dutch seal for a foreign passport could not easily be fabricated. Patricia worked hard for her husband and she enlisted in his service her mother and sisters, and also George Charles Parrott, Chief Gunner on HMS Agamemnon. She had known this man since 1908 and had several times borrowed small sums from him for her family. After her marriage she continued to correspond with him with her husband’s knowledge, and eventually she lured him to betray his country. This result seems to have been achieved in three stages, corresponding with Parrott’s movements and promotions.

  Parrott served on HMS Agamemnon from 28 January 1907 to 27 August 1910 when he was transferred to the Pembroke; at the end of September 1910, he was put in charge of the range at Sheerness. From August 1909 the Agamemnon had been repeatedly engaged in exercises off Sheerness, Portland and Portsmouth; she had also visited Cromarty and Queensferry. In February 1910 she was exercising off Portland; she was in Chatham Dockyard from 7 May to 15 June, took part in the grand manoeuvres off Portland from 26 June to 19 July, and was paid off at Sheerness on 26 September 1910.

  At the end of September, Parrott, according to Hentschel, offered in Mrs Hentschel’s presence to supply any information that was wanted. Parrott answered questions and was engaged at a monthly salary of £8 rising to £10. Parrott however, asserts that Patricia Hentschel persuaded him to answer questions and overcame his scruples by offering him a £5 note. Fresh lists came in about every ten days and he received from £5 to £7 for answers. The questions dealt with guns, armour and steering qualities of ships, oil capacity and radius of submarines, interference with wireless telegraphy. In the fifth or sixth list, he was asked to obtain a complete list of the confidential books and documents supplied to ships. He refused and tried to back out, and was threatened with exposure. He then consented on condition that all writing should be destroyed in the presence of both parties, and a code of the names of flowers was arranged for use in the work.

  In February 1911, Parrott got very nervous and tried to break off, but Patricia induced him to continue the work. Parrott had then received £85 which he kept in his locker at Sheerness. Then the two men quarrelled and Parrott threatened to expose Hentschel, but was calmed down by Patricia and the affair ended for the time being with the departure of the Hentschels for Australia. He lent Patricia £65, of which she paid back about £45. Parrott never seems to have resumed relations with Hentschel.

  Hentschel states that a few days after Parrott’s engagement he produced four volumes of the Half-Yearly Gunnery Progress. The last issue of the half-yearly summary dates from January 1910; it was replaced at the end of that year by the annual summary. The four volumes presumably of 1908 and 1909 were taken to Ostend and thence to Berlin and Tornow gave Parrott £40 for them. They were not of much value.

  In the next four months (October 1910 to January 1911) Hentschel says that Parrott supplied S3 confidential books. From the imperfect indications of the titles given by Hentschel some of these are believed to have been the following:

  The Flotilla Signal Book (issued 1908, addenda 1911) (Secret List 11), Parrott said the Germans offered him a £1,000 for this. Gould was asked for this book in the autumn of 1912; the signal book was stolen eventually from the Queen in February 1914.

  Addenda to Torpedo Manual Volume III. The Manual on the Heater Torpedo (issued 1909). These books had been copied on sheets by some educated man, not Parrott. The sheets were taken abroad and photographed. On Hentschel’s own evidence it seems improbable that Parrott supplied these two books.

  Torpedo Manual (three or four volumes, issued with addenda 1908, 1910, 1909, 1911). Gould was asked for the 1909 edition in October 1912 or else Annual Report of Torpedo School (issued annually since 1905). This was obtained from HMS Actaeon. Parrott’s evidence goes to show that these two books were not supplied to the Germans and Frederick Gould was being asked in October 1912 for the Annual Report of 1911. The request was repeated to Gould and to William Klare in January 1913.

  Manual of Gunnery (three volumes, issued in 1907, 1902, 1922) and addenda to Volumes I and II 1909. Gould was being asked for this in October 1912.

  The Employment of Cruisers and Destroyers 1906.

  Instructions in Defence Matters 1907. Very Secret. List I. Steel Safe or else. Memorandum on the Regulation of Traffic at Defended Ports in Time of War 1909 (issued for the CO’s personal use, List II.)

  Manoeuvres Report for 1909 (issued January 1910). Parrott is said to have received £500 for this; Parrott told fellow prisoner Rayner he was offered £500 for this by ‘Richard’.

  A Book on Fire-Controls, presumably one of the three following:

  (i) Handbook of Fire Control Instruments, 1909.

  (ii) Information relative to Fire Control Range-Finding and Plotting, 1909.

  (iii) Fleet Fire-Control and Concentration of Fire Experiments, 1909.

  A book on minesweepers.

  Other books.

  These books were photographed at Ostend by R
obert Tornow who brought two assistants and special appliances. Four were photographed in one night. Parrott was paid £600, £500, £250, £150 and other sums.

  Patricia Hentschel told the Chief Constable of Kent that she had carried abroad two books for Parrott; she thought one of them was about torpedoes, the other about the distribution of the Fleet in wartime. She may have been referring to books on the list given by Karl Hentschel but it is possible that these books were conveyed abroad by her in July 1912.

  Parrott, on the other hand, denied having supplied confidential books to Hentschel. He declared the only book he had delivered was the handbook of the 6-inch gun. But there is support for Hentschel’s contention as regards books on gunnery and fire control.

  In talk with Rayner, Parrott stated that while on board the Cambridge (between 1903-1906) he had had the three volumes of the Gunnery Manual and had burned them in order to get rid of them. He must have been referring to old editions of no value. These he may have offered to Hentschel and they may have been rejected.

  A minute dealing with the preparation of the case shows that, at the written request of Parrott, confidential books were issued to him from a library at Chatham; that confidential books were returned by him on 20 February 1911 and on the 11 March 1911, and that one of the books ‘contained information regarding fire control and was the latest book issued by the Admiralty on that subject’. This curiously worded statement might refer to the signal book, for when a confidential signal book was stolen from the Queen it was stated in the press that among other secrets, the book contained details of the Percy Scott Fire Control System.

  The break with Hentschel took place in March 1911. On 3 April 1911 Parrott deposited with the Conservative Club Building Fund the sum of £100, which would seem to be a larger sum than his professional income would warrant. But even allowing for the fact that Parrott kept money received from the Germans in his locker, the sums he banked, invested, and disbursed are too small to make it credible that he gained much from the sale of confidential books. It was thought probable that Parrott did not receive as much for his services as he had expected and that that was the cause of the quarrel between the two men. It is also probable that Parrott did not supply all the books mentioned by Hentschel, but that he did at least give Hentschel the titles of a number of confidential books. This was a service of some value and it is worth noting that in January 1912 Wagener too was asked to send in a list of confidential books which would go to prove either that Parrott had not supplied the complete list asked for or that a check on his data was required. One of the difficulties of estimating the truth of a spy’s statements lies in this – that there was undoubtedly a good deal of gossip in the Service and that accuracy as to dates was not observed; hence a spy would attribute to himself the achievements of others or else to one date what was accomplished by himself at some other time. The truth seems to be Hentschel claimed to have received from Parrott and delivered to the Germans all those books (1. Mentioned in conversation with Parrott at any time; 2. Specially asked for by ‘Richard’ of Parrott; 3. Actually supplied by Parrott in 1911 and 1912).

  In October 1910, the police at Sheerness sent in a report about Hentschel which touched upon his copious correspondence with Maastricht in 1911, and his receipt of money from abroad and stated that he said he had been a captain in the Merchant Service. He sometimes received letters addressed to Captain Karl Hentschel.

  Hentschel’s name was noted on the Black List No. 18. He had been on the possible suspect list since October 1909.

  In March 1911 the question of officers taking lessons with him was again raised but no action was taken lest his suspicions should be roused. Orders were given to instruct military officers not to discuss naval or military matters with foreigners.

  On 29 March 1911 Hentschel was reported to have left England. No doubt he had gone to the Continent to wind up his affairs before going to Australia. Hentschel and his wife sailed for Australia on 24 June 1911 and MO5 heard of his departure in October.

  This closes the first part of Karl Hentschel’s case. MO5 at that time knew nothing beyond what had been reported by Melville, Major Bright, and the police in 1909 and 1910; there was no proof against Hentschel and no suspicion against his wife, her family or Parrott. The one danger anticipated was the indiscretion of officers during their lessons with Hentschel and against that only very limited precautions could be taken. It was not until August 1911 that a new weapon was placed in the hands of MO5 by granting warrants in special cases for the opening of letters in the post.

  When he left for Australia Hentschel had quarreled not only with Parrott but also with his German employers. The reasons for these quarrels are not clear, but there is evidence to show that one motive at least was jealousy, personal and professional. Hentschel was a suspicious man; his wife had been actively employed carrying books, etc. to Ostend on at least three occasions and he was jealous of her relations with both Parrott and with Tornow. Her attitude may have given him cause for jealousy. Letters from Tornow and from another married man both reveal a peculiar tenderness for Patricia. Moreover, Hentschel accused Parrott of making love to her.

  From an employer’s point of view, Hentschel may have become an unsatisfactory agent; he had probably taken to drink and he may have kept for his own use money given to him for other purposes. ‘T’ afterwards mentioned two sums, £300 and £250 for which some reparation had to be made. One of these was a sum of £500 which according to Hertschel had been given to him to start farming in Australia. Patricia too declared her husband had embezzled £1,700 but ‘T”s letter disposes of this statement. Parrott declared that Hentschel had sold his ‘connection’ to the Germans for £1,000; that would bring Hentschel’s profits of a more or less illegitimate kind up to £1,550. It was Charles Wagener who told [XXXX] that it was he who found Parrott through a commercial traveller and Wagener, alias Steel, alias Brown, was running a spy bureau at 394 Edgware Road and 15 New Oxford Street. Combining all these statements the following may be the facts: Hentschel could do no more with Parrott, the two men quarrelled over Patricia and probably over the £300 which Hentschel received from the Germans and did not share with Parrott. Hentschel then sold his connection to Wagener and decamped to Australia with the proceeds. After a time the Germans heard of this and sent Fels over and Fels, through Wagener, picked up the Rileys and Parrott. Between the Rileys and Wagener, Parrott was coerced into acting for them. He had been able to ignore letters from Germany but yielded to personal pressure under the influence of fear and cupidity.

  Hentschel, out in Australia, heard of this and immediately wrote to Parrott demanding a sum of £250. ‘Richard’ in Berlin was informed, let Parrott know that he was not to worry, for the matter would be arranged from Berlin, and promptly cabled £50 to Hentschel. This supplied funds for the return of the pair and accordingly they landed in England in March 1912. Meanwhile MO5 had been empowered to take out a HOW for suspect correspondence and had thereby discovered the activities of Parrott, Mrs Riley, and others. With intercepted correspondence we get on absolutely firm ground.

  On arrival Patricia wrote to Robert Tornow who was already expecting her return, begging him to re-engage her husband. She sent two copies of her letter one via Schulzer, 28 Misinesmier, Rotterdam, the other via Otto Kruger. This latter was intercepted; eventually it was delivered to Kruger’s house after his flight to Germany and was burned by Mrs Kruger.

  Various spy trials had taken place during the Hentschels’s absence and the reply to Patricia showed that the name Tornow had been exchanged for Thibaut and the Ostend address for that of Henri Adams, 10 Petite rue des Longs in Brussels. Thibaut was prepared to re-engage the Hentschels provided a promise were given never again to blackmail ‘gardener who was the cause’ of Karl’s success. Patricia then wrote that she hoped to resume partnership with Gardener and was most anxious to meet Captain Fels and that her sisters were looking forward to seeing him again. Hentschel went abroad, saw Thibaut, and promised to
deliver up any correspondence at all in his hands, and was re-engaged at a lower salary than before.

  Next came a wire from Rotterdam bidding him continue negotiations as money was being sent. This it would seem, referred to a plan for buying a public-house, which fell through. The wire was followed by a registered packet despatched from Rotterdam by Ch. Beaumont. But nothing further seems to have passed and in June Hentschel set out for Australia and was followed by his wife and her sister Edith in July. A HOW had been taken out for Hentschel’s correspondence; it was cancelled on 15 October 1913.

  Parrott had no doubt refused to have anything to do with Hentschel and Hentschel’s services as a German agent were not needed for Gould was at work at Rochester, Parrott at Sheerness, and the Riley girls at Chatham, and Mrs Riley may have been carrying documents to the Continent.

  Very soon after Patricia reached Australia, she was planning her return, and Thibaut was undoubtedly anxious for it. Parrott had been dismissed from the navy in August and ‘T’ was communicating with him through Mrs Riley. At the end of August, Parrott was to be informed through this channel that a very satisfactory arrangement had been made with Charles and that the old friendly relations were being kept up. This means that Hentschel was receiving a salary of £30 a month for keeping silent.

  In September ‘T’ was still feeling hopeful about Charles and quieting Parrott’s fears. At the same time he complained of the large sums received by Charles and Patricia in the last year and made it clear that Mrs Riley’s pension depended on Charles’s good behavior. In this letter Hentschel gave Mrs Riley Charles’s address: 31 Woolcott Street, Darlinghurst, Sydney, and a check was immediately placed on it, apparently without result. Supplies were forwarded to Charles from Berlin via the Bank of Australia, and the Deutsche Bank, and the Diskonto Gesellschaft.