The Royal Navy's Eyes and Ears in Nazi Berlin
The British war hero who shook Adm Raeder's hand

An old disbound family album discovered at a Yorkshire antiques fair proved to have belonged to a member of the Muirhead-Gould family. Among the photographs were a number of a man who it transpired went on to a distinguished naval career, much of it in the intelligence services.  Richard Taylor tells the story to which this chance purchase led.

IT WAS 25 July 1936 and Capt Gerard Muirhead-Gould DSC, RN, was just about to end three years as naval attaché in Berlin. One of his last tasks was to introduce his successor, Capt Thomas Troubridge, to the head of Hitler's navy, no less a figure than Admiral Erich Raeder.

He arrived in Germany at a critical time. Only two weeks earlier it had been decreed that the Nazi party was now the only political party in the country. He became a fascinated and professional observer of the events that were still unfolding as Hitler tightened his grip on Germany, its people and its military.

A 1936 report on his work said: 'Captain Muirhead-Gould has had much difficulty with which to contend during his service in Germany, owing to the attitude formerly taken by the German Admiralty towards the British naval attaché. By refusal to be bluffed and by firmness, he has greatly improved relations.'

Capt Muirhead-Gould produced a lengthy report on his farewell interview with Raeder, a document that was forwarded within days to Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden. The British Ambassador in Berlin commented in a covering letter: 'Admiral Raeder sought to reassure Captain Muirhead-Gould as to the peaceful nature of the Fuhrer's intentions and appealed to him to promote the cause of Anglo-German friendship. The statement delivered was evidently carefully prepared and doubtless made with the Chancellor's (ie Hitler's) authority.' The report, now held at the PRO under reference FO/371/19928, makes interesting reading in the light of subsequent events.

After formal compliments had been exchanged, Raeder told the captain that he and his staff felt they were losing a good comrade and Germany a real friend. The Admiral hoped that Muirhead-Gould would do his best to explain to his countrymen the 'essence and spirit of National Socialism and work for a better understanding of Germany by the English people'.

The captain wrote sceptically: 'He wanted me to believe that the spirit of National Socialism was peaceful. He gave me his most solemn assurance this was so...

Raeder said that people in England seemed to think that Germany was building up her armed forces with a view to attacking someone, or at least threatening someone. But this was absolutely false. The Fuhrer wanted peace, but he also wanted security in which his people could enjoy that peace.

'It had even been suggested that Germany intended at some future date to overrun Czechoslovakia. It was fantastic, and it would be funny if it were not so tragic and annoying.'

Then Raeder went on to allege that the Czechs had put their airfields at the disposal of Soviet Russia and allowed her personnel to man them. This was obviously too much for Muirhead-Gould. He interrupted the admiral to ask if he really believed these stories. Raeder said he had 'absolutely incontrovertible evidence' that there were 36 airfields and landing places in Czechoslovakia which had been prepared to receive Russian aircraft.

Raeder later went on to deny rumours that the Germans were anxious to free themselves from the naval agreement which limited the size and number of their warships.

Capt Muirhead-Gould ended his report by saying: 'Both Capt Troubridge and myself were struck by Admiral Raeder's evident sincerity.' Unlike his successor Doenitz, Raeder was not a devoted Nazi, but everything he said was a lie - and Muirhead-Gould's record as an intelligence officer shows he was not a man to let the wool be pulled over his eyes. 

At the end of October 1935, he wrote to Winston Churchill, but sent the letter from Warsaw. The captain waited until he was in Poland, he said, because the Nazis were so annoyed with Churchill no letter addressed to him would have got out of the country.

He praised Churchill - still in his so-called 'wilderness years' - for his Commons speech on October 24 when he raised the issue of Germany's rearmament. He wrote that the Germans feared Churchill would become First Lord of the Admiralty or Minister of Defence. Those fears were eventually to be realised in full measure when Churchill became First Lord on the invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939.

The Dictionary of National Biography says of the period before that: "His political isolation made it all the harder to recover an attentive audience for a growing series of warnings about the threat of a revived and rearming Germany, about which he made sure he was remarkably well informed." Capt Muirhead-Gould would appear to have been one of those sources.

Gerard Charles Muirhead-Gould, the son of an army officer, was born in London on 29 May 1889 and joined HMS BRITANNIA as a naval cadet in January 1904. He was made up to midshipman on 30 July 1905 and appointed to HANNIBAL the following month. He was then appointed to a series of ships, in the course of which he became a lieutenant on December 1910.

When war broke out in August 1914, he was serving in the Mediterranean in the cruiser DEFENCE but in January 1915, when he was an additional with PEMBROKE at Chatham, he was appointed to serve in Belgium on armoured trains. He stayed with them until September, by which time he had earned a mention in Sir John French's despatch of 31 May 1915 for what another source described as 'gallant and distinguished service in the field'.

He was subsequently awarded the DSC for services in the Aegean between January and June 1918 when he was flag lieutenant.

Muirhead-Gould's confidential record of service held at the PRO makes repeated references to his ability as a signals and staff officer. Rear-Adm Michael Culme-Seymour, second in command of the Mediterranean Fleet, noted in October 1919 that he had been of particular assistance to the Russian Volunteer Army during operations in the Black Sea. The following month he was appointed temporary naval attaché at Constantinople. 

A subsequent report from his rear-admiral said: 'He has shown capacity for drafting instructions and had exceptional ability with regard to forming an appreciation of situations. He has performed zealous and most valuable work in connection with the Russian operations.' 

From April 1926 he commanded the sloop BLUEBELL in Chinese waters, although he was unfortunate enough to lose her anchors and cable at Nanking, which an enquiry decided was down to an error of judgement, a mild rebuke under the circumstances.

For eleven months, while he was with the HAWKINS, he was naval liaison officer under the GOC North China who expressed 'high appreciation' of his services. Soon afterwards Vice-Adm Reginald Tyrwhitt, C-in-C China 1926-29, said that he considered the navy's excellent relations with the Shanghai Defence Force were largely due to Muirhead-Gould's tact and judgement.

He did extremely well in the Naval Intelligence Department and in 1930 he was selected as head of a naval mission to China. Later at the NID he was in charge of the German, Russian and Scandinavian Section. He was singled out for the job of naval attaché in Berlin and in preparation for this learned German while he was serving the Mediterranean. As well as being fluent in French, he already spoke good Russian, had learned some Turkish and spoke some Hindustani.

After his return from Berlin, he was appointed in November 1936 to command the cruiser DEVONSHIRE where he was flag captain to the rear-admiral commanding the 1st Cruiser Squadron. On 12 May the following year the ships of the Mediterranean Fleet under Adm Sir Dudley Pound were the first to arrive at Spithead for the Coronation Review eight days later. The DEVONSHIRE, with Muirhead-Gould in command, was among them.

His proven tact and powers of persuasion stood him in good stead two years later with a tricky problem which arose as the Spanish Civil War was drawing to a close. On 30 March 1939 the Admiralty wrote to the C-in-C Mediterranean expressing their satisfaction at the way in which Muirhead-Gould - acting as Senior Naval Officer Eastern Spanish Coast - had handled what they described as 'a difficult situation'. They were referring to the previous month's bloodless surrender of Minorca, which had remained loyal to the Madrid government during the Civil War. 

Acting under orders from London, the DEVONSHIRE embarked Col San Luis, Franco's military governor in Majorca, taking him to Minorca to negotiate its surrender by the loyalists. Muirhead-Gould set up the necessary meeting, but, as he later made clear to newspaper reporters in Marseilles, he took no part in the negotiations himself.

It was agreed that the DEVONSHIRE should take on board people whose safety would be in doubt if they remained in Minorca. In all, she embarked some 450 refugees - 300 men, including the civilian Republican governor, 100 women and 50 children. Before this began, however, three bombers appeared overhead, escorted by fighters. In all there were six separate raids during which bombs fell uncomfortably close to the DEVONSHIRE, She was struck by shrapnel, probably from her own anti-aircraft guns, which had opened fire

A furious Muirhead-Gould protested by radio to the Nationalist authorities in Majorca, who were 'mortified' about what they said was a mistake. The Times, in its coverage of the incident, said that although the bombers were in Nationalist colours, no one doubted they were Italian. 

Muirhead-Gould steamed out of harbour during these raids because he was concerned about the possible loss of life among his crew, but he returned within an hour as he felt it his duty to rescue the refugees if possible. This concern for his own men may have led in part to Rear-Adm John H D Cunningham's assessment a few weeks later that Muirhead-Gould was a cruiser captain who inspired 'implicit faith and even affection'. But what did the admiral mean when he said the captain had the manner of a 'grand seigneur'?

A weak heart - not helped by a tendency to overweight - meant Muirhead-Gould was denied further sea commands. The result was that the day before the outbreak of war in 1939 he was appointed to the Tactical School at Portsmouth. In February the following year he was lent to the Royal Australian Navy, becoming commodore in command at Sydney two months later. He went on to the retired list in July 1941, but the next year was granted the acting rank of rear-admiral, remaining in command at Sydney where he continued to tackle the rapid war expansion of the port into a main fleet base and repair yard.

For a man with a weak heart he had a tough job and went through a particularly testing time on 29 May 1942 when three Japanese midget submarines attacked Sydney, although only two of them penetrated the inner harbour. Eventually, just before 10.30pm, Muirhead-Gould issued a general alarm after a midget sub had been spotted heading towards the Harbour Bridge. Only one of the midgets fired its torpedoes, narrowly missing the heavy cruiser USS CHICAGO but sinking the old accommodation ferry KUTTABUL. Nineteen Australian and two British naval ratings who were asleep on board were killed.

Even today some Australian sources describe Muirhead-Gould's behaviour that night as 'bizarre', fuelling rumours at the time that he was drunk. As recently as May 2002 - the 60th anniversary of the attack - a weekly schools educational feature in the Australian Daily Telegraph said that at first the rear-admiral refused to take the reports of the midget subs seriously. When he did raise the alarm, he instructed the ferries to keep running as a diversion - and he did not order all ships to be darkened until 11.14pm. The article added: 'Many believe these were not wise decisions.'

He had been dining that night with Captain Howard D Bode, USN, commander of the USS CHICAGO, but was he really worse for drink?. Naval historian Paul Kemp appeared to think so. In his 1996 book Underwater Warriors, he wrote: 'From his demeanour it was clear he was sceptical about the sightings, asking facetious questions... The fact that he had been at a party and had eaten and drunk well may have contributed to his relaxed attitude...'

The bodies of four young Japanese crewmen, none of whom was a kamikaze, were recovered and in a noble if controversial act Muirhead-Gould arranged for them to be cremated with full military honours. The coffins were wrapped in the Japanese flag and the men's ashes were later sent back to their home country in the repatriation ship KAMIKURA MARU. It has since been suggested Muirhead-Gould hoped this might lead to the Japanese treating Australian PoWs more humanely. If so, it was a forlorn hope.

The rear-admiral was criticised heavily for his decision but in a radio broadcast he hit back at his critics. "Courage," he said, "is not the property or the tradition or heritage of any one nation... These men were patriots of the highest order."

His gesture is still not forgotten today. When the Japanese prime minister Junichiro Koizumi visited Sydney in May 2002, he recalled Muirhead-Gould's words: "From the bottom of my heart, let me say that I sincerely respect the Australian people's generosity and fair spirit - event toward enemies in time of war." That generosity of spirit in fact belonged mostly to a British admiral.

In late 1944, when the Allied invasion of north-west Europe was going well, Muirhead-Gould was recalled to be appointed flag officer in charge, Western Germany, hoisting his flag at Wilhelmshaven in May 1945. He received the surrender of Heligoland but died at his headquarters from a heart attack on 26 June 1945 at the age of 56. He was later buried at sea from a warship off Portsmouth.

Rear-Adm Muirhead-Gould's awards, apart from the DSC, included Chevalier of the Greek Order of the Redeemer (1919) and the Chevalier of the Legion of Honour (1919). His service record also shows him being granted permission to accept and wear the ribbon of the Russian Order of St Stanislas 2nd Class with Swords and the Order of St Vladimir 4th Class with Swords. Both entries are dated 1920, indicating the awards were for service to the White Russians.

Rear-Adm Muirhead-Gould's service was as follows:

Postings:

Footnote: My thanks to John Hailey for his research at the PRO and to Allan Hall for providing information from Navy Lists. Other sources, apart from those mentioned in the text, included The Churchill Papers, The Age newspaper, Australian Daily Telegraph, the Australian War Memorial website and the National Archives of Australia

This article first appeared in the Winter 2003 edition of The Review, the NHCRA's quarterly journal. For information on back numbers Click Here.

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