SECRET WAR OF CHARLES FRASER-SMITH

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NARRATOR: Two fellow committed Christians but these two happened to have a major role in Britain’s war effort. Ritchie Rice was the director of the Ministry of Supply in the city of Leeds, and Sir George Oliver was the director general of the Ministry of Supply in London. CHARLES FRASER-SMITH: Chemical firelighters, chocolate, bandages, map, compass, miniature saw, benzedrine tablets. Fraser was also involved in the intelligence operation codenamed Operation Mincemeat, which was designed to drop a body, carrying false papers to mislead the Nazis, off the Spanish coast. He was tasked with designing a trunk, 6' 2" long and 3' wide, to carry a "deadweight" of 200 lb that would be preserved in dry ice. When the dry ice evaporated, it filled the canister with carbon dioxide and drove out any oxygen, thus preserving the body without refrigeration. The plot that was the basis of the book (and later film) The Man Who Never Was. Later life

NARRATOR: In the preceding months, organizers like Guillaume have been increasing their intelligence work along the coast - including the use of Fraser-Smith’s Minox cameras - to collect information on troop movements, blueprints of fortifications, and estimates of German reinforcements. And on this day, Guillaume hears the message he and his network has been waiting for - part of the regular ‘personal messages’ section of the broadcast. Initially he supplied clothing and related props to for SOE agents, but this expanded to include ingenious devices such as hairbrushes with hidden compartments containing maps, cigarette lighters containing miniature cameras, and steel shoelaces that doubled as garrottes. Having completed his course Charles eventually went to Morocco in1926, with his friend Bryce Nairn, a trained veterinary surgeon, intending to buy farmland and become pioneering missionaries in Marrakesh. They acquired 250 acres of land in sight of the Atlas Mountains and called the farm Tabahounite. He had kept examples of most of his gadgets, and an exhibit of his wartime works was presented at the Exmoor Steam Railway, a tourist attraction in Bratton Fleming. Once a year, Fraser-Smith would spend a week explaining their workings to visitors. Initially Fraser-Smith supplied clothing and standard props (from second-hand sources) for SOE agents working behind enemy lines, but SOE directives and his taste for gadgetry led him to develop a wide range of spy and escape devices, including miniature cameras inside cigarette lighters, shaving brushes containing film, hairbrushes containing a map and saw, pens containing hidden compasses, steel shoelaces that doubled as garrottes or gigli saws, an asbestos-lined pipe for carrying secret documents, and much more.Aunt Edith and Uncle Frank, now officially the guardians of Edwin and Caroline's children, brought the family to live in Barcombe, Copthorne Road, Croxley Green about 1912. NARRATOR: Understandable. This was a step up from the aircraft factory. But what would Charles actually be doing?

Charles Fraser-Smith was the son of a solicitor who owned a wholesale grocery business; he was orphaned at age seven. He was then brought up by a Christian missionary family in Croxley Green in Hertfordshire. [3] He went to school at Brighton College, where he was described as "scholastically useless except for woodwork and science and making things." [4] NARRATOR: Fraser-Smith’s gadgets don’t just assist you after you have made a break for freedom. They can also help set you free in the first place. Captured British soldiers are expected to form secret groups to plan escapes called ‘escape committees’. The idea is to make breakouts an organized, disciplined process. And there was a way to supply the escape committees. On leaving school he veered from one occupation after another, working as a prep school teacher in Portsmouth, a motorcycle messenger rider, and an aircraft factory worker. Eventually, inspired by his foster family, he went to Morocco as a Christian missionary. Returning to England in 1939, he gave a Sunday sermon at the Open Brethren Evangelical Church in Leeds. In the sermon, Fraser-Smith described his practice of bricolage, and the necessity of procuring supplies from just about any source. In the congregation were two officials of Britain's Ministry of Supply, who were impressed by his adventures. As a result the Director of the Ministry of Supply offered him what he later described as "a funny job in London". Wartime experiences The two masterminds of the operation were Charles Cholmondeley and Ewan Montagu, two men with what Churchill called "corkscrew minds". One of his tasks was sourcing continental styled second-hand clothing, usually from shops and traders selling used attire. Such clothes meant that Briitish agents working abroad could blend in and be less conspicuous whilst involved in espionage work.

World War Two spy pencil made in Keswick valued at £400

After the war, Fraser-Smith bought a rundown dairy farm in Bratton Fleming, in southwest England. It became a profitable business. In the late 1970s, his family persuaded him to seek permission to write a book about his wartime exploits. With clearance under the Official Secrets Act he wrote several, donating the royalties to charity. [4] CHARLES FRASER-SMITH: I’m ashamed to say that I became unaccountably busy over the next few days, almost impossible for Scotland Yard to reach on the phone, and almost never in the office. However, as we know, Fleming did not have a character with a name until he introduced Major Boothroyd. Instead, it was the work of Fraser Smith, and others like him, creating such clever devices and cunning plans to help the war effort, that led to the creation of Q Branch in the Bond novels. NARRATOR: Hitler’s invasion of France changes all that. Morocco is at this time a French colony. And, if and when Paris falls, Morocco is likely to be a hostile place for British subjects. Fraser was also involved in the intelligence operation codenamed Operation Mincemeat, [6] which was designed to drop a body, carrying false papers to mislead the Nazis, off the Spanish coast. He was tasked with designing a trunk, 6' 2" long and 3' wide, to carry a "deadweight" of 200lb that would be preserved in dry ice. When the dry ice evaporated, it filled the canister with carbon dioxide and drove out any oxygen, thus preserving the body without refrigeration. The plot was the basis of the book (and later film) The Man Who Never Was and the 2021 film Operation Mincemeat. [7] Later life [ edit ]

Charles kept samples of many of his gadgets which were put on show in many exhibitions. He died in 1992 at his home on the edge of Exmoor. CHARLES FRASER-SMITH: He said he was impressed by my initiative and inventiveness, and he was looking for someone with those qualities to work in his department.CHARLES FRASER-SMITH: I heard he also carried a modified fountain pen filled with tear-gas instead of ink - not a design I would have sanctioned. Not something you want going off by accident. CHARLES FRASER-SMITH: We made some cursory chit-chat about my talk and the next day I received a message to pop by Rice’s office. Sadly, Edwin died in 1909 and his four children were raised by their Aunt Edith (Edwin’s sister) and Uncle Frank Piper. Edith married Frank Piper in 1910. Uncle Frank was a solicitor whilst Aunt Edith had spent many years as a young girl involved with missionary work. In the early 1900s she was drawn to working with the Children's Special Service Mission in Spain, later to become the Scripture Union. Two of her sisters, also missionaries, had served in North Africa, both dying young in their mid twenties. However, some European countries were now again at war with Germany, and when Italy decided to invade Turkey Charles and Blanche, who now had a young son called Brian, made the decision to return to England as soon as possible.

NARRATOR: In Bond films, the hero is always shown an array of gadgets and secret weapons by an avuncular and slightly irate intelligence office known as ‘Q’. Pay attention 007. NARRATOR: Fraser-Smith died in 1992. The following is a recreation based on his memoirs and the writings of those who knew him. His words are spoken by an actor. But the stories contained in them are absolutely real. Fraser-Smith was not the only gadget-master working for British intelligence during World War II. The SOE had various secret research and development laboratories including Station IX at the Natural History Museum and Station XII at the Frythe Hotel. Christopher Clayton Hutton of MI9, a clandestine unit within A-Force which specialised in escape and evasion, was also an inventor and deception-theorist. Major Jasper Maskelyne, a stage magician, also developed secret sabotage and subterfuge devices for MI-9.

They initially went to live in Harrow and then moved to Blanche's family home in Leeds, Charles having been offered a position with Avro, an aircraft factory at Yeadon nearby. Only one chapter here is devoted to Charles’ “Q” activities, since Fraser-Smith's previous book ( The Secret War of Charles Fraser-Smith) had already been published. According to the Pencil Museum, it is believed only a very small number of the Cumberland 'Map and Compass Pencil' sets still exist. They know only of 10 sets still in existence, including the one that has been on display at the museum since it first opened in 1982. In 1999, the Cumberland Pencil Co decided to try and re-create a new set of the the WW2 pencils. CHARLES FRASER-SMITH: The escape kits evolved during the war considerably, and as I became more experienced I began to come up with more gadgets and devices of my own to improve them. I certainly wasn’t their only author but I’m proud of what I did contribute. One of the initial problems was finding a suitable material to print the maps on that could be rolled up sufficiently tightly to be inserted inside a pencil. After some trials it was found that the maps to go inside the Cumberland pencils should be printed on a very fine, non-rustling paper. This allowed the map to be tightly rolled round a soft wire, folded over at the tip and fixed on with three cotton ties. It meant the diameter of the rolled up map was no more than 3 mm in diameter and therefore could be inserted into the cavity drilled inside the pencil.