Claud W. Sykes: A Man of Many Parts
Part 2 of 2
From Manchester to Letchworth
Claud and Daisy left Switzerland in March 1920 and toured Italy for two or three months. They then returned to England and lived briefly in a London boarding house. Sometime prior to October, the Sykes were renting a semi-attached house at 1 Tewkesbury Drive, Prestwich, a northern suburb of Manchester. They probably located there to be close to Daisy's family (Salford); the Race's house on Vernon Rd. was a half-mile walk distant. (Click on the link and a map from this website will open in a popup window.)
n/ Letter from James Joyce to Claud Sykes, May 24, 1920, Richard Ellmann, ed., Letters of James Joyce Letters, Vol. 2 (New York: Viking, 1966), 459; letter from James Joyce to Frank Budgen, May 18 1920, Ibid., 464; letter from James Joyce to Henry Davray, June 2, 1920, Ibid., 466; postcard from James Joyce to Claud Sykes, July 29, 1920, Ibid., Vol. 3, 11; Race Household Return, Census of England & Wales, 1921; Sykes Household Return, Census of England & Wales, 1921.
Sykes Residence, 1921: 1 Tewkesbury Drive, Prestwich.
© 2022 Google
In Manchester, the Sykes became involved with a new theatrical company, The Little Theatre, Manchester. The organization engaged Daisy as a performer; Claud as the director. The company's initial season was to be four, three-day, double-bill performances:
October 1920 | Alfred de Musset Georges Clemencau | A Caprice The Veil of Illusion |
December 1920 | Gordon Bottomley Lascelles Abercrombie | King Lear's Wife The End of the World |
February 1921 | Robert Browning Anton Chekov | Pippa Passes The Bear |
March 1921 | Lord Dunsany Arthur Schnitzler | The Golden Doom The Anatole Dialogues |
The Little Theatre had its debut performance on October 26, 1920 at Houldsworth Hall, the 1,000-seat auditorium in Church House, the administrative seat of the Diocese of Manchester, Church of England. There were repeat performances the following two days. C.E. Montague of the Manchester Guardian gave the company a good review and said it tackled the job with spirit and that "both plays came well across the foot-lights." He noted that the performers had "a large and keen audience" on opening night. Daisy played Mathilde in A Caprice and Claud directed. Claud also directed The Veil of Illusion. The December performance, King Lear's Wife and The End of the World, at Houldsworth Hall, was also well-received by the Manchester Guardian; however, the critic, A.S. Wallace, wished the company had a bigger audience.
While the Little Theatre was an artistic success, it was a financial failure. On February 10, 1921 the Little Theatre suspended all activity. Its trustees stated that the two performances had caused a heavy, financial loss. The company never resumed operation and Claud and Daisy found no other theatrical employment. As of June 19, 1921 both were unemployed and on their census return showed the English Players, not the Little Theatre, as their last employer.
n/ The Stage, October 7, 1920; Manchester Guardian, October 18, 1911; Advertisement, Manchester Guardian, October 26, 1920; Manchester Guardian - October 27, 1920, December 10, 1920, February 12, 1921; Sykes Household Return, Census of England & Wales, 1921.
Times were tough in the post-war UK as the economy contracted almost immediately after the November 1918 armistice. From 1918 to 1921, real GDP fell 21.5% and the unemployment rate soared from 0.6% to 11.0%. It's understandable why Claud and Daisy were out-of-work.
How the couple supported themselves is not known. Most likely, they received money from one of Claud's well-to-do relatives. Their benefactor was probably Richard Sykes, who may have also aided them during their stay in Zurich. Note that both Richard and Claud had wives of whom their family disapproved and both were Germanophiles. Another potential source of support was Daisy's father, Robert Race. In early 1920, he was a long-serving, council elementary school headmaster earning £500 to £550 per annum; however, he retired in July of that year. Claud's father couldn't provide much assistance as his extravagant way of life coupled with the doubling of prices during the First World War, eroded the capital he had inherited.
In September 1920, the Sykes visited the Joyces in Paris. James Joyce tried to persuade them to remain in Paris and there, revive the English Players. Claud and Daisy declined as they did not want to break their then upcoming, Manchester theatrical engagement.
n/ W.R. Barker, The Superannuation of Teachers (London: Longmans, Green, 1926); Manchester Evening News, June 24, 1920; Claud W. Sykes, My Recollections of James Joyce, James Joyce Collection, Yale University.
In early 1921, the fortunes of the Sykes family improved, as Claud had written to James Joyce that he planned to form an acting company. Joyce advised against it noting that "little theatres and little reviews always go bust."
n/ Letter from James Joyce to Claud Sykes, early 1921, James Joyce Letters, Vol. 1, 157.
The improvement of the Sykes' financial condition was most likely due to the poor health of his elderly uncle Richard, then living in California.
Richard Sykes, aged 84, died in California on May 11, 1923 a rich man. At the time of his death, trusts created for the benefit of his wife and sons were valued by the Internal Revenue Service at $680,000; equivalent to $11.2 million (£8.3 million) in 2021. Those trusts were in addition to property held in his name. While Claud's father received an annuity under the will, the only nieces and nephews who received legacies were Percy Molesworth Sykes and the daughters of Richard's deceased brother, William. It's probable that before his death, Richard made a substantial gift to Claud in lieu of a legacy. Had Richard put Claud in the will, it would likely have caused family discord.
n/ Pacific Southwest Trust & Savings Bank v. Commissioner, 14 T.C. 1372 (1929); Bureau of Labor Statistics Inflation Calculator, www.bls.gov; Evening Star (Washington, DC), June 1, 1923; Will of Richard Sykes.
1906, Richard and Richard Sykes, Jr.
Richard Sykes was one of the pioneers of the football game, rugby. Though now regarded as an English sport, it was first played in Heidelberg, Germany in 1850 at Neuenheim College, a secondary school. German-style football was brought to England in 1852 by George Cotton, a Rugby Old Boy, who introduced it at Marlborough College where he was headmaster. Richard, while at the Rugby School, became a devotee of the sport and captained his school's rugby team. While still in school, he and two others founded the Liverpool Rugby Football Club. Richard's interest in the sport likely influenced his choice of university, Heidelberg, which he left in 1860. For seven years, Richard Sykes captained Manchester RFC.
n/ Trueman, "Historical Rugby Milestones, 1850s."
Claud Sykes' involvement in Rugby at Letchworth could have been a tribute to Richard Sykes as thanks for financial assistance. In his will, Claud left £100 to Letchworth RFC and a further £100 to be divided equally among all schools in Letchworth playing rugby.
Richard Sykes at the Rugby School with the "Rugby" team, 1855.
In late-summer or early-autumn 1921, Claud and Daisy relocated to Letchworth Garden City, Hertfordshire, 50 kilometers north of central London; a 45 minute railway trip to London's King's Cross Station. Letchworth was founded in 1903 by social reformer, Ebenezer Howard. He planned it to combine the best parts of town and country, with none of the disadvantages of either. Letchworth's master plan introduced the idea of zoning; situating factories, green spaces, workers housing, and shops in their own distinct areas. Letchworth was surrounded by a rural belt, which both fed the town and offered residents access to the countryside. Letchworth attracted mainly factories relocating from cities and bringing along their workforce en masse. Middle-class, utopian idealists also moved to Letchworth. In 1921, Letchworth's population was 10,302; at the outbreak of the Second World War about 17,500. In Letchworth, Claud and Daisy resided first in a house on Gernon Road named "The Leys."
n/ Letchworth and Baldock Citizen, May 31, 1963; website of the Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation, www.letchworth.com; Edgar Bonham-Carter, Planning and Development of Letchworth Garden City," The Town Planning Review 21, no. 4 (January 1951): 362-76; Letchworth and Baldock Citizen, December 11, 1925.
Letchworth Impresario
When he arrived in Letchworth, Sykes formed an acting company modelled on the English Players (professional troupe with amateurs in minor roles). In December, he presented Hubert Henry Davies' comedy, The Mollusc, with his wife as featured player "Daisy Race." This was one of the plays Sykes had produced in Switzerland. Afterwards, he formally established The Citizens' Theatre Company, a non-profit organization with a thirteen-member governing committee. Sykes' acting company lasted for only three seasons. Its last performances, Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, were given in December 1923. Letchworth had an amateur theatre society of long standing and apparently, the town was too small for two acting troupes. In 1924, he gave up theater. In 1925, Daisy wrote to the local newspaper about the sorry state of British theater and the theater-going public. Her letter was published by the Letchworth and Baldock Citizen. Click on the link and a transcript, in a pdf on this website, will appear in a popup window.
n/ Pixmore Hall Poster, Garden City Collection, Letchworth, 860.2; Letchworth Citizens' Theatre Programmes, Second Season and Third Season. Garden City Collection, LBM 3056.62.24-25; Letchworth and Baldock Citizen, December 21, 1923; Newspaper Cutting, Garden City Collection, LBM 3000.1092.
In 1922, Daisy's father, Richard Race, died at age 62 while he and his wife were holidaying in Derbyshire. In accordance with his wishes, he received a secular funeral service at the Manchester Crematorium with no one dressed in mourning and no flowers. It was attended by a large group of his Masonic brothers of the Integrity Lodge. Daisy read to the gathering Robert Race's "statement of faith" which he wrote shortly before his "transition." Claud Sykes must have been impressed by this event as in his will, he instructed his executors to hold a similar funeral service (see below).
n/ The Two Worlds - September 8, 1922, September 15, 1922.
Click on the above link for this website's page on Sykes' short-lived, Letchworth theatre troupe.
Author, Translator, and Letchworth Gentleman
In Letchworth, Claud Sykes began a new career as author of fiction and non-fiction and translator of French and German books. This was probably prompted by a need for money as all his writings would be popular fiction and non-fiction and not scholarly or literary works. His first published book was the mystery thriller, The Nine-Pointed Star, released in 1927 by John Hamilton, Ltd. of London. Sykes established a relationship with that publishing firm that lasted until 1940. The company was owned and operated by Charles Henry Daniels. Daniels published at least 27 books with Sykes as author or translator. (For a list of books written or translated by Sykes, scroll down to that section or click here to jump to it.)
After the 1929 release of Sykes' second English-language book, The Strange Adventures of Handel Archimedes, his further original works appeared as authored by "Vigilant" until after the Second World War. From 1930 through 1945, Sykes apparently reserved use of his actual name for translations.
John Hamilton published in 1930, Sykes' first non-fiction work: Secrets of Modern Spying, with the author shown as "Vigilant." Why the pen name is a mystery. Possibly, it was to hide from Sykes' Zurich friends, such as Joyce, that he was a spy. On the other hand, Daniels, to increase potential sales, might have recommended a pseudonym to suggest that Sykes was a spy. Secrets must have been a financial success as all Sykes' subsequent non-fiction works published by John Hamilton were released as authored by Vigilant. Secrets was reviewed by the press throughout the United Kingdom, mostly as snippets from a full-page piece that appeared in The Illustrated London News on December 20, 1930. That review includes the humorous account of Joyce and the code breakers. (A transcription of the full article is in a pdf file on this website. Click here and the file will open in a new browser window.) The Joyce story in Secrets is as follows:
One of Joyce's manuscripts, sent by mail to New York via London for publication in The Little Review, was unaccountably delayed in transit. Sykes claims the postal censors were so baffled by the work that they thought it was a coded message and had sent it to decoders at "Room 40" instead of the addressee. The decoders determined the manuscript was not a secret message as according to their literary expert it "bore some faint resemblance to literature."Room 40 was the popular name for sub-section 25, Naval Intelligence Division, Admiralty War Staff. Sykes likely learned of this story from Joyce who was told of it by Ezra Pound, the London intermediary for the manuscript mailings. Assuming the essence of this anecdote is true, what Sykes described would not have been the path that Joyce's manuscript took. When Post Office censors came across a suspicious item, they forwarded it to Section G.2 of the Security Service (MI-5). If a code or cypher was suspected, MI-5 sent the material to MI-1.b of the Army General Staff. MI-1.b was the War Office's equivalent of the Admiralty's Room 40. Whether this indicates Sykes' ignorance of counter-intelligence is questionable. When Secrets of Modern Spying came out, the public already knew of Room 40, but in 1930, the existence of wartime MI-1.b was a state secret. Sykes probably did not know of MI-1.b but if he did, he would have disguised the facts to avoid prosecution under the Official Secrets Act. Note that in 1932, Compton MacKenzie, who worked for SIS during the war, was arrested for revealing state secrets in his third war memoir, Greek Memories. Through a plea bargain, he got off with a £200 fine (about one-year's wages of a well-paid workman) and was saddled with extremely high legal bills.
n/ Vigilant [Claud W. Sykes], Secrets of Modern Spying, 115-19, 138-40; Letter to Ezra Pound, July 31, 1920 and Letter to Stanislaus Joyce, September 14, 1920, Richard Ellmann, ed., Letters of James Joyce, Vol. 2 (New York: Viking, 1966), 12, 21; Chris Northcott, MI5 at War 1909-1918 (Havertown, PA: Casemate, 2015); Mark David Kaufman, "Spyography: Compton MacKenzie, Modernism, and the Intelligence Memoir," The Space Between Literature and Culture 1914-1945 13 (2017); various published book reviews; British Library catalogue.
Secrets of Modern Spying was translated into German by Karl Dohring and published in 1930 by Wilhelm Goldmann Verlag of Leipzig. The translator is shown as Ravi Ravendro, which is one of Dohring's pen names. Sykes' later book, Fighting the Red Shadow, was co-translated by Dohring and Sykes and published as Schatten auf Europa, by Goldmann in 1933. It was released with the translators as authors, both of whom appear under their pseudonyms.
John Hamilton, publisher of Secrets of Modern Spying, also released c. 1929 Spy and Counter-Spy, a non-fiction work by the American Richard Wilmer Rowan. Rowan apparently obtained all his information on First World War secret operations from public sources, primarily newspapers.
In addition to books, Sykes wrote at least seven articles for aviation magazines, all under the name Vigilant.
Wings (John Hamilton, Ltd.)Spy Flying (Summer 1934)Ernst Udet: The Peter Pan of the Air (Autumn 1934)Big Bertha and the Planes (Winter 1935)Air Intelligence (Spring 1935)Parachutes for All (August 1935)
Air Stories (George Newnes, Ltd.)The Ace of Rabbits (December 1936)Flight of a President (January 1938)
In Letchworth, Claud and Daisy Sykes became involved in civic activities. He was also active in local sports as co-captain of both the Letchworth Rugby Football Club and the North Hampshire Hockey Club, and captained the Letchworth Tennis Club. In later years he would be a long-time president of the tennis club. He played both hockey and tennis. Sykes was particularly attached to rugby and the Letchworth RFC notes on its website that his mantra was "country first, club second, county third, and yourself a very poor fourth." Sykes was also active in the town's Adult Educational Settlement, an officer of the Letchworth Book Club, and a member of Rotary International. He occasionally lectured and gave readings. In October 1929, Sykes gave a reading from G.K. Chesterton's Magic at a regular meeting of the local Independent Labour Party. Daisy Sykes, who had participated in her husband's theater company, was active in Letchworth's Literary Circle and the local hospital's fundraising society.
n/ Website of The Settlement Players (Letchworth), www.settlement-players.co.uk/history; Beds. & Herts. Pictorial - August 31, 1926, July 5, 1927, January 29, 1929, July 23, 1929, August 27, 1929, October 22, 1929, October 29, 1929; online collection of the Garden City Heritage Foundation, www.gardencitycollection.com; website of the Letchworth Garden City RFC, www.letchworthrugby.rfu.club/information; MI-5 Roesel File, UK National Archives KV 2/3188.
On November 16, 1932 Claud Sykes attended the funeral service of his father, held at St. John the Evangelist in Merrow. Though the local newspaper printed that the entire immediate family was present, Claud's brother Edmund Arthur, living in Australia, probably wasn't. Claud likely provided the press with the list of mourners and attendees and included his brother to avoid family embarrassment. Note that Mrs. Claud Sykes, Daisy, did not appear in the newspaper as a mourner.
n/ Surrey Advertiser, November, 19, 1932; Beds. & Herts. Pictorial, July 9, 1929.
Col. Walter Sykes had appointed as his estate's executors his son Claud, his nephew Sir Percy Molesworth Sykes, and his daughter Esme Jane. In the probate petition, Claud's occupation is stated as "journalist." Sykes did write for the Bedfordshire & Hertfordshire Pictorial, but his stories were essentially press releases promoting the Letchworth RFC, North Hampshire Hockey Club, and his theater company. Note that for the fourth edition of the Rugby School Register, published in 1929, Sykes reported himself "Actor. Director, Letchworth Citizens' Theatre Co. Writer." He did; however, for twenty years beginning in 1930, report on London area cat shows for The Times. Sykes was a cat-fancier and noted breeder.
During the three years that Sykes would serve as an agent of the secret security service, his cover occupation would be journalist. MI-5 files that document Sykes' work as a secret agent, have instances where he wrote that he played "his role of interested journalist." In the wartime Register of England & Wales, Sykes' occupation is shown as "Author & Journalist."
n/ Notice of Probate, Probate Register of England & Wales, January 23, 1933; Rugby School Register, 4th Ed. (1892-1921); Letter to Prof. J.B.S. Haldane, December 29, 1948, Wellcome Collection, London, HALDANE/5/1/2/5/111; Register of England & Wales, 1939;
During the interwar years, James Joyce and Claud Sykes kept in contact through correspondence. Prior to the February 1922 Paris publication of Ulysses, Joyce sent to Sykes, for review, manuscripts of several episodes. After leaving Zurich, Sykes and Joyce met four times. As noted above, Claud and Daisy visited Joyce in Paris in 1920. They visited Joyce there again in May 1926. In April 1927, Sykes visited Joyce briefly in London who was there to be guest of honor at a dinner given by the P.E.N. Club. In the Summer of 1929, Joyce and Nora Barnacle called on the Sykes couple at Letchworth during a multi-month, England visit.
Sykes followed Joyce's progress in writing Finnegan's Wake. Fragments of that "work in progress" appeared haphazardly in various literary journals, 1924 - 1938. Sykes once complained to Joyce that most readers would find too many parts of the work incomprehensible. Joyce responded: "It is all so simple. If anyone doesn't understand a passage, all he need do is read it aloud."
In the Summer of 1925, the London Stage Society informed Joyce that it would present his play Exiles in the upcoming season. Joyce asked Sykes to attend the performance and critique the production. Joyce made available to Claud and Daisy seats in the playwright's box. Exiles' world premiere had been in Munich on August 7, 1919. Its first English language performance was in New York on February 19, 1923, at the Off-Broadway Neighborhood Playhouse where it ran for 41 performances. The London performance was a two-day special event, February 14 and 15, 1926, at the Regent Theatre. All three productions were panned by the critics. To read Sykes' review click here and a transcript in a pdf on this website will open in a popup window.
In 1927, Joyce asked Sykes to "look through the German proofs (page) of Ulysses" for the novel's soon to be published, German-language edition. Apparently, Joyce had high regard for Sykes' command of the German language. Sykes agreed and in the letter in which Joyce thanked him, noted he had received a copy of Sykes' book and "shall start to find out the mystery" after his Ulysses copyright infringement lawsuit against Samuel Roth "is well launched." The book Joyce referred to was The Nine-Pointed Star. That same year, Joyce sent to Sykes the deluxe edition of his short collection of poems, Pomes Penyeach, published by Shakespeare & Co. Only thirteen such books were printed, all given by Joyce to his friends. The commercial print run was 5,000 copies.
n/ Gorman, James Joyce, 272; Ellmann, James Joyce, 590-91, 617; Letter from James Joyce to Claud Sykes, February 10, 1927, Letters of James Joyce, Vol. 3, 153; Breon Mitchell, "A Note on the Status of the Authorized Translation," James Joyce Quarterly 4, no. 3 (Spring 1967): 202-05; Claud W. Sykes, My Recollections of James Joyce, James Joyce Collection, Yale University; John MacNicholas, "The Stage History of Exiles," James Joyce Quarterly 19, No. 1 (Fall 1981): 9-28; Copy of letter from Claud W. Sykes to James Joyce that reports on the London performance of Exiles. Harriet Shaw Weaver Papers, British Library, Add MS 57348 (f. 120); Letter from Claud Sykes to Richard Ellmann, February 6, 1956, Ellmann Papers, 1988.012.1.198; Letter from James Joyce to Claud Sykes, February 26, 1927, Letters of James Joyce, Vol. 1, 250; Postcard from James Joyce to Claud Sykes, November 23, 1927, Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Yale University, GEN MSS 112, Box 1, Folder 24.The James Joyce Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, contains 19 letters dated from February 24, 1920 to August 28, 1936. The three-volume work, Letters of James Joyce, has transcriptions of correspondence that date from February 24, 1920 (the postcard at Yale) to November 19, 1927.
From mid-August through early-September 1938, Sykes was in France and wrote to Karl Otten, in London, on stationery of the Les Roches Blanche, a small hotel on the French Riviera in Cassis. His letter doesn't indicate if Daisy was with him and it's not known why he was there. Though Sykes passed through Paris to and from Cassis, he could not have seen Joyce as on August 14, the Joyce family left for Lausanne, Switzerland where they remained through September.
n/ MI-5 Otten File, UK National Archives KV 2/1120; Ellmann, James Joyce, 710-11. Sykes noted that it wasn't expensive to stay in Casis out-of-season and there was nothing to do other than swim and take walks. The hotel, built in 1877 as a mansion, opened in the early 1920s. It is now a luxury boutique hotel.
Les Roches Blanche
© 2022 Google
By August 1938, Claud and Daisy Sykes were living at 32 Souberie Avenue, Letchworth, where Claud would reside until his death in 1963. They were then well-off financially as at the outbreak of the Second World War, they had a live-in, domestic servant. For a map that shows the Sykes' homes in Letchworth, click here. It is in a jpg file on this website and will open in a popup window.
n/ Probate Register of England & Wales, 1963; Register of England & Wales, 1939.
Last Residence: 32 Souberie Ave., Letchworth Garden City.
© Google 2021
Click on the above link for this website's John Hamilton, Ltd. page.
On His Majesty's Security Service
In late 1936 or early 1937, Claud Sykes entered the world of counter-intelligence when he became an agent of the British Secret Security Service, popularly known as MI-5. It’s likely that the Secret Intelligence Service, MI-6, planned to recall Sykes; however, its officers probably concluded that should Sykes appear in Switzerland during another major war, German counter-intelligence would assume he was a spy. MI-6 probably recommended Sykes to MI-5.
By 1936, Vernon Kell, MI-5's founding chief, had concluded that Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy posed a serious threat to Britain and its empire. He ordered his subordinates to keep a closer watch on German officials in the UK and to infiltrate domestic fascist organizations. Sykes was probably recruited for that purpose as he was fluent in German and had contacts with German military aviators of the First World War. Though Sykes' first assignment involved a suspected German spy and British Nazi sympathizers, he spent most of his MI-5 career hunting for Soviet spies and communist subversives within England's anti-Nazi, refugee community.
In April 2000, the British government began to release MI-5's Second World War files. In about 2010, Professors Charmian Brinson and Richard Dove began research on British surveillance from 1933 through 1950 of anti-Nazi, German refugees in England. One of MI-5's subjects of interest was Karl Otten, a modernist German novelist of the inter-war period who came to the UK in 1936. The previously closed files, now in the National Archives, disclosed that the security service monitored Otten closely for years, primarily through an agent codenamed "M/S." Brinson and Dove were astounded to find that M/S was Claud Sykes of Joycean fame. (Click here to view the documents that link M/S to Sykes. They are in a pdf file on this website which will open in a new browser window.)
Kell assigned Sykes to work for Maxwell Knight, head of MI-5's sub-section B.5b. Unlike other MI-5 officers, Knight was not limited to any particular field of operations. For example: B.2 watched all suspected German and Italian agents and B.1 was responsible for security in the armed forces.
At the time of Sykes' recruitment, MI-5 was a small organization having a total of 26 officers of which 15 were division, section, or sub-section chiefs. Knight labelled Sykes "M/S" as he coded agents as M (for his given name), followed by a forward slash, then the first letter of the agent's surname.
n/ Nigel West, MI5: British Security Service Operations, 1909-1945 (Barnsley, UK: Pen & Sword, 2019); Henry Hemming, Agent M (New York: Perseus, 2017); Charmian Brinson and Richard Dove, A Matter of Intelligence (Manchester: Manchester Univ. Press, 2014).Sub-section B.5.a was for special enquiries ordered by Kell, or received by him from higher authority. Antony Percy, Misdefending the Realm (London: Univ. of Buckingham Press, 2018); Hemming, Agent M.
Rudolf Gottfried Rosel, UK National Archives KV 2/3188
In about May 1937, Sykes received his first counter-intelligence task which was to learn more of the German national Rudolf Gottfried Rosel, director of the Anglo-German Information Service, a German propaganda organization he had founded in 1936.
Rosel had come to the UK from Germany in 1931 as a journalist and in 1937, was recognized by the Home Office as London correspondent for Die National-Zeitung (Essen) and Textil Zeitung, a German trade journal published from Berlin. In 1931, Rosel was a Nazi party member and when the party became the government in 1933, he became, de facto, a state agent.
Ortsguppenleiter
Uniform
Rosel maintained close contact with Germany and telephoned Berlin almost daily. In the UK, he promoted the Nazi Party, later the German state, as bulwarks against socialism and communism. He developed cordial relations with several Conservative Party MPs, prominent businessmen, and Sir Oswald Mosley (founder of the British Union of Fascists). Those relations would endure until the Munich Agreement of September 1938 when Germany acquired large parts of Czechoslovakia inhabited by ethnic Germans (the Sudetenland).
Sykes, who spoke German like a native, had written about German military aviation, and like Rosel, was a Rotarian, quickly gained the German's confidence. Rosel revealed to Sykes the identities of many associates and others with favorable opinions of Nazi German, and that he had recently become Nazi Party Ortsgruppenleiter of Central London. In terms of precedence, Rosel's party rank was equivalent to that of army captain.
In 1938, Rosel founded Deutsche Zeitung in Grossbritannien, a subscription-only newspaper for the UK's German community. Rosel had a particular interest in Germans living in the UK and MI-5 believed he was a Gestapo informant. Sykes actively spied on Rosel and his associates through January 1938. In early 1939, at MI-5's request, the Home Office expelled Rosel.
Karl Otten, UK National Archives KV 2/1120-23
Karl Otten came to the UK in September 1936, for a two-month visit to conduct research for a planned book. He later, with Home Office approval, extended his stay. During the First World War, Otten was an anti-war anarchist and was imprisoned by the German Imperial government. In the 1920s, his political views moderated and Otten became a well-known socialist. When Hitler came to power, Otten fled first to France, then the Spanish island of Majorca where there was a large German colony. British intelligence was sure that in Spain, Otten was a Soviet agent. In January 1937, they notified MI-5 of their findings and MI-5 placed Otten under surveillance.
Sykes was introduced to Otten through Fritz Gross, a former Austrian Communist who in his London home had a German-language lending library used by anti-Nazi refugees. Sykes, fluent in German, frequented the library and had gained Gross' confidence. In London, Otten formed an informal group of anti-Nazi Germans that called themselves the "Primrose League" and its members were known to Gross. After Gross vouched for Sykes as anti-Nazi, Otten befriended him. Knight then assigned Sykes to spy on Otten and the Primrose League. Sykes soon determined that the staunch anti-Bolshevik Otten was unlikely to be a Soviet agent and concentrated his attention on Otten's associates. Sykes did learn; however, that Otten was working for Czechoslovakia's military.
Otten recommended Sykes to Erich Wollenberg and Heinz Halter to translate their recently completed German-language books. Both authors were former Communists who opposed Stalin and their books were critical of the Soviet Union. MI-5 encouraged Sykes to translate the books as they would be excellent British propaganda. Note that the Soviet Union had recently invaded Finland and British foreign policy, in response, took a decidedly anti-Soviet turn.
At the beginning of 1941, MI-5 ended intercepts of Otten's mail and its interest in him faded. That year, he obtained employment with the highly secretive Special Operations Executive, and afterwards, with the BBC as a scriptwriter for various programs, including one sponsored by the Political Warfare Executive. Ironically, MI-5 engaged Otten for full-time work sometime in mid-1944.
For a more in-depth look at MI-5's surveillance of Karl Otten see, Brinson and Dove's A Matter of Intelligence: MI5 and the Surveillance of Anti-Nazi Refugees, 1933-50, published 2014 by Manchester University Press.
Some Others Spied on by M/S
Karl Groehl:
A German refugee and former Communist living in Paris. He claimed his associates in Germany were gathering secret information on Germany's armed forces and passed their reports to Otten, who then delivered them to the Czechoslovakian Embassy in London. It was through Otten that Sykes learned of Groehl. Sykes received some of Groehl's reports and MI-5 passed them to British military intelligence. After Germany occupied Czechoslovakia in March 1939, Otten passed Groehl's material to British authorities. UK National Archives KV 2/2171.
Walter Lowenheim:
Interned German refugee who was a noted Communist and while living in Berlin, had made several trips to the Soviet Union. He later became critical of the Soviet Union, left the Communist Party, and became active in the Social Democratic Party. Sykes' sources claimed Lowenheim, in the 1920s, was definitely a Soviet agent. Sykes was convinced that Lowenheim, if not already a Soviet agent, would become one if released from custody. Later, when he was a security officer, Sykes recommended that Lowenheim be interned for the war's duration. UK National Archives KV 2/480.
Kurt Hiller:
German refugee who opposed both the Nazis and the Communists. One of several refugees who told Sykes that Lowenheim was a Soviet agent. UK National Archives KV 2/480, 2811.
Sykes' "XX" Operation
MI-5's best known wartime operation, and its greatest counter-intelligence success, was the double-cross operation, unimaginatively codenamed "XX." After MI-5 identified a German agent, it dangled one of its operatives before him as a likely recruit. If the German agent took the bait and the MI-5 plant was recruited into a German network, then he fed misinformation back to the German controller. Sometimes the security service simply turned the German agent through threat of arrest and a death sentence. The XX operation began formally in January 1941, when the inter-ministerial Wireless Board created the Twenty Committee. Its members came from the armed forces and the secret services. The committee (XX), created the misinformation fed by MI-5's double agents to their German controllers. The double-agents were run from MI-5's sub-section B.1.a as constituted under Kell's 1940 reorganization. (B.1.a. was previously the designation of naval internal security.)
While Sykes was never part of B.1.a, he was involved in an XX-style operation fully two years before the Twenty Committee's formation. It may have been MI-5's first double-agent operation of the Second World War. In early 1939, at least six months before the outbreak of war, French counter-intelligence asked MI-5 to provide a British double-agent for a deception operation it had begun in 1938. The French had a double-agent codenamed "HENRI" whose German controller operated a spy network in the Netherlands. In January 1939, HENRI's controller, a Gestapo officer named Ernst Kutzner, asked him to recruit a British agent. French counter-intelligence requested MI-5 provide such agent and Sykes was selected. HENRI presented Sykes to Kutzner and in May, Sykes was engaged as a German agent with monthly pay and expense allowance of £40. The next month, Sykes had an unannounced visitor at his Letchworth home: Miss Rodewalder, a young, German woman. MI-5 concluded she was sent by German intelligence to verify Sykes' legitimacy. Sykes worked as a double-agent until sometime in November when Kutzner mailed Sykes' "pink slip" to his Letchworth home. In March 1940, Kutzner informed HENRI that Sykes had been a double-agent.
n/ Chantal Aubin, "French counterintelligence and British secret intelligence in the Netherlands, 1920-1940" in Battleground Western Europe, de Graaf, de Jong, and Platje, eds. (Amsterdam: Het Spinhis, 2007); Brinson and Dove, A Matter of Intelligence.Sykes' remuneration was not a large amount. At the time, British industrial workers earned on average, £8 to £16 monthly, with the best-paid receiving £20. Accordingly, after expenses, Sykes' pay could provide only a lower-middle class standard of living. This was not much of a financial inducement to spy for Germany considering the risk of imprisonment, and in wartime, death.
Sykes as a Security Service Officer
In May 1940, Germany attacked France through the Netherlands and Belgium and soon isolated the Belgian Army, the British Expeditionary Force, and the French 1st Army. At the end of the month, the Royal Navy began evacuation of the cutoff British and French troops (Belgium had surrendered). The British government believed that within a few months, Germany would invade England.
Fearing a "Fifth Column" at home would assist German invaders, the government interned 27,000 German and Italian aliens plus about 1,100 British subjects who were Nazi and Fascist sympathizers that MI-5 considered security risks. Internees could appeal their sequestration and by May 1941, only 12,000 enemy aliens remained in custody. Release of British subjects proceeded much more slowly.
At the beginning of 1940, MI-5 had 102 security officers. To combat what later proved to be a non-existent Fifth Column, the government greatly expanded MI-5 which led to Sykes' appointment as a security officer. At the end of the year, the service had 617 officers. Early in 1940, Kell reorganized MI-5 and Sykes' controller, Maxwell Knight, received charge of section B.8. Sykes, as M/S, then reported to the head of sub-section B.8.c. In the Summer of 1940, Sykes became a B.8.c. officer. Section B.8 was short-lived as MI-5's new director, Oswald Harker, established an E division with exclusive responsibility for enemy aliens. Sykes ended his MI-5 service in Section E.3. To see a document signed by Sykes as a security officer, click here. An image of the document is in a pdf file on this website that will open in a popup window.
Files at the UK National Archives disclose two of Sykes' agents were codenamed "KASPAR" and "CONQUEST." His caseload included Otto Witt (KV 2/471), Ernst Hermann Meyer (KV 2/3502), and Engelbert Broda (KV 2/2350).
Broda's case was by far the most important on which Sykes worked, but he played only a minor role in that investigation. Broda was a chemist and Austrian Communist who had been imprisoned in both Germany and Austria and came to the UK in 1938. The Home Office twice interned Broda before he went to work at Cambridge's Cavendish Laboratory, Britain's principal atomic weapon research facility. MI-5 was convinced he was a Soviet agent and had recruited Alan May Nunn, the notorious atomic bomb spy. The security service lacked sufficient evidence to support a court prosecution and accordingly, the government took no action against Broda. After the war, Broda returned to Austria. Twenty-five years after his death, declassified KGB files revealed Broda was a Soviet agent who had passed British atomic secrets to his handler and had recruited Nunn as a Soviet agent.
n/ Brinson and Dove, A Matter of Intelligence, 210-21.
Sykes Leaves MI-5
Henry Hemming, in his book Agent M: The Lives and Spies of MI5's Maxwell Knight, asserts that in 1944, Sykes left MI-5 to work briefly for the Secret Intelligence Service before he returned to private life. Hemming; however, provides no source to support such claim. Other authors state he left MI-5 sometime in 1944 to resume his writing career.
n/ Hemming, Agent M, 298.
That Sykes gave up secret service work in late 1944 or early 1945 is evidenced by the c.1944 publication of his novel Lynx, V.C. Flies Again, released as authored by Vigilant, and his translation of Dr. Martin S. Gumpert's 1934 German-language biography of Samuel Hahnemann, released in 1945 as translated by Claud Sykes.
The novel is the fourth and final book of Sykes' series about a British military pilot, Barry Link. Here, the First World War air hero and spy takes on Nazi Germany. This novel, unlike the first three, was not published by John Hamilton, Ltd., which ceased operations in early 1940. Lynx, V.C. Flies Again was published by John Crowther, Ltd. which was active 1941-1947. The book was released undated.The biography is of the German physician who developed the pseudoscientific, alternative medicine system, homeopathy. Sykes' translation was published in 1945 by L. B. Fischer as Hahnemann, The Adventurous Career of a Medical Rebel. L. B. Fischer was the New York imprint of S. Fischer Verlag, Berlin, which had published works of two Nobel laureates (Gerhart Hauptmann and Thomas Mann) and those of Brecht, Hesse, T.S. Elliot, Hofmannsthal, Schnitzler, and Shaw. In 1938, the Berlin firm's Stockholm imprint, Bermann-Fischer Verlag, published Karl Otten's book on the Spanish Civil War, Torquemadas Schatten (Torquemada's Shadow).
n/ Review of S. Fischer und sein Verlag, The Modern Language Review 69, no.2 (April 1974): 464-66; Review of Hahnemann: The Adventurous Career of a Medical Rebel, Bulletin of the History of Medicine 18, no. 4 (November 1945): 461-62.The majority shareholder of L.B. Fischer Verlag, Gottfried Bermann Fischer, was Jewish and in 1933 fled Germany for Austria. His non-Jewish partner continued to run the firm through the Nazi years. When Germany annexed Austria in 1938, Fischer went to Sweden and established the publishing house's Stockholm imprint.
The Later Years
On November 2, 1944 Claud's mother, Cecilia Louisa Jane, died in Farley Green. Claud and his sister-in-law, Violet Helen Sykes, were the estate's co-executors. Her will's specific bequests include a gold and silver tea set and large bureau to Claud, a pearl ring to Daisy Sykes, and a pearl and diamond brooch to Norah Cecilia Sykes, granddaughter through Edmund. The estate's residual beneficiaries were her three sons who shared in equal parts. Claud also received £1,000 from his mother's marriage trust and along with his brothers, shared the remainder. Edmund; however, did not receive an absolute distribution. His share was placed in trust whereby he received the income for life with the remainder to Claud and Philip.
n/ Probate Register of England & Wales, 1945; Will of Cecilia Louisa Jane Sykes, October 1, 1934 with codicil.
After the Second World War, Sykes translated two German-language books for the publisher I. Nicholson & Watson, and wrote Alias William Shakespeare? released by Aldor Publications. In his Shakespeare book, Sykes claims the "real" William Shakespeare was Roger Manners, Fifth Earl of Rutland. He got this idea in Zurich from the German author Karl Bleibtreu. Bleibtreu, in a 1907 book, concluded that Rutland wrote the "so-called" Shakespeare plays. Sykes introduced Bleibtreu to Joyce. Alias William Shakespeare? is Sykes only non-fiction book that bears his actual name.
n/ Ellmann, James Joyce, 411; Karl Bleibtreu, Der wahre Shakespeare (Munich: Muller, 1907). Joyce has the Ulysses character Stephen Dedalus speak of Bleibtreu and his Shakespeare hypothesis. U (Gabler) 9:1071-77. Joyce also locates the German company promoting a citrus grove in Palestine, whose newspaper advertisement is noticed by Bloom, on Bleibtreustrasse, Berlin. U (Gabler) 4:199, 8:863, 15:991, 17:1700. Bleibtreustrasse is an actual street in Berlin named after Karl's father, the painter Georg Bleibtreu. Georg was patronized by the German imperial family. Letter from Claud Sykes to Richard Ellmann, November 11, 1954, Ellmann Papers, 1988.012.1.198; John Hunt, "Bleibtreustrasse," The Joyce Project, www.joyceproject.com.Aldor was the firm of Ferenc Aldor, a Hungarian refugee who had been interned by the British during the Second World War. Sykes probably first met him through MI-5 work. Note that Sykes' two post-war translations were of German-language novels by the Hungarian, Ferencz Kormendi. Like Aldor, Kormendi was a refugee from Horthy's Hungary. During the Second World War, Kormendi worked for the BBC. Agnes Kelemen, "An entertainer of the middle classes: Ferencz Kormendi," Hungarian Literature Online (July 22, 2013), www. hlo.hu.
The debut issue of London Mystery Magazine, released in December 1949, contains Sykes' last published work. It's an article titled "The Shakespeare Mystery" and is probably a "cut and paste" job from Alias William Shakespeare? The magazine incorrectly states Sykes' given name as "Claude."
n/ London Mystery Magazine 1, no. 1 (1949). Through the end of 1954, this magazine was published by the Hulton Press, Ltd., then later by Norman Kark Publications. It's last issue was March 1982 under the name London Mystery Selection. J.S. Farley, London Mystery Magazine, www.londonmystery.info.
Last Work Published in Sykes' Lifetime
After 1949, no published book bears his name as either author or translator. One can't avoid speculating whether Sykes worked for MI-5 during the early Cold War years.
In 1954, Claud and Daisy Sykes were interviewed by Richard Ellmann as research for his acclaimed biography of James Joyce. That same year, they were interviewed by Patricia Hutchins for her book on Joyce. She described Claud Sykes as "slight-figured, with a long-boned, elf-like face, lively eyes and quick movements, humour in his voice."
n/ Ellmann, James Joyce; Index to the Hutchins-Joyce Papers, Trinity College Dublin Library, MS 4908-4911; Patricia Hutchins, James Joyce's World (London: Metheun, 1957), 98-101.Richard Ellmann interviewed Sykes in June 1954 after he agreed to pay Sykes a fee. Sykes would not be interviewed about Joyce gratis. He reasoned that by imparting to others information about the famous author, he deprives himself of the opportunity to earn money through sale of articles to periodicals. Sykes told Ellmann that in 1949 he had sold a good deal of Joyce material, plus a prepared memoire, to the American bibliophile John J. Slocum. Ellmann offered to pay Sykes $25 (equivalent to $280 in 2022) for a three-hour interview. Sykes accepted the offer. Richard Ellmann Papers, University of Tulsa Library, 1988.012.1.198: Letter from Claud Sykes to Richard Ellmann, December 31, 1953; Letter from Richard Ellmann to Claud Sykes, June 13, 1954 (duplicate).
In 1962, Claud was in poor health and he and Daisy decided to leave damp, chilly England for the warm and arid Mediterranean. That year, they visited Italy and the following year, Malta, then still a British possession. They arrived in Malta in April 1963 and checked-in to the newly opened Metropole Hotel in Sliema. There, Claud's health took a turn for the worse and he died on May 24, 1963, aged 79, at Blue Sisters Hospital. As his will specified that any funeral ceremony be secular, "the Letchworth Rotarian Club gathered at the Luton Crematorium and gave him a warm and dignified service which was not religious." His estate was valued at £59,295 (equivalent to £1.3 million in 2021). About one-third went to taxes.
After Claud's death, Daisy moved to a smaller house in Letchworth where she resided with a housekeeper. Daisy Sykes died on February 4, 1969, aged 77, at St. Catherine's Nursing Home, Letchworth. The residuary of her estate went into a trust, income for life to Claud's sisters (Esme and Doreen), and his sister-in-law Violet Helen Sykes. Upon their deaths, the principal would go to Esme's children, Claud's nieces and nephews. The estate was valued at £59,513 (equivalent to £1.0 million in 2021).
n/ Probate Register of England & Wales, 1963; Letchworth and Baldock Citizen, May 31, 1963; Beds. & Herts. Pictorial, May 31, 1963; Bank of England Inflation Calculator; Will of Claud Walter Sykes; Beds. & Herts. Pictorial, June 14, 1963; Probate Register of England & Wales, 1969; Will of Annie ("Daisy") Sykes.
Books by Claud Sykes
Published by John Hamilton, Ltd. of London except where otherwise noted. The copyright to Sykes' books is held by the descendants of his sister, Esme Cecilia Pardoe. His books will enter the public domain in 2031.
Original Works, Claud Sykes [Click on the link to read reviews in a pop-up window.]
The Nine-Pointed Star (1927). Read first chapter from pdf on this website. Will open in a new window.
Click on the image to the right to borrow this book from the Internet Archive's digital library. The webpage will open in a new browser window. Note that you will need an Archive.Org account which you can open free of charge.
Original Works as "Vigilant"
German War Birds (1931) - accounts of WWI German military aviators.
Fighting the Red Shadow (1932) - counter-espionage short stories.
Schatten auf Europa (Shadows on Europe) with Ravi Ravendro [Karl Dohring] (Leipzig: Goldmann, 1933).
German translation of Fighting the Red Shadow.
Richtofen, The Red Knight of the Air (1934) - non-fiction.
Lynx, V.C. (1936) - fiction.
Lynx, Spyflyer (1936) - fiction.
French War Birds (1937) - accounts of WWI French military aviators.
Lynx, Counter-Spy (1937) - fiction.
Lynx, V.C. Flies Again (London: Crowther, 1944) - fiction.
Translations from French (Novels)
Pierre Mariel, Son of the Tsar (1928)
Louis Pergaud, Vengeance of the Crows (1930)
Alberic Cahuet, Colonel Pontcarral (1938)
Translations from German (Novels)
A.H. Kober, Circus Nights and Circus Days (London: Low, Marston, 1931)
A.H. Kober, The Six Aquilas (London: Sampson, Low, Marston, 1932)
Ferencz Kormendi, The Happy Generation (London: Nicholson & Watson, 1945)
Ferencz Kormendi, Sinners (London: Nicholson & Watson, 1948)
Translations from German (WWI Aviation)
Franz Immelmann, Immelmann, The Eagle of Lille (1930)
Georg Wilhelm Heydemarck, Double Decker C666 (1931)
Rolf Marben, Zeppelin Adventures (1932)
Rudolph Stark, Wings of War (1933)
Hermann Koehl, Airman's Escape (London: John Lane, 1933)
Oswald Boelcke and Johannes Werner, Knight of Germany (1933)
Georg Wilhelm Heydemarck, Flying Section 17 (1934)
Georg Wilhelm Heydemarck, War Flying in Macedonia (1935)
M.E. Kahnert, Jagdstaffel 356 (1935)
Arnold Hagenbach, Pilot Tex (1935)
Hans Schroder, An Airman Remembers (1936)
Translations from German (Other Non-Fiction)
Fritz Klose, The Legion Marches (1932)
Lili Korber, Life in a Soviet Factory (London: Lane, 1933)
Major Helders [Robert Knauss], The War in the Air, 1936 (1935)
Erich Wollenberg, The Red Army (London: Secker & Warburg, 1940)
Heinz Halter, Finland Breaks the Russian Chains (1940)
Martin Gumpert, Hahnemann: The Adventurous Career of a Medical Rebel (New York: L.B. Fischer, 1945)
Known letters, memoranda, etc. with Sykes as sender or recipient. Most of the published letters are in the three volume work, Letters of James Joyce (New York: Viking, 1966). Click on the above link and the document will open from this website in a new browser window (Sykes_Correspondence.pdf, 184 kb).
Links to Other Websites
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Listing of books written or translated by Claud Sykes. Includes works as "Vigilant." Use this resource to locate Sykes' books at a library or in a digital collection.
Page on the website of the Joyce Foundation, Zurich. Includes photographs of the two Zurich theaters where the English Players performed: Kaufleuten and Pfauen. The Pfauen had a cafe frequented by Joyce and his friends.
Article by William Brockman and Sabrina Alonso on the English Players. James Joyce Online Notes 15 (December 2019).
Luening was an American composer, teacher, and orchestra conductor who befriended Joyce in Zurich. He appeared with the English Players under the stage name James P. Cleveland. Leuning was in Zurich as a student at the Zurich Conservatory of Music. The link is to an excerpt from his autobiography, The Odyssey of an American Composer (New York: Scribner, 1980). From Laureto Rodoni's Italian-language, Swiss website Portale di Varia Cultura.
The online collection of the Letchworth Garden City Heritage foundation has several items on Claud Sykes and Daisy Race, mostly newspaper clippings, some with photographs.
In the photograph, Claud Sykes is on the left in the back row; Daisy Race is fourth from the right, back row.
"He was the type of citizen we shall miss very much." Chairman, Letchworth Urban District Council.
Books authored or translated by Claud Sykes for sale by independent book retailers. Note that most of the offerings are reprints or facsimile editions.
