Our Uninvited Guests by Julie Summers

Author:Julie Summers [Summers, Julie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK

The would-be agents were selected carefully at a preliminary interview that took place in a variety of different locations. Those interviewed for Section F were summoned to a bare room in the Northumberland Hotel. Later, one-to-one interviews were replaced by an assessment board composed of psychologists. Once they had been thoroughly interviewed and investigated agents were sent on a three-week course in one of a dozen English country houses. This was a test in physical fitness, elementary map reading and some weapons training. There was always plenty of alcohol available in these houses as it was vitally important to know how agents would behave after they had had a drink or two. The most famous of these houses was Wanborough Manor in Surrey where the commandant, Roger de Wesselow, never failed to take part in the early morning run even though he was over sixty. Those who passed this course – and not all did by any means – were sent to Arisaig for the paramilitary-style training that would be necessary to equip them for the most dangerous role they would probably ever play.

The recruits were all volunteers drawn from every conceivable walk of life and every strata in society. They ranged from poachers to policemen, ladies from the leisured class to women brought up in poverty, artists, peasants, sons of ambassadors, daughters of forces personnel and many more besides. The best agents were the strong, silent types with the strength of character to keep a clear head and remain calm in extremely dangerous situations. M. R. D. Foot described the way the recruiters worked out whether an agent would be worth training: ‘SOE’s training system can be compared to a set of sieves, each one with a closer mesh than the one before. Recruiting and training intermeshed; one of the objects of the training system was to sieve out the unsuitables before they could wreak havoc abroad.’22

Arisaig became the training headquarters in the Highlands and was where most of the instructors and commandants lived. It was also the house used by Gubbins and his official visitors if they wanted somewhere to stay when they made periodic visits to the STS, or Special Training Schools. The ground floor comprised a spacious hall with a staircase leading to the first floor, a wood panelled dining room with a large fireplace, a drawing room with views of the sea loch, a ‘smoking’ room and ‘business’ room that doubled up as a bar and sitting room and was much used during the training weeks. Beyond the business room was the library leading to other rooms approached from the cloakroom area for brushing boots and, in former times, flower arranging. The wing beyond the dining room belonged to the servants or, during the war, the quartermaster’s team and catering staff. The kitchen, scullery and housekeeper’s room remained unaltered but the pantry was renamed the washing room. Below stairs, the servants’ hall and store rooms were given over to the NAAFI while the largest store room became an indoor pistol range.

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