The UK Telegraph is reporting a very interesting story today about a former British MI5 spy who foiled a Nazi ring who then relocated to Salt Spring Island after the war. Eric Roberts was not just another normal Salt Spring Island resident according to the Telegraph:
To residents of the far flung island off Canadaâs west coast he was just an ageing author who liked few things better than relaxing in the shade of a blue garden umbrella sipping his favourite drink.
Little could they have imagined, then, that Eric Roberts was actually one of the British security serviceâs most successful spies, smoking out dozens, if not hundreds of Nazi sympathisers during the Second World War.
Now it can be disclosed that Roberts, who on Friday was revealed as the âgeniusâ MI5 spy who posed as a German agent to infiltrate the ranks of British Nazi sympathisers, was a career intelligence officer who left Britain with his family to build a new life as a writer after the war.
The Telegraph has learnt that he moved with his wife and three children to Salt Spring Island, one of British Columbiaâs Southern Gulf islands, going on to establish himself as a leading historian of the area. In 1962 he penned the Salt Spring Saga, an authoritative book on the pioneers who settled on the island in 1859, and which is still cited today.
The limited papers released on Friday by the National Archives on the so-called âfifth columnâ case appeared to suggest that Roberts, a father-of-three who lived in Surrey, had been plucked from a modest role as a bank clerk to act as the lead agent in the operation.
Now his daughter has told how he was actually a career MI5 field officer whose day job at Westminster Bankâs Euston Road branch was intended to mask his secret work.
Crista McDonald, 72, said she was âshocked and amazedâ after learning of Fridayâs disclosures. While her family knew that he worked for MI5, the first she heard of his crucial role effectively blocking the passage of secrets to the Gestapo was when a relative telephoned from Britain to say that her fatherâs face was appearing in the national papers and on the television news.
âI am in shock right now,â Mrs McDonald told The Telegraph from her home in Qualicum Beach, British Columbia. âI am in the middle of reading the reports because I have only just received the news from a cousin in England to mention that part of the story of my father was on the news.
âThe person who is involved in MI5 does not tell his family very much - for his security and for the familyâs security. So I only know a few things, but I certainly didnât know about what I have just been reading.
âIt has come as a complete surprise and shock.â
Mrs McDonald added: âI am extremely proud because there isnât any glory in that work and you donât get any accolades or medals, despite giving your life for your country,â she said. âSo it is nice to see that he is getting some accolades now.
The disclosure that Robertsâs banking job was simply a cover for an MI5 career that spanned the years before and after the war sheds new light on the papers released on Friday.
The documents showed that Robertsâs employers at the bank were somewhat baffled by a formal request by Lt Col Oswald Harker, MI5âs acting director general, in 1940, asking for Roberts to be released to work for the intelligence service.
The bankâs assistant controller replied that they had been unable to perceive the âparticular and especial qualifications of Mr Robertsâ for âsome particular work of national military importanceâ - a remark which might have caused amusement at MI5 where his work had already greatly impressed the serviceâs top agent runner, Maxwell Knight.
The papers showed how, operating under the alias Jack King, Roberts controlled a ânetworkâ of Nazi sympathisers in Britain. King was previously thought to be John Bingham, the MI5 officer who partly inspired John le CarrĂ©âs character George Smiley.
Robertsâs targets are described as often âunimportantâ individuals passing on sensitive information, such as stolen defence plans, in the belief they were working for the Gestapo. He used a flat in a large block in Edgware Road, west London, as a meeting place, the files show.
It can now be revealed that after the war Roberts, aged 50, moved from his Surrey home to Canada, along with his wife Alice, sons Maxwell and Peter, and Crista. The family travelled separately from Britain, with Alice, then 57, accompanying Crista, 14, on a ship from Liverpool to Boston, before making the onward journey to Canada.
In Salt Spring the arrivals from Britain became well known, not least because of Robertsâs foray into local history, with a large picture of Crista on her wedding day appearing in the Driftwood, the islandâs newspaper, on Feb 4 1967.
Roberts himself became a regular contributor to the newspaper, in one piece describing Salt Spring as his âhavenâ away from the noise and hostilities of metropolitan life.
In another, on Nov 14 1968, he gave the merest hint of his past experiences, in a call for legislation to restrict the ownership of guns.
âI would refer to those cases where guns get into the hands of the crooks and the crazy,â he wrote, adding that if firearms were ârestricted to those who are responsible, the majority of us would feel happierâ.
Whether Roberts was still working in some capacity for MI5 when he embarked on his new life in Canada remains a mystery. Asked if she knew what was behind the familyâs move to Canada, Mrs McDonald replied: âYes, but Iâm not going to divulge that.â
Read the full story on the telegraph.co.uk
