Book 8 toppled – a story of money, class and betrayal

The Forgotten Spy is Ernest Oldham who sold secrets to the Soviet Union between the two world wars. He is also the great-uncle of the author Nick Barratt but sadly, apart from one anecdote, Oldham’s life and career don’t seem to have left any traces in his extended family’s memories. I think that I bought this book because I had the impression that it was a memoir but it is actually mostly about what Oldham did and how he did it rather than about him as a person – probably because there seems to be very little personal evidence in existence.

Oldham fought in WW1 and wanted to join the diplomatic service but he didn’t have the right background and so, after he returned from the war, he joined the Foreign Office where he eventually became responsible for the King’s Messengers, who took confidential messages around the globe. The communications department where he worked were also the people who coded and decoded diplomatic messages so he was privy to some quite important information and secrets. During the 1920s and 30s Oldham obtained secret information and sold it to the Soviet government, almost certainly for money rather because of an ideological issue.

What comes out of this story is how badly organised and insecure the Foreign Office was at this time and how much they depended on an inherent sense of loyalty and honour among its staff. Even when Oldham had been dismissed from the service he could still gain access to the building and to important documents, even though most of the staff suspected what he was doing.

Oldham’s story is a sad one – although we are limited in knowing much about his motivations and feelings because of the lack of personal knowledge about the man. There appears only to be one photograph of him in existence. He seems to have made an unwise marriage and have been generally unhappy, turning to drink to help him cope. This all led to money issues which resulted in his approach to the Soviet Embassy and an offer to pass them information. He was the forerunner of better known spies such as Guy Burgess and Kim Philby and had more lessons been learned from his actions it is possible that his successors would not have remained undiscovered for so long.

This is an interesting story which is limited by the amount of information available about Oldham as a person. The author, however, has done a lot of research about the Foreign Office and spying at this time – unfortunately, he shares much of it with the reader when it isn’t all necessary. For example, on one occasion he tells us about the life history of a man who may have been connected with Oldham and then decides that it probably wasn’t him but someone else. This book needed a bit more editing to make this interesting story punchier and to avoid it being bogged down in detail.

I am going to pass this book on to Oxfam for resale. I did enjoy it and found the story interesting but the copy I read printed the text in an amazingly small font – I could read it, but it required concentration. If you have sight issues I should advise reading the book electronically.