The astonishing story of how a Rotherham spy-master’s secret double-life cost him the love of his life has finally been told... 70 years on!
Before World War II, Rotherham teenagers Edgar and Ann were engaged to be married.
Then Poland was invaded and Edgar was called up.
Because of his job – as a telegrapher – he was conscripted into the Royal Corps of Signals, based at the communications centre on Salisbury Plain.
Ann went to work as a secretary at ICI in Attercliffe, working on top-secret information.
At first they wrote regularly to each other then Edgar’s letters stopped.
Ann continued writing in vain – but, hearing nothing from her beau, she eventually gave him an ultimatum...write and explain, or the engagement was finished.
She did not receive an answer and subsequently called it off... before going on to meet her future husband, John – a Lancaster bomber navigator from Chapeltown.
It was only SIXTY YEARS – when Ann and Edgar met again – that he told her the stunning secret of his silence.
He had been transferred to Section X – the top secret outfit in communications rooms under Whitehall, that intercepted crucial messages from undercover spies across Europe and and passed them on to Bletchley Park.
He was then was co-opted as a spy himself in the Special Operations Executive (SOE) and dropped behind enemy lines to co-ordinate resistance.
With Ann and Edgar both now in their 90s, their incredible tale has now been told in Ey Up Adolf – a tale of secret HQs, spies and operations behind enemy lines, penned by retired Rotherham teacher Neil Whyke.
Neil has reconstructed the past from their first-hand accounts and the only fictional element in the book is dialogue between invented civil servants, which is used to fill in the political background.
Priced at £8.99, Ey Up Adolf is published by Spiderwize.
Well done Mr Whyke sir.
ReplyDeleteAs a former pupil of Rawmarsh Comprehensive it pleased me to hear of your publication (Ey up Adolf).
I hope it goes on to be a best seller, (if it does you can buy me a pint as I only live around the corner from you in Clifton), just joking.
all the best Michael Cawthorn.