Peter Dorschel was an East German spy convicted in Scotland in June 1967 of offences contrary to the Official Secrets Act, involving the sale of information to the USSR.
Peter Dorschel was an East German spy convicted in Scotland in June 1967 of offences contrary to the Official Secrets Act, involving the sale of information to the USSR.
Peter Dorschel was a ship's cook. [1] Little is known of his background other than that he came from what was then the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) and had visited Britain on occasion prior to 1967 when employed as a seaman. He had worked legally under the English permit system [2] and in January 1967 had married Christine, an English model, at Lübeck. [3]
Some time prior to May 1967, and probably during his honeymoon, he had been approached in his home country by two compatriots who were operating as agents for the USSR. They proposed to provide finances enabling Dorschel to acquire a small hotel in Dunoon, Scotland, by use of which he would be able to obtain information from local US service personnel regarding fleet movements and facilities at their Polaris nuclear submarine base at the Holy Loch. The information would be passed on by Dorschel to the agents. In April, Dorschel rented a house at Hunter's Quay. This provided him with a good view of activity at the Polaris base. [2]
Dorschel was living at 10 Webster Grove, Prestwich, England, when he was arrested on 26 May 1967 in connection with his activities. [3] [4] Then aged 26, he was accused of inciting another man, William Alexander MacAffer (sometimes spelled McAffer), "to obtain documents which might be or were intended to be directly or indirectly useful to an enemy, for a purpose prejudicial to the safety or interests of the State." [5] MacAffer was a 30-year-old bookmaker [6] who lived at Argyll Street in Dunoon. Another who was involved in the conspiracy was Garry Lee Ledbetter, [7] a US Navy shipfitter from Dexter, Missouri, US [1] who was stationed on USS Simon Lake, the submarine tender serving the Polaris fleet at Holy Loch. Ledbetter supplied two documents to MacAffer, who in turn supplied them to Dorschel. [2]
Although arrested and initially charged in Manchester, the case against Dorschel was transferred to Scotland when related arrests were made there. [5] Dorschel pleaded guilty on 19 June 1967 at Dunoon Sheriff Court. [7] With Nicholas Fairbairn acting in his defence at the High Court of Justiciary in Edinburgh, Dorschel was sentenced on 23 June to seven years' imprisonment. [2] Having heard the prosecutor describe Dorschel as a probably a "little fish" and amateurish, the sentencing judge recorded that
This case, I am satisfied, is by no means as serious as some which have happened in recent years [in England]. Nevertheless, it appears that this was only through the efficient work of the security services that your activities were stopped before real tragedies occurred. I agree that you were perhaps ... a little fish in this particular sea of trouble. Nevertheless, these charges are always grave and serious ... [2]
The Times reported that, despite the seriousness of the charge, the court hearing had been "marked by some moments of levity on the public benches and drolleries from the legal participants". One instance giving rise to this was a statement regarding Dorschel's naivety: he had been asked to supply photographs of Hythe and Poole to his spymasters and had instead sent picture postcards. Fairbairn noted that "If this is how foreign espionage in matters as important as nuclear submarines is conducted, we have little to fear from it." [8]
Dorschel had co-operated from the outset with the investigation and Fairbairn said that he had received no training nor had any particular ideological basis for his activities. At the time of Dorschel's sentencing, the US Navy reported that investigations were still proceeding with regard to Ledbetter. [2] Later, Ledbetter was charged by the Navy with supplying a training booklet and another unspecified document to a man and a woman. Dorschel gave evidence in camera against Ledbetter at the court martial in August 1967. [9] MacAffer and his sister, Frances Isabella MacAffer (or Hardless], [10] both attended but refused to supply information. [9] Ledbetter, who had been subjected to a polygraph test, [11] was found guilty. He was sentenced to six months' hard labour and discharged from the navy. [12]
Although charges had been laid against MacAffer, they were dropped in September 1967. The Crown Office, who were responsible for prosecuting, said that it was unable to provide a reason for this. [12] MacAffer, whose sister was the girlfriend of Ledbetter, then claimed that he had notified the US and British authorities of Dorschel's initial approach to him and had been trying to trap Dorschel since that time. He also claimed that he had been told there were six East Germans involved in the spy ring. Official bodies of both countries denied his claims of co-operation. [13] MacAffer faced further charges in October 1967, relating to alleged avoidance of customs duty and illegal off-course bookmaking that had been discovered in May. [14] [15]
Dorschel was released in January 1970 and deported to West Germany. [3] Later in that year, his wife, Christine, who had been aged 21 at the time of the trial and had promised to "stand by" him, [2] divorced him on the grounds of cruelty. In granting the decree nisi , the judge chose to overlook her admitted adultery. She said at the time of the divorce that she thought Dorschel was possibly serving in the merchant navy of the USSR. [3]
Polari is a form of slang or cant used in Britain by some actors, circus and fairground showmen, professional wrestlers, merchant navy sailors, criminals, sex workers, and, particularly, the gay subculture. There is some debate about its origins, but it can be traced to at least the 19th century and possibly as early as the 16th century. There is a long-standing connection with Punch and Judy street puppet performers, who traditionally used Polari to converse.
Dunoon is the main town on the Cowal peninsula in the south of Argyll and Bute, Scotland. It is located on the western shore of the upper Firth of Clyde, to the south of the Holy Loch and to the north of Innellan. As well as forming part of the council area of Argyll and Bute, Dunoon also has its own community council. Dunoon was a burgh until 1976.
John Cairncross was a British civil servant who became an intelligence officer and spy during the Second World War. As a Soviet double agent, he passed to the Soviet Union the raw Tunny decryptions that influenced the Battle of Kursk. He was alleged to be the fifth member of the Cambridge Five. He was also notable as a translator, literary scholar and writer of non-fiction.
Margaret Grace Bondfield was a British Labour Party politician, trade unionist and women's rights activist. She became the first female cabinet minister, and the first woman to be a privy counsellor in the UK, when she was appointed Minister of Labour in the Labour government of 1929–31. She had earlier become the first woman to chair the General Council of the Trades Union Congress (TUC).
WDCW, branded on-air as DCW 50, is a television station in Washington, D.C., serving as the local outlet for the CW television network. It is owned and operated by network majority owner Nexstar Media Group alongside Hagerstown, Maryland–licensed independent station WDVM-TV ; the two stations share studios on Wisconsin Avenue in Washington's Glover Park neighborhood. Through a channel sharing agreement with Univision station WFDC-DT, WDCW transmits using WFDC's spectrum from a tower in the Tenleytown area of Washington's Northwest quadrant.
Ethel Elizabeth Gee, nicknamed "Bunty", was an Englishwoman who helped her lover spy for the Soviet Union. She was a member of the Portland Spy Ring.
Elizabeth Margaret Braddock was a British Labour Party politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for the Liverpool Exchange division from 1945 to 1970. She was a member of Liverpool County Borough Council from 1930 to 1961. Although she never held office in government, she won a national reputation for her forthright campaigns in connection with housing, public health and other social issues.
The murder of Sophie Hook was a widely reported child murder which took place in Llandudno, North Wales, in July 1995.
John Frederick La Trobe Bateman was an English civil engineer whose work formed the basis of the modern United Kingdom water supply industry. For more than 50 years from 1835 he designed and constructed reservoirs and waterworks. His largest project was the Longdendale Chain system that has supplied Manchester with much of its water since the 19th century. The construction of what was in its day the largest chain of reservoirs in the world began in 1848 and was completed in 1877. Bateman became "the greatest dam-builder of his generation".
Princess Marie Amelie of Baden was the youngest daughter of Charles, Grand Duke of Baden and Stéphanie de Beauharnais. In 1843, she married the Scottish nobleman William Hamilton, Marquess of Douglas and Clydesdale. They became the Duke and Duchess of Hamilton upon the death of William's father in 1852. Their only daughter Mary married the future Albert I, Prince of Monaco and was the mother of Louis II.
John Horsefield was an English handloom weaver and amateur botanist after whom the daffodil Narcissus 'Horsfieldii' is named. Horsefield had little formal schooling, and acquired most of his botanical knowledge through self-study and involvement in local botanical groups, which provided a venue for working class people to share knowledge, in part by pooling money to purchase books.
The United Kingdom's Polaris programme, officially named the British Naval Ballistic Missile System, provided its first submarine-based nuclear weapons system. Polaris was in service from 1968 to 1996.
John Anthony Walker Jr. was a United States Navy chief warrant officer and communications specialist convicted of spying for the Soviet Union from 1967 to 1985 and sentenced to life in prison.
Titanic was a restaurant near Piccadilly Circus within the Regent Palace Hotel in London that was open between December 1998 and January 2002. It was operated by chef Marco Pierre White as a joint venture with the Forte Group. It became a known celebrity hang-out, but went through two legal battles; first with shipbuilders Harland and Wolff and then with Oliver Peyton, proprietor of the Atlantic Bar and Grill which was also within the same hotel. The restaurant was named after the RMS Titanic, precisely because it was located above the Atlantic within the hotel. The menu served a simplified menu compared to White's other restaurants due to the number of covers that the restaurant could hold. The Titanic was poorly received by critics, with criticism directed at both the décor and the food.
Girl Pat was a small fishing trawler, based at the Lincolnshire port of Grimsby, that in 1936 was the subject of a media sensation when its captain took it on an unauthorised transatlantic voyage. The escapade ended in Georgetown, British Guiana, with the arrest of the captain, George "Dod" Orsborne, and his brother. The pair were later imprisoned for the theft of the vessel.
George Black Orsborne, also known as Dod Orsborne, was a Grimsby trawler captain and seafarer, who acquired notoriety in 1936 when he took the trawler Girl Pat on an unauthorised voyage across the Atlantic. The escapade attracted much press attention, and Orsborne and his crew were briefly hailed as heroes. Orsborne was tried and imprisoned for the theft of the trawler; subsequently he claimed that the voyage had been part of an undercover operation organised by British Naval Intelligence.
Akron Stores or The Akron was a Southern California-based imported goods and home decorating department store retail chain established in 1947 and was known to carry unusual merchandise, mostly imports. The chain had over 24 stores throughout Southern California from San Diego to San Francisco before it was forced to close in 1985.
MV Darlwyne was a pleasure cruiser, a converted Royal Navy picket boat, that disappeared off the Cornish coast on 31 July 1966 with its complement of thirty-one. Twelve bodies and a few artefacts were later recovered, but the rest of the victims and the main body of the wreck were never found.
Greyhound Electronics, Inc., was an American manufacturer of traditional and electronic amusement games based in Toms River, New Jersey. The company flourished in the 1980s and 1990s as a manufacturer and seller of arcade games, skill cranes and background music players, as well as various other amusement devices. The company's grey-market selling of its amusement-only video poker machines—illegally modified to pay out vouchers to customers—in the northeast and in California became known after its co-owners were arrested in 1990 on charges of racketeering, conspiracy and promotion of gambling.