0:00:12 > 0:00:17The south-east coast of England, 100 years ago.
0:00:17 > 0:00:18As the Great War began,
0:00:18 > 0:00:23one town was turned on its head by a flood of troops and refugees.
0:00:27 > 0:00:29With its eddying currents of humanity, it became
0:00:29 > 0:00:33a hotbed of espionage which helped change the course of the war.
0:00:33 > 0:00:37The Germans couldn't stay in one place for more than a week
0:00:37 > 0:00:39before they were bombed.
0:00:39 > 0:00:43'And it became a natural home for the collection of information.'
0:00:43 > 0:00:47"Corpses, many of them horribly burnt, even in the trees."
0:00:47 > 0:00:49Oh, this is amazing stuff.
0:00:49 > 0:00:52'For the fruits of the latest spying techniques...'
0:00:52 > 0:00:53The mapmaker, it was said,
0:00:53 > 0:00:59could write 1,600 words on the back of a postage stamp.
0:00:59 > 0:01:03..and for an extraordinary cast of characters.
0:01:03 > 0:01:07The fact that he was a fraudster and a liar and a thief somehow
0:01:07 > 0:01:10transfers to actually being the guy we want to push forward
0:01:10 > 0:01:12once he gets out of jail.
0:01:12 > 0:01:15Characters who were ready to risk everything.
0:01:15 > 0:01:18And if they got caught, they were going to get shot.
0:01:18 > 0:01:21These are the spies who loved Folkestone.
0:01:53 > 0:01:56We all love stories about spies,
0:01:56 > 0:02:00and as an author, I've created one or two fictional spies myself.
0:02:03 > 0:02:08But when a country is at war, secret information is a serious matter.
0:02:10 > 0:02:12It is the key to victory and hundreds,
0:02:12 > 0:02:16maybe thousands of lives can depend on a few scant facts.
0:02:17 > 0:02:22Where armies use brute force, spies use their brains.
0:02:22 > 0:02:25They don't call it "intelligence" for nothing.
0:02:34 > 0:02:36Just before the war started,
0:02:36 > 0:02:39Folkestone was an ordinary coastal town.
0:02:39 > 0:02:42A place to enjoy the fun of the seaside.
0:02:42 > 0:02:44But that wasn't to last.
0:02:49 > 0:02:52Thousands of Belgian refugees fled across the Channel.
0:02:52 > 0:02:55In those days, the ferry went from Flushing in neutral Holland
0:02:55 > 0:02:57to Folkestone.
0:02:57 > 0:03:00Well, they were all pouring into this place.
0:03:00 > 0:03:05Little sleepy Folkestone found itself a hub for soldiers,
0:03:05 > 0:03:08for would-be soldiers, for spies and would-be spies.
0:03:18 > 0:03:21We're going to look at some remarkable characters.
0:03:21 > 0:03:23You might call them the spooks of the Great War,
0:03:23 > 0:03:26who operated out of Folkestone.
0:03:26 > 0:03:29They could easily be something out of a novel.
0:03:29 > 0:03:33And we begin with the spymaster lurking in the shadows -
0:03:33 > 0:03:35Major Cecil Aylmer Cameron.
0:03:42 > 0:03:46He was certainly an interesting choice for this particular job.
0:03:48 > 0:03:51The thing about Cecil Cameron was that he had form.
0:03:51 > 0:03:55In fact, he'd been involved in something of a national scandal.
0:04:00 > 0:04:03A few years earlier, his Army career seemed to be going well.
0:04:03 > 0:04:07Good evening, sir, how do you do?
0:04:07 > 0:04:09But he and his wife needed money,
0:04:09 > 0:04:13and they hatched a plot involving a string of pearls.
0:04:15 > 0:04:19They had rented a pearl necklace worth £6,500.
0:04:19 > 0:04:23- An awful lot in today's money, of course.- Absolutely, in those days.
0:04:23 > 0:04:29And they'd insured the necklace. And then lost it somehow.
0:04:29 > 0:04:32They were done for an insurance fraud, basically.
0:04:32 > 0:04:36Cecil Aylmer Cameron and his wife were convicted in Edinburgh.
0:04:36 > 0:04:39They both got three years.
0:04:39 > 0:04:41And that was all happening in Scotland.
0:04:41 > 0:04:46And because Aylmer Cameron was the son of an Indian Army hero,
0:04:46 > 0:04:49a man who had the VC, the officer class in London
0:04:49 > 0:04:53decided this was some sort of Scottish stitch-up.
0:04:53 > 0:04:56The fact that he was a fraudster and a liar and a thief
0:04:56 > 0:05:01somehow transfers, because of this officer-class attitude,
0:05:01 > 0:05:04to actually being the guy we want to push forward
0:05:04 > 0:05:05once he gets out of jail.
0:05:05 > 0:05:10Once he was out of jail, about the only option available to him
0:05:10 > 0:05:12was the shadowy world of espionage.
0:05:12 > 0:05:15When he first got back to London he was foisted on
0:05:15 > 0:05:19Mansfield Cumming, who was the head of what we now call MI6,
0:05:19 > 0:05:21but then was called MI 1c,
0:05:21 > 0:05:25where he completely messed up, he was absolutely useless,
0:05:25 > 0:05:29and he really, really upset everyone around him.
0:05:29 > 0:05:32But the officer class in the Army still thought
0:05:32 > 0:05:34he was a first-rate chap.
0:05:34 > 0:05:37So they took him off MI 1c and put him in charge
0:05:37 > 0:05:40of Military Intelligence in Folkestone.
0:05:40 > 0:05:43And despite Cameron's lack of people skills,
0:05:43 > 0:05:46he did set up a highly effective spy network.
0:05:49 > 0:05:53Jim Beach from the University of Northampton
0:05:53 > 0:05:55is an advisor to the Military Intelligence Museum.
0:05:55 > 0:05:58And here they have some surviving agent reports
0:05:58 > 0:06:00which would have passed through Cameron's hands.
0:06:01 > 0:06:05What we have here are instructions and also reports,
0:06:05 > 0:06:08written on tissue paper so they can be easily secreted about the person.
0:06:08 > 0:06:11And also very easy to dispose of the paper
0:06:11 > 0:06:14if you thought you were at risk of being caught.
0:06:14 > 0:06:17And then what we have from Folkestone itself,
0:06:17 > 0:06:18a sort of typed-up version,
0:06:18 > 0:06:22and we see here train movements and it's report CF -
0:06:22 > 0:06:28Cameron Folkestone - 759, issued on 21 March 1917.
0:06:33 > 0:06:35In the Grand Hotel in Folkestone,
0:06:35 > 0:06:39I've enrolled in our very own low-tech spy school.
0:06:39 > 0:06:43Here I'm learning that some spies would smuggle messages
0:06:43 > 0:06:47using nothing more than a candle and a small fruit.
0:06:47 > 0:06:50One of the ways in which secret writing was undertaken
0:06:50 > 0:06:53was by the use of lemon juice.
0:06:53 > 0:06:54Here's the candle.
0:06:54 > 0:06:57- Oh, can I do this?- You can do that.
0:06:57 > 0:06:59Something is happening. Look, letters are forming
0:06:59 > 0:07:00in front of our eyes.
0:07:00 > 0:07:05It says "Meet at the... G-R-A," it looks like.
0:07:05 > 0:07:08At the Grand. It's here. Meet at the Grand!
0:07:08 > 0:07:09So somebody has sent me
0:07:09 > 0:07:13a secret message on a bill to meet at the Grand in lemon juice.
0:07:13 > 0:07:16- This is what they used to do in the First World War?- Exactly.
0:07:19 > 0:07:23A German called Carl Muller was caught spying in Folkestone
0:07:23 > 0:07:27when his letters were found to contain messages...
0:07:27 > 0:07:28in invisible ink.
0:07:30 > 0:07:33One gave details of troops in the town.
0:07:36 > 0:07:40So to fight back, what Major Cameron really needed were refugees
0:07:40 > 0:07:44who could learn techniques like this and be turned into spies.
0:07:52 > 0:07:56When I wrote a series of books about a teenage spy called Alex Rider,
0:07:56 > 0:08:00I never dreamed that there had once been a real-life original.
0:08:00 > 0:08:01But there was.
0:08:06 > 0:08:10In 1915, a 17-year-old Belgian refugee arrived
0:08:10 > 0:08:14in Folkestone Harbour. The boy's name was Leon Trulin.
0:08:16 > 0:08:20As soon as he arrived, he tried to join the Belgian Army in exile,
0:08:20 > 0:08:23only to be turned away because he was too short.
0:08:25 > 0:08:28He said, "Perhaps I can offer my services as a spy."
0:08:28 > 0:08:31Which is exactly what he did. He went back across the Channel.
0:08:31 > 0:08:32He got his friends,
0:08:32 > 0:08:36some of them 15 or 16 years of age, to spy on the Germans.
0:08:36 > 0:08:38The were known as the Glorious Teenagers.
0:08:38 > 0:08:42And yet, they were highly effective in bringing back information
0:08:42 > 0:08:43here to Folkestone.
0:09:17 > 0:09:21Him and his child spies, they did invaluable work,
0:09:21 > 0:09:23and as I say, all brought back to Folkestone,
0:09:23 > 0:09:27collated here and used by the British Army to attack the Germans.
0:09:27 > 0:09:28It was a big adventure,
0:09:28 > 0:09:31it was an extremely dangerous adventure because they were going
0:09:31 > 0:09:35behind enemy lines, and if they got caught, they were going to get shot.
0:09:38 > 0:09:41There are still some remains of Folkestone's secret spying history,
0:09:41 > 0:09:44if you know where to look for them.
0:09:47 > 0:09:50This building overlooking the harbour was once
0:09:50 > 0:09:52the German Consulate.
0:09:52 > 0:09:55And it had this room at the top with all these windows.
0:09:55 > 0:09:57It would've been perfect for the Germans.
0:09:57 > 0:10:00They would've had an excellent view of the harbour
0:10:00 > 0:10:03and all the British troop movements going on below.
0:10:05 > 0:10:09Sadly for the Germans, but hardly surprisingly,
0:10:09 > 0:10:12the Consulate was closed down when war broke out.
0:10:15 > 0:10:17This building, 8 Marine Parade,
0:10:17 > 0:10:20was a fashionable hotel until the end of 1915,
0:10:20 > 0:10:24when suddenly, almost overnight, it vanishes from the records
0:10:24 > 0:10:26and nobody speaks about it again.
0:10:26 > 0:10:28That's because it had become the headquarters
0:10:28 > 0:10:30of Army intelligence here in Folkestone.
0:10:34 > 0:10:35By a strange coincidence,
0:10:35 > 0:10:39the building is now owned by a current serving Army officer -
0:10:39 > 0:10:42Lieutenant Colonel Martin Neame.
0:10:42 > 0:10:47So here we have the entrance hall to what was a hotel.
0:10:47 > 0:10:50I'm afraid it's very derelict, which is why I've purchased it
0:10:50 > 0:10:52to turn it into flats.
0:10:52 > 0:10:54Presumably, you knew nothing of its history.
0:10:54 > 0:10:56No, nothing - this is all a big surprise.
0:10:58 > 0:10:59It must have had a great contribution
0:10:59 > 0:11:01towards the winning of the war, I assume.
0:11:01 > 0:11:03Oh, they say that these spies saved hundreds
0:11:03 > 0:11:06if not thousands of British lives, absolutely.
0:11:06 > 0:11:08'Inside this building,
0:11:08 > 0:11:12'the day-to-day business of espionage would take place.'
0:11:12 > 0:11:14You've got the head of the office,
0:11:14 > 0:11:16Cameron, who was there in terms of direction.
0:11:16 > 0:11:19And then he would've had a series of junior officers
0:11:19 > 0:11:23working beneath him who are either out of the office,
0:11:23 > 0:11:27doing recruitment and training and liaison.
0:11:27 > 0:11:30Then they would also have officers who would be decoding
0:11:30 > 0:11:33and sorting out the reporting.
0:11:33 > 0:11:36And what you would also have would be connections and visits
0:11:36 > 0:11:42from your representatives in the Netherlands
0:11:42 > 0:11:45who would then be operating agents on your behalf.
0:11:45 > 0:11:48And being yourself a serving lieutenant colonel
0:11:48 > 0:11:50in the British Army, just back from Afghanistan,
0:11:50 > 0:11:52that's quite a coincidence.
0:11:52 > 0:11:55How do you feel about owning a piece of British military history?
0:11:55 > 0:11:57It's fantastic, actually.
0:11:57 > 0:11:59I was quite taken aback. I had no idea.
0:11:59 > 0:12:02I really just looked at the property as being an investment
0:12:02 > 0:12:04from the perspective of buying and doing it up,
0:12:04 > 0:12:06turning it into flats and bringing it back into use.
0:12:06 > 0:12:09But the fact that it has some sort of military history as well
0:12:09 > 0:12:11is just outstanding.
0:12:13 > 0:12:17And it's inside this building where one special spy
0:12:17 > 0:12:19would have been taught the tricks of the trade.
0:12:20 > 0:12:25Not a Belgian refugee this time, but a well-connected French woman.
0:12:26 > 0:12:29Her name was Louise de Bettignies.
0:12:38 > 0:12:41Louise de Bettignies was the daughter
0:12:41 > 0:12:45of quite a well-known family with aristocratic origins,
0:12:45 > 0:12:47who had fallen on hard times.
0:12:49 > 0:12:53She was from a small town near Lille in northern France.
0:12:53 > 0:12:57She was partly educated in England and spoke several languages.
0:12:58 > 0:13:02Lille was invaded by the Germans in October 1914.
0:13:05 > 0:13:07Louise was so devastated when she saw the damage
0:13:07 > 0:13:10that, as a patriot of France,
0:13:10 > 0:13:14she decided to do whatever she could to fight back.
0:13:14 > 0:13:16She was passing through Folkestone
0:13:16 > 0:13:18and, of course, she was spotted straightaway
0:13:18 > 0:13:20as perfect spy material.
0:13:22 > 0:13:25She was university-educated, she was well-connected,
0:13:25 > 0:13:27she spoke several languages and she was female.
0:13:27 > 0:13:29What could be better?
0:13:30 > 0:13:34And so Louise was trained in all the latest spying techniques
0:13:34 > 0:13:37and was put on a boat straight back to France.
0:13:37 > 0:13:40One of the names she operated under was Alice Dubois,
0:13:40 > 0:13:42and she recruited a ring of female spies
0:13:42 > 0:13:45called the Alice Network.
0:13:45 > 0:13:47They would, for instance, send information back
0:13:47 > 0:13:50about where the German military units were sited.
0:13:50 > 0:13:53The Germans couldn't stay in one place
0:13:53 > 0:13:55for more than a week before they were bombed
0:13:55 > 0:13:58because all the information was coming back to Folkestone.
0:14:04 > 0:14:08Louise's great nephew is Bertin de Bettignies.
0:14:08 > 0:14:10And of course, the memory of what she achieved
0:14:10 > 0:14:12is kept alive in the family.
0:14:14 > 0:14:16HE SPEAKS FRENCH
0:14:33 > 0:14:36One resistance fighter, a Monsieur Sion,
0:14:36 > 0:14:40refused to believe that this rather delicate-looking woman
0:14:40 > 0:14:43was really working undercover for British military intelligence.
0:14:43 > 0:14:45He wanted proof.
0:14:45 > 0:14:48So he added his own note to the bottom of one of her spy reports
0:14:48 > 0:14:52that she said was going to be sent back to Folkestone.
0:14:52 > 0:14:55Monsieur Sion Sr wrote,
0:14:55 > 0:14:59"If this person is who she says she is,
0:14:59 > 0:15:02"could you please bomb a particular place
0:15:02 > 0:15:05"on a particular day at a particular time."
0:15:05 > 0:15:07One was a munitions dump,
0:15:07 > 0:15:12I think that the other was... a gun emplacement or something.
0:15:12 > 0:15:17So she took her message to Flushing and it was taken over to Folkestone.
0:15:17 > 0:15:21And at the appointed time, appointed hour,
0:15:21 > 0:15:22hey presto - the bombs fell.
0:15:22 > 0:15:25- And they never questioned her again? - They never questioned her again.
0:15:28 > 0:15:32One technique Louise used to smuggle secret reports
0:15:32 > 0:15:36was to stitch tiny messages into her clothing.
0:15:36 > 0:15:41She was lucky enough to have a friend who was a mapmaker.
0:15:41 > 0:15:45Most of Louise's messages that came over here to Folkestone
0:15:45 > 0:15:49came in the form of this very small writing.
0:15:49 > 0:15:52The mapmaker, it was said,
0:15:52 > 0:15:57could write 1,600 words on the back of a postage stamp.
0:16:00 > 0:16:04Major Cameron wasn't the only person operating an espionage network
0:16:04 > 0:16:09out of Folkestone. Another spy turned up with the perfect cover.
0:16:09 > 0:16:13After all, who would suspect a priest?
0:16:17 > 0:16:19Father Pierre Marie Cavrois O'Caffrey
0:16:19 > 0:16:22was a priest of Irish-French descent.
0:16:22 > 0:16:26He had already been working as a spy in northern France.
0:16:26 > 0:16:29And just like other intelligence organisations,
0:16:29 > 0:16:32he realised that the Flushing to Folkestone ferry
0:16:32 > 0:16:35could be a vital source of information.
0:16:35 > 0:16:38He sees all these Belgian refugees around him,
0:16:38 > 0:16:40he suddenly thinks, "Well, actually,
0:16:40 > 0:16:43"if we had an office in Folkestone,
0:16:43 > 0:16:45"we could collect intelligence from these guys
0:16:45 > 0:16:47"and we could send them back."
0:16:48 > 0:16:52After all, the Belgian refugees knew where all the enemy troops were,
0:16:52 > 0:16:55because that's what they were running from.
0:16:55 > 0:16:58So O'Caffrey would board all steamers from Holland
0:16:58 > 0:17:00asking questions.
0:17:00 > 0:17:04And from there, it was a small step to send some of them back
0:17:04 > 0:17:06to work as spies for him.
0:17:08 > 0:17:12And so Father O'Caffrey set up his own network of agents,
0:17:12 > 0:17:17regularly transmitting very useful information across the Channel.
0:17:17 > 0:17:18How do we know this?
0:17:21 > 0:17:25Because his files have surfaced here at the National Archives.
0:17:33 > 0:17:36'Phil Tomaselli discovered several large files
0:17:36 > 0:17:38'relating to the work of O'Caffrey
0:17:38 > 0:17:41'at the National Archives in Kew in Surrey.'
0:17:46 > 0:17:50These are the actual field reports that O'Caffrey's spies sent back.
0:17:50 > 0:17:54They should've been kept secret in the MI6 archives
0:17:54 > 0:17:58but they somehow ended up in the more public National Archives.
0:17:58 > 0:18:01But even then, it wasn't easy for Phil
0:18:01 > 0:18:05to get some of the documents released by the authorities.
0:18:05 > 0:18:08They normally take six weeks to be opened -
0:18:08 > 0:18:11they took nine months on this one.
0:18:11 > 0:18:13I kept getting letters,
0:18:13 > 0:18:16saying, "We are having to refer it to another department."
0:18:16 > 0:18:19So I said, "I know he's a spy, I can prove it.
0:18:19 > 0:18:21"I know he worked for MI6, I can prove it."
0:18:21 > 0:18:25And they kept delaying. Eventually, they opened the file
0:18:25 > 0:18:27and they have taken a couple of pages out,
0:18:27 > 0:18:29copied them and carefully blanked the information
0:18:29 > 0:18:30they didn't want me to see.
0:18:30 > 0:18:33But the pages we're going to look at here have never been seen before?
0:18:33 > 0:18:35These ones have not been seen before.
0:18:35 > 0:18:37- That's exciting. - THEY CHUCKLE
0:18:37 > 0:18:42Many of the documents are daily reports coming in about aviation.
0:18:42 > 0:18:45So they're telling you what's going on in the various aerodromes.
0:18:45 > 0:18:47How many aeroplanes were flying.
0:18:47 > 0:18:50Where the Zeppelins were at any one time.
0:18:50 > 0:18:52Suggesting targets.
0:18:53 > 0:18:57In Ghent, there's a factory that is repairing machine guns,
0:18:57 > 0:18:58good idea to bomb that.
0:19:01 > 0:19:05'So how was this information getting across the Channel?
0:19:05 > 0:19:07'Well, back at the School for Spies,
0:19:07 > 0:19:11'I'm learning that one incredibly simple but effective technique
0:19:11 > 0:19:13'is to use a template.
0:19:13 > 0:19:15'This seems to be a perfectly innocent letter.
0:19:15 > 0:19:20'But if the writer and the reader both have the same template,
0:19:20 > 0:19:23'significant words can be buried inside the writing.'
0:19:23 > 0:19:25This is interesting.
0:19:26 > 0:19:29Here is Frederick writing to Annette,
0:19:29 > 0:19:32making reference to Aunt Nancy.
0:19:32 > 0:19:34Ah, but it's not Nancy the name of the person -
0:19:34 > 0:19:37it's Nancy, the little town in France.
0:19:37 > 0:19:39- I think you're right. - Subtle, very clever.
0:19:39 > 0:19:45So it says "14 reserved division at Nancy, the 20th depleted."
0:19:45 > 0:19:46Absolutely.
0:19:46 > 0:19:49Presumably, the spymasters knew
0:19:49 > 0:19:52exactly what was meant by that message.
0:19:52 > 0:19:55And of course, if it meant they were depleted,
0:19:55 > 0:19:59or would be depleted, on the 20th, what a good day to mount an attack.
0:19:59 > 0:20:04So at this time, Major Cameron was running a network for the Army
0:20:04 > 0:20:06while O'Caffrey was running a completely separate network
0:20:06 > 0:20:08for the Navy.
0:20:08 > 0:20:10But this doubling up was a good thing.
0:20:11 > 0:20:15It works much better to have separate networks
0:20:15 > 0:20:16where people don't know each other.
0:20:16 > 0:20:19So if the Germans roll one network over,
0:20:19 > 0:20:21the other network's still there.
0:20:21 > 0:20:25Some of the reports really do stop you in your tracks.
0:20:25 > 0:20:28Like this one about the Germans' new secret weapon -
0:20:28 > 0:20:31the invisible aeroplanes.
0:20:31 > 0:20:35It says that in Dusseldorf, 30th July 1915,
0:20:35 > 0:20:38"Yesterday we had an opportunity of convincing ourselves
0:20:38 > 0:20:42"that the new aeroplanes are practically invisible.
0:20:42 > 0:20:46"The wings of the aeroplane are made of a new substance called Cellon."
0:20:46 > 0:20:50They must have been really rather worried.
0:20:50 > 0:20:53And it turns out that the reports were actually true.
0:20:53 > 0:20:55But they needn't have worried.
0:20:55 > 0:20:57It didn't really work as a camouflage,
0:20:57 > 0:21:01and the invisible aeroplane, in a sense, disappeared.
0:21:03 > 0:21:05The spies would have to get information
0:21:05 > 0:21:08from occupied Belgium into neutral Holland.
0:21:08 > 0:21:09But the Germans had built
0:21:09 > 0:21:13an enormous electrified fence on the border.
0:21:13 > 0:21:16So how do we get messages across that fence?
0:21:16 > 0:21:18You throw something - tell me.
0:21:18 > 0:21:21You could throw something - what sort of things would you throw?
0:21:21 > 0:21:23If it was me, I would throw...
0:21:25 > 0:21:26..hollowed-out vegetables.
0:21:26 > 0:21:28Ah! Yes...
0:21:28 > 0:21:30Possibly some little sack of some sort?
0:21:30 > 0:21:32I don't know, you tell me.
0:21:32 > 0:21:34Because, don't forget,
0:21:34 > 0:21:37the land on either side of this border, high-voltage fence,
0:21:37 > 0:21:39was agricultural land.
0:21:39 > 0:21:44- Ah, right. - And British intelligence...
0:21:44 > 0:21:47Oh, my God, don't tell me I was right? I was right!
0:21:47 > 0:21:51- It was a mangelwurtzel - what is it? - A turnip.- A turnip!
0:21:51 > 0:21:54They would...is one of these hollow?
0:21:54 > 0:21:55I don't know, is it?
0:21:55 > 0:21:59Surely not. I want to tear this open, now.
0:21:59 > 0:22:01They all seem to be completely intact.
0:22:01 > 0:22:04- Oh, dear, that's disappointing. - No, there's nothing unscrewing.
0:22:04 > 0:22:06Tell me, how do we find the message?
0:22:06 > 0:22:08That's, of course, exactly what we want.
0:22:08 > 0:22:11Had you been a suspicious German policeman
0:22:11 > 0:22:14and looked at them, you haven't discovered what is...
0:22:16 > 0:22:20Let's use our pen - it's useful for many things.
0:22:20 > 0:22:22Uncork it and pull out...
0:22:22 > 0:22:24Oh, to pull it out. This is so great.
0:22:25 > 0:22:27And they just threw that over the fence,
0:22:27 > 0:22:31and then collected it, took it home, took out the message.
0:22:31 > 0:22:37And that found its way across Holland to Flushing onto the boat
0:22:37 > 0:22:40which brought it all the way to Folkestone
0:22:40 > 0:22:42where Cecil Cameron would read it.
0:22:45 > 0:22:47And back in the National Archives,
0:22:47 > 0:22:49there is one report received by O'Caffrey
0:22:49 > 0:22:51which seems to leap off the page.
0:22:53 > 0:22:57It describes how a British plane attacked a Zeppelin at Gontrode
0:22:57 > 0:23:02on 7th June 1915 at 2.15am.
0:23:02 > 0:23:06"Flames burst out of the airship and were soon seen to envelop it.
0:23:06 > 0:23:08"Two terrific explosions were heard
0:23:08 > 0:23:11"and the airship, broken in two, was crushed down to the ground."
0:23:11 > 0:23:14Oh - "Corpses, many of them horribly burnt and charred,
0:23:14 > 0:23:16"were seen amidst the debris, others on the roof
0:23:16 > 0:23:18"and even in the trees."
0:23:18 > 0:23:19This is amazing stuff.
0:23:19 > 0:23:20"It was said that a corpse
0:23:20 > 0:23:22"fell right through the roof
0:23:22 > 0:23:24"of the 'Cafe St Amand'
0:23:24 > 0:23:26"and was found horribly mutilated
0:23:26 > 0:23:28"in the kitchen of that establishment."
0:23:28 > 0:23:30- Yes.- Spoilt someone's dinner, I bet.
0:23:30 > 0:23:31"During the day,
0:23:31 > 0:23:34"little boys were selling pieces of the wrecked Zeppelin
0:23:34 > 0:23:37"to the inhabitants."
0:23:37 > 0:23:41That's an extraordinary piece of writing for a dry official report.
0:23:41 > 0:23:43O'Caffrey was gathering intelligence like this
0:23:43 > 0:23:46in parallel to the work of Cameron's agents.
0:23:46 > 0:23:50And of course, given what Cameron was like, the two did not get on.
0:23:51 > 0:23:54I know that you write mainly factual books, but the way you talk,
0:23:54 > 0:23:57this all sounds like an extraordinary piece of fiction -
0:23:57 > 0:24:00it does sound stranger than life.
0:24:00 > 0:24:04You've got a wonderful protagonist in O'Caffrey
0:24:04 > 0:24:07and you've got a wonderful antagonist in Aylmer Cameron.
0:24:07 > 0:24:12The whole story is just brilliant - you don't even need the Germans.
0:24:12 > 0:24:14You've got the hero and villain already.
0:24:19 > 0:24:21There's no doubt that all the spies we've encountered
0:24:21 > 0:24:24inflicted huge damage on the enemy.
0:24:24 > 0:24:26But what became of them?
0:24:26 > 0:24:29Louise de Bettignies was arrested by the Germans
0:24:29 > 0:24:33near Tournai in Belgium on 20th October 1915.
0:24:33 > 0:24:36She had been operational for just nine months.
0:24:36 > 0:24:39We think she was tortured.
0:24:39 > 0:24:41I'm sure she was.
0:24:41 > 0:24:44But she never gave anybody away,
0:24:44 > 0:24:46she remained silent and stoical.
0:24:47 > 0:24:50At first, she was condemned to death.
0:24:50 > 0:24:54Then her sentence was commuted to a life of forced labour.
0:24:54 > 0:24:57But while in prison, she fell seriously ill.
0:24:57 > 0:24:59She had, first of all, pneumonia,
0:24:59 > 0:25:03which developed into pleurisy with an abscess.
0:25:03 > 0:25:05And they refused to let her go to hospital
0:25:05 > 0:25:08to have the operation, she had to stay in the prison.
0:25:11 > 0:25:13She died in 1918.
0:25:13 > 0:25:15There is a memorial to her
0:25:15 > 0:25:17in the military cemetery of Notre Dame de Lorette
0:25:17 > 0:25:19near Lille in northern France.
0:25:22 > 0:25:26The name of Louise de Bettignies is almost completely forgotten now,
0:25:26 > 0:25:29but she almost certainly did as much to save British lives
0:25:29 > 0:25:31as any secret agent in the Great War.
0:25:35 > 0:25:38Leon Trulin was caught on the frontier near Antwerp
0:25:38 > 0:25:40trying to re-enter Belgium.
0:25:41 > 0:25:45Leon was arrested by the Germans and brought to the very spot
0:25:45 > 0:25:46where I'm standing now
0:25:46 > 0:25:48and executed by firing squad.
0:25:48 > 0:25:50He was 18 years old.
0:25:52 > 0:25:56Leon Trulin wrote to his mother in his last letter,
0:25:56 > 0:25:59"I forgive the Germans. They did their duty.
0:25:59 > 0:26:01"But they have been very harsh on me."
0:26:04 > 0:26:07O'Caffrey went on to work for what became MI6.
0:26:07 > 0:26:09We know that he went to Greece
0:26:09 > 0:26:11and got married on a forged British passport.
0:26:11 > 0:26:13At the outbreak of the Second World War,
0:26:13 > 0:26:15he rejoined the Navy.
0:26:15 > 0:26:18Doing what exactly, nobody knows.
0:26:18 > 0:26:20No photograph of him is known to exist.
0:26:28 > 0:26:32And Major Cecil Aylmer Cameron had a mysterious fate.
0:26:32 > 0:26:34Although his work did more to help the war effort
0:26:34 > 0:26:36than most Army officers,
0:26:36 > 0:26:39no photograph of him is known to exist either.
0:26:39 > 0:26:44And for reasons that are not clear, he shot himself in 1924.
0:26:46 > 0:26:49So would it be true to say that, in one sense,
0:26:49 > 0:26:52what we now call MI6 and modern spying
0:26:52 > 0:26:54began in Folkestone?
0:26:54 > 0:26:58MI6 had existed a little bit before that and ran a few agents.
0:26:58 > 0:27:01But when it comes to running big networks,
0:27:01 > 0:27:04O'Caffrey's was one of the first.
0:27:04 > 0:27:06So in a sense, yes.
0:27:06 > 0:27:10It is the start of MI6's agent networks
0:27:10 > 0:27:12that spread right the way throughout the world during the war
0:27:12 > 0:27:14and which are still there today.
0:27:14 > 0:27:16When we look back at the First World War,
0:27:16 > 0:27:21we think of poppies, muddy fields, the trenches of northern France.
0:27:21 > 0:27:23But that's only part of the truth.
0:27:23 > 0:27:25Walking through a town like this,
0:27:25 > 0:27:28it's all too easy to forget that the war was fought here too.
0:27:28 > 0:27:33100 years ago, Folkestone had a vital part to play
0:27:33 > 0:27:38in the secret work done by brave men, women and children.
0:27:38 > 0:27:43And even now, it's impossible to say how many lives they saved.