In the third of our monthly history blog posts, historian Clive Francis ponders the question: How secret were the secret listeners at Trent Park House?

In the second of our monthly guest blog posts by Clive Francis, we explore one of the most significant conversations overheard at Trent Park House on Monday 22nd March 1943.

On Thursday 27th April, 2023, a group of 14 research volunteers travelled to the National Archives, Kew to see what they could find about Trent Park House during the Second World War. The team of volunteers spent time learning about using archives, the history of Trent Park, and enjoyed spending time in the reading room looking at original documents from the 1940s.

A statement from Trent Park House on the death of Her Majesty The Queen.

We were thrilled, therefore, to see that BT has now published the ‘Dollis Hill War Diary’ – a historical record of the involvement of the General Post Office’s (GPO – as BT was formerly known) Dollis Hill Research Station and its involvement in the Second World War

Lois Page’s grandmother, May Woodward, and grandfather, Fred Holman, worked in domestic service at Trent Park House in the 1920s, whilst the house was owned by Sir Philip Sassoon.

Over the course of the Second World War the Combined Services Detailed Interrogation Centre (UK) (CSDIC (UK)) – at sites including Trent Park, the Tower of London, Latimer House and Wilton Park – covertly monitored, recorded, transcribed and translated the private conversations of over 10,000 German and 500 Italian soldiers, sailors and aviators

The staff at Trent Park House operated under a veil of secrecy, and the majority took their true nature and content of their work to the grave with them. Lieutenant Colonel Frank Huband was one such staff member.

I have long been fascinated by the patronage relationship between the artist Rex Whistler and Sir Philip Sassoon, a client for whom he carried out so many commissions in the inter-war years. My research has led me to become increasingly convinced that this relationship has been rather misunderstood by their biographers.

The Sassoon family were the custodians of Trent Park from 1909 to 1939. Initially bought from the Bevan banking family by Sir Edward Sassoon (1856-1912), before passing to his son Sir Philip (1888-1939) in 1912.

It wasn’t until a documentary programme invited me to take part in their series ‘War Hero in my Family’ in 2011/2 that the true secrets of my grandfather Ernst Lederer’s ‘other’ life emerged.

During my time at Trent, there was one particularly exciting night – Orson Welles came to Trent Park to film a scene for Michael Winner’s movie I’ll Never Forget What’s’isname. Even better, so too was Oliver Reed, darling of the hip mid-60s generation.

On Holocaust Memorial Day (27 January) we commemorate the millions of victims of Nazi persecution, especially the six million Jewish men, women and children – some two thirds of Europe’s Jewish population – systematically killed between 1941 and 1945.

1945 would see the end of the Second World War and bring peace to the United Kingdom. However, Trent Park did not stand still. In the immediate post-war era, to the backdrop of demobilisation, austerity, continued rationing and reconstruction, Trent Park would find a new purpose – education.

Between having his commission as a Second Lieutenant in the East Kent Yeomanry activated on 5 August 1914, and joining Haig’s staff in December 1915, Sassoon would fulfil staff roles for Field Marshal John French and General Sir Henry Rawlinson.

On the surface, it was certainly an unconventional pairing – the elegant 27-year-old MP, millionaire and first-generation Anglo-French Baghdadi Jew; and the Scottish, middle-aged, professional soldier with a military career stretching back to the Mahdist War of 1898.

In our October 2020 blog we introduced some of the over 80 German Generals and senior officers that were held at Trent Park during the Second World War. This month we wanted to revisit this group and share further insights into their experiences, worldviews, and private conversations.

By 1943 CSDIC (UK) – with Trent Park its ‘jewel in the crown’ – had established itself as an organisation highly effective in the gathering of vital military intelligence from the private conversations of unwitting Axis POWs.

15 April 2021 marks the 76th anniversary of the liberation of Bergen-Belsen by the British 11th Armoured Division. War crimes and atrocities were frequently discussed among the German prisoners at Trent Park.

Stool pigeon. Gun dog. Informer. Decoy. Agent provocateur. None of these expressions are compliments. The ‘stoolie’ who agrees to spy on his former mates risks being shunned and despised by them – or worse – if detected. Still, WW2 German servicemen did so in ever-increasing numbers.

Sir Philip Sassoon was famously a bachelor - but his life was filled with remarkable women, both from his own family and those he entertained and counted amongst his friends.

The contribution that women made to the success of Trent Park in WW2 was vital.

As we further our understanding of Trent Park’s wartime operations, a fundamental question is: how many Axis prisoners of war passed through its doors?

Of all the intelligence gathered from Axis POWs at Trent Park, Latimer House and Wilton Park, little was more significant than the light shed on the development of the German Wunderwaffe – ‘miracle weapons’ or ‘superweapons’ – particularly the V-1 flying bomb and the V-2 ballistic missile, which would terrorise and kill thousands of Allied civilians in 1944-1945.

Sir Philip Sassoon, the last private owner of Trent Park, was the product of two illustrious families – the Sassoons and the Rothschilds.

The work of Trent Park and CSDIC (UK) was an instrumental part of Britain’s ‘secret war’.

Flight Lieutenant Samuel Denys Felkin was placed in charge of the Air Intelligence section AI1(K), and later became the Chief Interrogation Officer at Trent Park.

With a new series of The Crown out, we thought we would share these snaps of key members of the cast at Trent Park!

The Obituary of Eric Mark, the last Secret Listener of WWII, has been published in today's The Times.

The Combined Services Detailed Interrogation Centre (CSDIC) (UK) has a remarkable wartime history. From humble beginnings in September 1939, to moving to Trent Park in December 1939, it would go on to become an invaluable part of British Intelligence.