Miller Caldwell - A Reluctant Spy

‘Francis, I saw some dachshund puppies for sale.’ She let the moment linger.

‘A dachshund?’ he reiterated, sucking his cheeks. ‘Hmm… to complete the family, as it were?’

She looked up at him and saw a twinkle in his eye. They were too old for children. A dachshund puppy would be their substitute.

He smiled and nodded. ‘Yes, I think that’s a very good idea, Hilda. A dachshund…yes… a very good idea, indeed.’

The original Forres, Elgin and Nairn Gazette 2 ndSeptember 1914. A clear copy is on next page.

Vera Caldwell’s escape from Germany in August 1914. The extract comes from the Forres, Elgin and Nairn Gazette 2.9.14.

Miss Vera Caldwell, daughter of Mr William Caldwell, who was in Germany with a friend when the war broke out, had some exciting experiences. They left Hamburg on Tuesday 4th August by the boat the Vienna and proceeded a good distance down the Elbe when a torpedo boat came up and stopped them nearly opposite Cuxhaven. Their luggage was examined and the captain of the boat was told he could proceed. He got a little bit further down the Elbe, when the torpedo boat dashed up again and told the passengers they must wait there for the night. They did so, and in the morning, the torpedo boat ordered the boat back to Hamburg. The Vienna reached there the following forenoon, and as war had by this time been declared by Britain, the boat was not allowed near a landing stage. They remained all day and night and got ashore by means of a small boat about 4pm on Thursday. The ladies were taken to a friend’s house (Hilda’s home) and the situation was discussed there. They went to the British Consul and were advised to attempt to get home via Denmark. At this time Miss Caldwell remarked, people in Hamburg were paying 4 shillings per pound for butter and a great rush was being made for provisions. A friend motored the ladies to Altoona at about midnight, and tickets were taken for Copenhagen. They left at half past one on Friday 7th August and got to the Keil Bridge at 4pm.

On arriving there all the passengers were ordered out of the compartments and by this time the rain was falling hard. They had to walk across the Keil Bridge in twos with soldiers on either side of them with fixed bayonets. They were told to look neither to the right nor to the left. Miss Caldwell however, noticed several polished guns on the bridge and learned later that they were to defend the bridge from aeroplanes attacks. The party got on the train again, a soldier being in each compartment, and the windows were shut closed and the blinds were drawn. At 9am the following morning, the 5th day of the war between Germany and Britain, they were ordered out of the train and for a fourth time, their baggage was inspected. When Vera and her friend got near Copenhagen, they were advised to re-book to Esbjerg, an important town on the Danish coast, which in normal times sent a boat to Harwich every day. However, they learned the service was disrupted and there might not be a sailing to England for several days or weeks.

They were in luck, however. On Sunday 9th August, when strolling on the dock, they noticed a service-taking place in the Mission Hall. They went in and after a collection had been taken, the minister announced that he had received information to the effect that should any English visitors be in the congregation, a boat was to sail that night for Harwich. The boat did sail at 11pm with 650 passengers instead of its usual 30 or 40, which it could accommodate comfortably. The boat was escorted to Harwich by a British cruiser halfway across the North Sea.

London was reached, without any further exciting incident and after leaving her friend at Wemyss Bay, Miss Vera Caldwell reached Forres in safety.

Gerhardt Eicke [1] I used the name Gerhardt Eicke as the antagonist throughout the book, as I was unable to identify the true Gestapo individual’s name, the man responsible for instructing Hilda’s espionage in Scotland and the man behind the deportation and death of so many Hamburg Jewish men, women and children. In fact, there were two particular SS men responsible for the majority of Jewish deportations to death camps, including camp Neuengamme near Hamburg. Rudolf Querner was responsible for the deportations between May1941 – June 1943. He was detained after the war in Magdeburg where he cheated his death sentence, by suicide. Between 1943-45 Georg Henning Graf von Bassewitz was the SS officer in charge of policing Hamburg. He died in 1949 as a prisoner of war at Magadan, in Russia. was hanged on 19th November 1945.

Fergus Harper of the 10 thHighland Light Infantry was mentioned in dispatches in 1943 during the Allied invasion of Sicily. He was killed during the assault on Tilburg, Holland, on 28 thOctober 1944.

After five years in Helsinki, Sir Francis became Ambassador to Iran between the years 1950-52. Their final posting was to Warsaw, Poland, where Sir Francis was British Ambassador from 1952-54. Hilda died in 1956 and Sir Francis in 1961.

Hilda wrote a letter to Dr A. S. Caldwell, my late uncle, in 1951 containing some of her German stamps and news from Iran. Over the years somehow page one of the letter went missing from the three-page letter. She wrote:

We are now up in our summer quarters and are very happy here. It is cooler certainly, but July until August 15 th(generally) the heat is very great; but it is not dusty up here and it does cool down at night. The mountains are quite near which of course helps. Everyone finds it quite trying. Those living up here go up to town (Tehran) every day to the office but they begin at 8 am and finish at 1.30 so they get the afternoon off unless any special work has to be done. I am having a difficult time trying to…

…get our little dachshund to be friends with a little kitten; it appears to be difficult. Unfortunately, Sir Francis is in bed again. When stooping a few days ago his discs suddenly snapped out again, so he is on a board for two weeks and then see how things are. It is not pleasant being in bed when it is so hot and when there is so much to do. Please remember me to your mother and to Jim and family when you see them. [2] The Jim and family referred to was my father, Rev Jim Caldwell 1916-1995. ‘And family’ referred to my sister, Joan, and myself. My late brother, Bruce, was yet to be born.

This is the British Embassy envelope from Tehran which contained several German stamps and the letter from Miss Campbell, Solindira, British Embassy, Tehran, Iran.

A selection of her German stamps are also displayed.

(I can only surmise the address on the back of the envelope refers to Miss Campbell rather than Lady Hilda Shepherd, so as not to bring attention to the letter en passage.)

Bunchrew House Hotel near Inverness where Hilda met with Mr and Mrs Brown, the German High Commission staff, from London in 1938.