Maxwell Knight

Maxwell Knight was an MI5 agent-runner.
Maxwell Knight was born in 1900. He became a Naval Cadet in 1915. In the final year of the First World War, he served as a midshipman in the Royal Naval Reserve. He subsequently worked as a teacher and freelance journalist for several years.Christopher Andrew, Defence of the Realm, The Authorized History of MI5, Allen Lane, 2009, p.123. 
He became involved with George Makgill's private Industrial Intelligence Bureau (IIB), joining the British Fascisti (BF) in 1924, as an agent for Makgill, who was ultimately working on behalf of Vernon Kell of MI5.Christopher Andrew, Defence of the Realm, The Authorized History of MI5, Allen Lane, 2009, p.123. He became the BF's deputy chief of staff and director of intelligence.Christopher Andrew, Defence of the Realm, The Authorized History of MI5, Allen Lane, 2009, p.124. In 1925, he married the director of the BF women's units, G.E.A. Poole in 1925.Christopher Andrew, Defence of the Realm, The Authorized History of MI5, Allen Lane, 2009, p.124.
In the mid-1920s, Knight successfully infiltrated six fascists into the Communist Party on behalf of the IIB.Christopher Andrew, Defence of the Realm, The Authorized History of MI5, Allen Lane, 2009, p.124.
According to Chapman Pincher, Knight recruited Tom Driberg to spy for MI5 at some time in the mid-1920s, while Driberg was still a schoolboy at Lansing College.Chapman Pincher, Their Trade is Treachery, Biteback Publishing, 2013, Chapter 12.
Christopher Andrew characterises Knight's views at the time as closer to those of the Fascisti than he would later acknowledge, but nevertheless 'those of diehard conservatives rather than the radical right'.Christopher Andrew, Defence of the Realm, The Authorized History of MI5, Allen Lane, 2009, p.124. He nevertheless had extremely right-wing friends, including Nesta Webster, who recommended him to Desmond Morton of the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS).Christopher Andrew, Defence of the Realm, The Authorized History of MI5, Allen Lane, 2009, p.125.
==SIS==
Morton recruited Knight and his network for the SIS in December 1929, to investigate links between British communist organisations and the Comintern.Christopher Andrew, Defence of the Realm, The Authorized History of MI5, Allen Lane, 2009, p.128. SIS did not inform domestic intelligence agencies of the recruitment but Morton was told by J.F.C. Carter of Special Branch that Knight had been put under observation.Christopher Andrew, Defence of the Realm, The Authorized History of MI5, Allen Lane, 2009, p.129.
==Section M==
In October 1931, Knight transferred to MI5 which took over responsibility for domestic agent-running. Knight's network known as 'M Section', was initially based in Sloane Street, later at Dolphin Square.Christopher Andrew, Defence of the Realm, The Authorized History of MI5, Allen Lane, 2009, p.132. It targeted the Communist Party of Great Britain and from 1933, the British Union of Fascists (BUF).Christopher Andrew, Defence of the Realm, The Authorized History of MI5, Allen Lane, 2009, p.132.
In 1935, Knight's first wife, Gwladys, died of a drug overdose, with her family blaming him for the death.Thomas Henessey and Claire Thomas, Spooks: The Unofficial History of MI5, Amberley, 2009, pp.144. In 1937, Knight married his second wife, Lois Coplestone.Christopher Andrew, Defence of the Realm, The Authorized History of MI5, Allen Lane, 2009, p.132.
===CPGB===
In 1931, Knight recruited Olga Gray who became a long-term penetration agent in the CPGB.Christopher Andrew, Defence of the Realm, The Authorized History of MI5, Allen Lane, 2009, p.179. Gray had initially been contacted in 1928 by Dolly Pyle, an MI5 secretary who acted as a spotter for Knight.Thomas Henessey and Claire Thomas, Spooks: The Unofficial History of MI5, Amberley, 2009, p.136 .
According to Christopher Andrew, Knight's network was the probable source of information on CPGB activity received in 1933, which MI5 used in its campaign for legislation against subversion in the armed forces.Christopher Andrew, Defence of the Realm, The Authorized History of MI5, Allen Lane, 2009, p.165.
When Olga Gray was asked by the CPGB to act as a courier to India in 1934, Knight devised a cover story for her because the party had neglected to do so.Christopher Andrew, Defence of the Realm, The Authorized History of MI5, Allen Lane, 2009, p.179. By 1937, Gray's work was bringing her into contact with Soviet spies including figures who would later by identified as Teodor Maly and Arnold Deutsch.Christopher Andrew, Defence of the Realm, The Authorized History of MI5, Allen Lane, 2009, p.180. In 1938, Gray evidence in the trial of a spy ring at Woolwich Arsenal, after which she moved to Canada.Christopher Andrew, Defence of the Realm, The Authorized History of MI5, Allen Lane, 2009, p.182.
The success of the Woolwich Arsenal case brought great prestige for Knight and his theories of long-term agent-running.Thomas Henessey and Claire Thomas, Spooks: The Unofficial History of MI5, Amberley, 2009, p.143.
According to Christopher Andrew, evidence from this case, and from one of Knight's agents in the CPGB led to suspicions about Melita Norwood which were not followed up.Christopher Andrew, Defence of the Realm, The Authorized History of MI5, Allen Lane, 2009, p.182.
===BUF===
Knight's early reports on the BUF portrayed the organisation as patriotic, but in a report on 13 April 1934, he admitted that the organisation's finances had suddenly returned to health after a visit to Italy by Oswald Moseley.Christopher Andrew, Defence of the Realm, The Authorized History of MI5, Allen Lane, 2009, p.191. In September 1934, Knight reported that William Joyce was 'a rabid anti-Catholic' and 'fanatical anti-Semite' but that his 'basic patriotism' was unlikely to be shaken.Christopher Andrew, Defence of the Realm, The Authorized History of MI5, Allen Lane, 2009, p.194.
==B1F or B5(b) section==
Christopher Andrew reports that in a 1938 reorganisation of MI5, Knight's M Section became B1F section of B Branch, the branch responsible for counter-espionage and counter-subversion.Christopher Andrew, Defence of the Realm, The Authorized History of MI5, Allen Lane, 2009, p.134. However, other sources refer to Knight's wartime section as B5(b).Anthony Masters, The Man who was M: The Life of Maxwell Knight, The real-like spymaster who inspired Ian Fleming, Grafton Books, p.46. 
===Dolphin Square===
According to Anthony Masters, Knight's section moved out of MI5 Headquarters to Dolphin Square in 1937. This was partly to enable greater secrecy for operations, and partly to facilitate surveillance of the Anglo-German Information Service in Parliament Street.Anthony Masters, The Man who was M: The Life of Maxwell Knight, The real-like spymaster who inspired Ian Fleming, Grafton Books, p.90. The section occupied 308 Hood House, owned by Knight's brother-in-law, and 10 Collingwood House, owned by MI5.).Anthony Masters, The Man who was M: The Life of Maxwell Knight, The real-like spymaster who inspired Ian Fleming, Grafton Books, p.101. 
===CPGB===
In the early years of World War Two, Knight infiltrated another spy, the journalist Norman Himsworth into the CPGB.Christopher Andrew, Defence of the Realm, The Authorized History of MI5, Allen Lane, 2009, p.273. After the war Knight and Himsworth succeeded in penetrating another woman agent into CPGB headquarters.Christopher Andrew, Defence of the Realm, The Authorized History of MI5, Allen Lane, 2009, p.401.
Knight conduction two interviews with the journalist William Ewer in 1950, about Ewer's links to Soviet espionage in the 1920s.Thomas Henessey and Claire Thomas, Spooks: The Unofficial History of MI5, Amberley, 2009, pp.109-111.
===The Right Club===
During World War Two, Knight placed three female agents, including his secretary Joan Miller in the pro-Nazi Right Club.Christopher Andrew, Defence of the Realm, The Authorized History of MI5, Allen Lane, 2009, p.221.
===Embassies===
Knight also ran women agents employed by diplomats suspected of Nazi sympathies during World War Two.Christopher Andrew, Defence of the Realm, The Authorized History of MI5, Allen Lane, 2009, p.221.
===F Division===
Under MI5's postwar director Percy Sillitoe, Knight's section was moved from Dolphin Square to F3 at Leconfield House.Anthony Masters, The Man who was M: The Life of Maxwell Knight, The real-like spymaster who inspired Ian Fleming, Grafton Books, p.221. Knight's friend Tom Roberts knew him as a senior officer in F Division in 1953.Anthony Masters, The Man who was M: The Life of Maxwell Knight, The real-like spymaster who inspired Ian Fleming, Grafton Books, p.229. Mike Hughes suggests that Knight was probably the head of F4 section, a position which was subsequently held by his second-in-command John Bingham.Mike Hughes, Spies at Work, lulu.com, 2012, p.257.
Knight retired from MI5 in 1956, to focus on natural history broadcasting.Anthony Masters, The Man who was M: The Life of Maxwell Knight, The real-like spymaster who inspired Ian Fleming, Grafton Books, p.231.
==Tradecraft==
Knight strongly believed that agent-running was a specialised task best run on a centralised basis rather than by research officers.Thomas Henessey and Claire Thomas, Spooks: The Unofficial History of MI5, Amberley, 2009, p.148.
On the use of woman agents, Knight wrote that 'What is required is a clever woman who can use her personal attractions wisely'.Christopher Andrew, Defence of the Realm, The Authorized History of MI5, Allen Lane, 2009, p.221. He favoured the use of women because of their ability to obtain unobtrusive secretarial positions within political movements.Thomas Henessey and Claire Thomas, Spooks: The Unofficial History of MI5, Amberley, 2009, p.146.
Knight argued that cooperation with the police as vital at all levels, but sought to restrict the identification of agents as much as possible.Thomas Henessey and Claire Thomas, Spooks: The Unofficial History of MI5, Amberley, 2009, p.149.
==Connections==
===Agents===
*Tom Driberg
*Bill Younger
*Olga Gray
*Joan Miller
*William Himsworth
*Gino Sezzi
*Friedl Gaertner
*Harald Kurtz
*Brian Howard
*Vera de Cottani-Chalbur
==Affiliations==
*Paternoster Club
==Notes==
Knight, MaxwellKnight, Maxwell