Maxwell Knight

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Maxwell Knight was an MI5 agent-runner.

Maxwell Knight was born in 1900. He became a Naval Cadet in 1915. In the final year of the First World War, he served as a midshipman in the Royal Naval Reserve. He subsequently worked as a teacher and freelance journalist for several years.[1]

He became involved with George Makgill's private Industrial Intelligence Bureau (IIB), joining the British Fascisti (BF) in 1924, as an agent for Makgill, who was ultimately working on behalf of Vernon Kell of MI5.[1] He became the BF's deputy chief of staff and director of intelligence.[2] In 1925, he married the director of the BF women's units, G.E.A. Poole in 1925.[2]

In the mid-1920s, Knight successfully infiltrated six fascists into the Communist Party on behalf of the IIB.[2]

According to Chapman Pincher, Knight recruited Tom Driberg to spy for MI5 at some time in the mid-1920s, while Driberg was still a schoolboy at Lansing College.[3]

Christopher Andrew characterises Knight's views at the time as closer to those of the Fascisti than he would later acknowledge, but nevertheless 'those of diehard conservatives rather than the radical right'.[2] He nevertheless had extremely right-wing friends, including Nesta Webster, who recommended him to Desmond Morton of the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS).[4]

SIS

Morton recruited Knight and his network for the SIS in December 1929, to investigate links between British communist organisations and the Comintern.[5] SIS did not inform domestic intelligence agencies of the recruitment but Morton was told by J.F.C. Carter of Special Branch that Knight had been put under observation.[6]

Section M

In October 1931, Knight transferred to MI5 which took over responsibility for domestic agent-running. Knight's network known as 'M Section', was initially based in Sloane Street, later at Dolphin Square.[7] It targeted the Communist Party of Great Britain and from 1933, the British Union of Fascists (BUF).[7]

In 1935, Knight's first wife, Gwladys, died of a drug overdose, with her family blaming him for the death.[8] In 1937, Knight married his second wife, Lois Coplestone.[7]

CPGB

In 1931, Knight recruited Olga Gray who became a long-term penetration agent in the CPGB.[9] Gray had initially been contacted in 1928 by Dolly Pyle, an MI5 secretary who acted as a spotter for Knight.[10]

According to Christopher Andrew, Knight's network was the probable source of information on CPGB activity received in 1933, which MI5 used in its campaign for legislation against subversion in the armed forces.[11]

When Olga Gray was asked by the CPGB to act as a courier to India in 1934, Knight devised a cover story for her because the party had neglected to do so.[9] By 1937, Gray's work was bringing her into contact with Soviet spies including figures who would later by identified as Teodor Maly and Arnold Deutsch.[12] In 1938, Gray evidence in the trial of a spy ring at Woolwich Arsenal, after which she moved to Canada.[13]

The success of the Woolwich Arsenal case brought great prestige for Knight and his theories of long-term agent-running.[14]

According to Christopher Andrew, evidence from this case, and from one of Knight's agents in the CPGB led to suspicions about Melita Norwood which were not followed up.[13]

BUF

Knight's early reports on the BUF portrayed the organisation as patriotic, but in a report on 13 April 1934, he admitted that the organisation's finances had suddenly returned to health after a visit to Italy by Oswald Moseley.[15] In September 1934, Knight reported that William Joyce was 'a rabid anti-Catholic' and 'fanatical anti-Semite' but that his 'basic patriotism' was unlikely to be shaken.[16]

B1F or B5(b) section

Christopher Andrew reports that in a 1938 reorganisation of MI5, Knight's M Section became B1F section of B Branch, the branch responsible for counter-espionage and counter-subversion.[17] However, other sources refer to Knight's wartime section as B5(b).[18]

Dolphin Square

According to Anthony Masters, Knight's section moved out of MI5 Headquarters to Dolphin Square in 1937. This was partly to enable greater secrecy for operations, and partly to facilitate surveillance of the Anglo-German Information Service in Parliament Street.[19] The section occupied 308 Hood House, owned by Knight's brother-in-law, and 10 Collingwood House, owned by MI5.).[20]

CPGB

In the early years of World War Two, Knight infiltrated another spy, the journalist Norman Himsworth into the CPGB.[21] After the war Knight and Himsworth succeeded in penetrating another woman agent into CPGB headquarters.[22]

Knight conduction two interviews with the journalist William Ewer in 1950, about Ewer's links to Soviet espionage in the 1920s.[23]

The Right Club

During World War Two, Knight placed three female agents, including his secretary Joan Miller in the pro-Nazi Right Club.[24]

Embassies

Knight also ran women agents employed by diplomats suspected of Nazi sympathies during World War Two.[24]

F Division

Under MI5's postwar director Percy Sillitoe, Knight's section was moved from Dolphin Square to F3 at Leconfield House.[25] Knight's friend Tom Roberts knew him as a senior officer in F Division in 1953.[26] Mike Hughes suggests that Knight was probably the head of F4 section, a position which was subsequently held by his second-in-command John Bingham.[27]

Knight retired from MI5 in 1956, to focus on natural history broadcasting.[28]

Tradecraft

Knight strongly believed that agent-running was a specialised task best run on a centralised basis rather than by research officers.[29]

On the use of woman agents, Knight wrote that 'What is required is a clever woman who can use her personal attractions wisely'.[24] He favoured the use of women because of their ability to obtain unobtrusive secretarial positions within political movements.[30]

Knight argued that cooperation with the police as vital at all levels, but sought to restrict the identification of agents as much as possible.[31]

Connections

Agents

Affiliations

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Christopher Andrew, Defence of the Realm, The Authorized History of MI5, Allen Lane, 2009, p.123.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Christopher Andrew, Defence of the Realm, The Authorized History of MI5, Allen Lane, 2009, p.124.
  3. ↑ Chapman Pincher, Their Trade is Treachery, Biteback Publishing, 2013, Chapter 12.
  4. ↑ Christopher Andrew, Defence of the Realm, The Authorized History of MI5, Allen Lane, 2009, p.125.
  5. ↑ Christopher Andrew, Defence of the Realm, The Authorized History of MI5, Allen Lane, 2009, p.128.
  6. ↑ Christopher Andrew, Defence of the Realm, The Authorized History of MI5, Allen Lane, 2009, p.129.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Christopher Andrew, Defence of the Realm, The Authorized History of MI5, Allen Lane, 2009, p.132.
  8. ↑ Thomas Henessey and Claire Thomas, Spooks: The Unofficial History of MI5, Amberley, 2009, pp.144.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Christopher Andrew, Defence of the Realm, The Authorized History of MI5, Allen Lane, 2009, p.179.
  10. ↑ Thomas Henessey and Claire Thomas, Spooks: The Unofficial History of MI5, Amberley, 2009, p.136 .
  11. ↑ Christopher Andrew, Defence of the Realm, The Authorized History of MI5, Allen Lane, 2009, p.165.
  12. ↑ Christopher Andrew, Defence of the Realm, The Authorized History of MI5, Allen Lane, 2009, p.180.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Christopher Andrew, Defence of the Realm, The Authorized History of MI5, Allen Lane, 2009, p.182.
  14. ↑ Thomas Henessey and Claire Thomas, Spooks: The Unofficial History of MI5, Amberley, 2009, p.143.
  15. ↑ Christopher Andrew, Defence of the Realm, The Authorized History of MI5, Allen Lane, 2009, p.191.
  16. ↑ Christopher Andrew, Defence of the Realm, The Authorized History of MI5, Allen Lane, 2009, p.194.
  17. ↑ Christopher Andrew, Defence of the Realm, The Authorized History of MI5, Allen Lane, 2009, p.134.
  18. ↑ Anthony Masters, The Man who was M: The Life of Maxwell Knight, The real-like spymaster who inspired Ian Fleming, Grafton Books, p.46.
  19. ↑ Anthony Masters, The Man who was M: The Life of Maxwell Knight, The real-like spymaster who inspired Ian Fleming, Grafton Books, p.90.
  20. ↑ Anthony Masters, The Man who was M: The Life of Maxwell Knight, The real-like spymaster who inspired Ian Fleming, Grafton Books, p.101.
  21. ↑ Christopher Andrew, Defence of the Realm, The Authorized History of MI5, Allen Lane, 2009, p.273.
  22. ↑ Christopher Andrew, Defence of the Realm, The Authorized History of MI5, Allen Lane, 2009, p.401.
  23. ↑ Thomas Henessey and Claire Thomas, Spooks: The Unofficial History of MI5, Amberley, 2009, pp.109-111.
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 24.2 Christopher Andrew, Defence of the Realm, The Authorized History of MI5, Allen Lane, 2009, p.221.
  25. ↑ Anthony Masters, The Man who was M: The Life of Maxwell Knight, The real-like spymaster who inspired Ian Fleming, Grafton Books, p.221.
  26. ↑ Anthony Masters, The Man who was M: The Life of Maxwell Knight, The real-like spymaster who inspired Ian Fleming, Grafton Books, p.229.
  27. ↑ Mike Hughes, Spies at Work, lulu.com, 2012, p.257.
  28. ↑ Anthony Masters, The Man who was M: The Life of Maxwell Knight, The real-like spymaster who inspired Ian Fleming, Grafton Books, p.231.
  29. ↑ Thomas Henessey and Claire Thomas, Spooks: The Unofficial History of MI5, Amberley, 2009, p.148.
  30. ↑ Thomas Henessey and Claire Thomas, Spooks: The Unofficial History of MI5, Amberley, 2009, p.146.
  31. ↑ Thomas Henessey and Claire Thomas, Spooks: The Unofficial History of MI5, Amberley, 2009, p.149.
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