MI5 in the Great War by Nigel West

Author:Nigel West [Nigel West]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781849547772
Publisher: Biteback Publishing
Published: 2014-08-18T16:00:00+00:00

Louise Emily Wertheim, whose maiden name was Klitzke, was by birth a German Pole, and became by her marriage with Bruno Wertheim a British subject. For three years separated from her husband, she was in England when war broke out and procured with the aid of a relative at Hampstead and of a Hampstead doctor a passport to enable her to visit her mother in Berlin. She did not however leave until October when she went on visits to Amsterdam and there met an old friend named Dr Brandt. She returned to London in November and put up in Coptic Street.

In December 1914 Mrs Wertheim again went to Amsterdam to nurse the wife of an old friend named Moritz Lietzau. While there she arranged with Dr Brandt to correspond with him in a kind of family code. She returned to London at the end of January and introduced herself to Miss Gertrud Elizabeth Brandes.

Miss Brandes, of 62 Hammersmith Road, was the sister of Mrs Lietzau, and thence forward Mrs Wetheim made her headquarters at that house. But she would frequently go away for two or three days together without giving an address. Subsequently it was ascertained that she had visited Folkestone, Margate, the Isle of Man, Fishguard and probably Ireland and Holland during these absences.

In about Whitsuntide she called on an American lady named Miss Knowles – Macy at 33 Regent’s Park Road – and induced her to go with her to Scotland. On 28 May they reached Edinburgh and Miss Knowles having no passport was told to get one and returned for good to London. Mrs Wertheim went to Dundee from 28 to 31 May and on 30 May drove to Carnoustie and Arbroath. She spent from 1 to 3 June in Inverness and there aroused suspicion by ordering a motor to drive to Cromarty. The Chief Constable was warned; he called at the hotel and noted irregularities in Mrs Wertheim’s signature, interviewed her and practically obliged her to return to London. On 3 June he reported the matter to the Metropolitan Police. Mrs Wertheim returned on the 3rd and next day deposited her Scottish luggage with Miss Knowles.

On 7 June Miss Brandes turned Mrs Wertheim out and she then went to Miss Knowles for two nights. She was arrested in Miss Knowles’ house. When the police went to search her room, she entered the maid’s room, tore up a letter from George T. Parker and threw it out of the window. Among her papers, besides evidence showing that she had been recently in Berlin and had been communicating with German PoWs, there were found the address of Netta, wife of Dr Brandt; that of Althuis, 166 Loosduinschekade and letters of 7 and 18 May signed ‘Mother’ and ‘Suzette’ but written from Loosduischekade and by the same hand, which was that of Dr Brandt; letters from George T. Parker; an envelope addressed to R. Rowland; an Irish railway guide and Irish money; £115 in banknotes; a letter showing that she had applied to a Mrs Ausems for £50 to be sent in the name of her mother.

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