The Forgotten Spy (27 page)

The encounter was only reported to MI5 by Eastwood the following morning, the day when the results of the laboratory tests on the samples and key were sent back to Harker at MI5. The analysis revealed nothing conclusive, other than ruling out wax and an observation that the material contained water, an insoluble gritty substance and red pigment. In conclusion, it was tentatively suggested that the material was a form of soap, certainly something in which impressions could have been made. Further comparison with the soap in the Foreign Office failed to reveal a match, strongly suggesting that Oldham had brought it with him deliberately.

Monday 17 July proved to be particularly active for operatives on the Oldham case. At 10.32 am, a male caller, hesitantly identified by the intercept
transcriber as Monsieur ‘Purrilli’ or ‘Joe’, requested to speak to Mrs Oldham. Thanks to the phone tap, we have a full transcript of the conversation.

Two hours later, after a visit to the bank, Lucy placed a call to Brown’s Hotel in the hope of speaking to her son, mainly to see if he would lend her some money, given the unlikely prospect of obtaining any from her errant husband.

Whether either meeting took place is not recorded, but it would seem that Bystrolyotov turned his attention away from Oldham and towards his wife in his persistent attempts to find out the identity of Oldham’s ‘source’. Aware that Kemp – to whom the OGPU centre had given the code name ROLAND – was increasingly involved in the investigation into Oldham’s activities, Bystrolyotov persuaded Lucy to invite Kemp over for lunch. The call to the Foreign Office from 31 Pembroke Gardens was logged by MI5 at 10.57 am on 19 July.

This was an extraordinary risk on Bystrolyotov’s part, but it was considered a risk worth taking as it was possible, albeit unlikely, that Kemp might himself be the source. Equally, there was a very real chance that Bystrolyotov was walking into a trap, so the day before he contacted Lucy to arrange the meeting with Kemp, OGPU ensured that his pistol was delivered to him. The mutual understanding was that if he was arrested he should use it on himself.

Bystrolyotov sat in Hyde Park on his ‘usual bench by the lake’, where he had prepared Oldham five days previously and was shocked to find that the operative who had been sent to hand over his weapon, along with his
passport in the name of Alexander Gallas, was none other than his wife. Realising that this could be the last time they might see each other, Bystrolyotov later recalled, ‘We said farewell to each other as if before a battle’.
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Bystrolyotov arrived at 31 Pembroke Gardens shortly after Kemp, who was already regaling Lucy with his concerns about Oldham’s recent behaviour. To Bystrolyotov’s dismay, she reciprocated, giving Kemp details about her husband’s activities, including the fact that he had recently stolen a briefcase marked ‘His Majesty’s courier’ as well as a ‘red passport’ for himself, items usually carried by King’s Messengers on their journeys overseas. In addition, he had managed to obtain a passport for a ‘scoundrel’, no doubt the passport he’d secured in the name of Robert Grenville.
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Kemp quickly asked if she could remember anything about the man to whom it was issued but she said she could not recall anything. This was sufficient to confirm Kemp’s suspicions that ‘a foreign spy was somewhere near Oldham’ and he announced that he had been ‘entrusted to find him’. Realising that the game was virtually up, Bystrolyotov thought quickly and tried to direct Kemp’s line of investigation elsewhere. He played on the growing international fears about Hitler’s Germany that were being reported with increasing frequency in the press and offered to help Kemp locate the spy. He deployed his own cover story, as a representative of a German bank, to great effect.

It was a desperate ploy, but it worked. Kemp agreed, Bystrolyotov booked the table over the phone and the two men parted on good terms – Kemp thanked Bystrolyotov and shook his hand ‘especially meaningfully’.

As soon as he had left, Kemp returned to the Foreign Office to debrief his superiors about the conversation he’d just had with Lucy and Perelly. It would appear that Harker was in attendance, for he placed a call from the Foreign Office to MI5 instructing the General Post Office to add 31 Queen’s Gate to the surveillance warrant. He informed Ottaway that Oldham ‘was in the habit of going in and out and S11 should therefore be instructed to take up observation on this address’. In the light of Kemp’s information, a discussion took place about what action, if any, should be taken against Oldham. Harker’s notes were placed on file the same day:

Howard Smith was by now the Chief Clerk while Clifford John Norton was the private secretary to the Permanent Under-Secretary of State, Sir Robert Vansittart. ‘DPP’ was an indication of just how seriously this had now become and referred to the Director of Public Prosecutions, Sir Edmund Tilbery Atkinson QC – a lieutenant in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve during World War I before switching to the Royal Air Force as a major.

Despite Atkinson’s professional background – he was the legal representative for the UK during the peace negotiations and therefore in Paris with Oldham – he had been a somewhat surprising choice as Director of Public Prosecutions when he was appointed in 1930. Indeed, on being summoned to the Home Office to be offered the job, it is said that he refused because he believed that it was some sort of joke and left the room, before being summoned back to formally accept the role. You could understand why; he was not a criminal lawyer, had no previous experience of working with the department and knew none of the key staff. Most of his first two years in post were spent worrying that he might do something wrong. Some of this hesitancy was displayed during his involvement in the Oldham case.

Parker then returned to the Foreign Office to relay the news. The head of the service, Sir Robert Vansittart, was present for the next meeting. Vansittart had also attended the Paris Peace Conference and enjoyed various promotions afterwards, serving as private secretary to Lord Curzon before performing the same role for Prime Ministers Baldwin and MacDonald between 1928 and 1930. In January 1930 he was appointed to run the Foreign Office.

Meanwhile, as the mandarins of the Foreign Office were discussing what to do next, Bystrolyotov made tracks for 31 Queen’s Gate to alert Oldham about what had transpired back at his house. He was still there at 5.50 pm when Oldham placed a call to his wife. Whether it was the strain of the day’s events or the cumulative effect of Oldham’s alcoholism that had ruined their lives, Lucy snapped. Because the conversation was recorded on the phone tap, the moment that their marriage finally ended is recorded.

Bad news kept raining down on Oldham. With Kemp expecting a meeting the following day and the net starting to close in, Bystrolyotov gave notice of his intention to leave England in the morning, advising Oldham to
keep out of trouble. Sure enough, Kemp had been instructed to keep his meeting and find out as much as he could from Perelly. According to an OGPU report:

Kemp returned to the office, but was somewhat coy about the incident and seems not to have fully debriefed his superiors. However, he had suggested that it would be more difficult than first thought to obtain access to Oldham’s things at the nursing home. Harker put his initial thoughts down for Kell to review.