2 replies to this topic

[MMS]

I apologise in advance for starting a new thread on this driver but I don't think that this aspect has been touched on - seriously at least! I insert the following from a paperback I came across recently called ‘Franco’s Friends’ by Peter Day. (p100 – paperback edition) that details the participation of the British SIS in ensuring the active participation of Francisco Franco from the initial stages of the insurrection against the democratically elected government in Spain in 1936.

“On 2 August (1936) another plane left Heston for Burgos, supplied by Dick Seaton (sic), Britain’s leading racing driver. Seaton went on to race for the Mercedes team, culminating in a famous victory at the 1938 German Grand Prix in (sic) the Nürburgring where he gave a Nazi salute from the podium. When he died racing for Mercedes in 1939 Adolf Hitler sent a huge ostentatious wreath to the funeral.” It is evident that this refers to Dick Seaman – although the proofreading obviously leaves a great deal to be desired!

In a Special Branch report [FO 371/20527 W7911], written by a local informant working at Heston and held at the National Archives at Kew it states, “It is common knowledge here that these two aircraft have been sold through a secret negotiator to the anti-government forces in Spain.” This document refers to the ex-Dick Seaman aircraft and another aircraft, a de Havilland Dragon Rapide that had been sold by Tom Campbell-Black. He had been pilot to the then Price of Wales throughout a tour of Kenya and was, at the time of the sale, in Pamplona training Nationalist pilots. The two “secret negotiators” operating on behalf of the insurgent forces were Luis Antonio Bolin and Juan de la Cierva. Bolin, a close associate of Franco, went on to organise ‘battlefield tours’ at £8 a head after the Civil War was finished and was later responsible for the promotion of cheap holidays in Spain during the 1950s. de la Cierva was an inventor and proponent of the ‘Autogyro’. These murky dealings go hand-in-hand with the secret flight of Franco to Morocco, with the assistance of the British SIS, where he could resume command of the Spanish Legion (the Army of Africa) – a band of murderous thugs and misfits rejoicing in the nickname ‘The Bridegrooms of Death’.

The Head of the Secret Service – ‘C’ – to whom the above report was sent was Sir Archibald Sinclair and he had two deputies, Stewart Menzies and Claude Dansey. When Sinclair retired Menzies took over and, so it appeared to any observer, Dansey was shut out both of the succession and the Service. There was even some fabricated scandal that threw doubt on his integrity. Like most of the Establishment in England at the time, both Sinclair and Menzies were of the opinion that the greatest threat to England and the Empire came from the Soviet Union through a Soviet-sponsored revolution. Many Establishment figures, including members of the Conservative government and in parliament, thought that Hitler was a basically good chap with whom “we could do business”. One leading member of this group of appeasers was Edward, Prince of Wales, and later Edward V111.

Dansey, along with many senior officers in the armed forces, rightly perceived that the immediate and realistic threat came from Nazi Germany. Winston Churchill was allied with this group but it seems now that this personal alliance came into being because he saw it as his last opportunity for power should war actually break out. Funded in part by money secretly siphoned from supporters in the Foreign Office and partly by rich supporters in the industrial and financial sectors, Dansey set up ‘Organisation Z’ with offices in Bush House in Aldwych.

He set about recruiting agents who had valid reason to travel in Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia and Hungary etc., mostly from the very commercial and financial companies that supported the vision of the organisation. He also recruited from the then flourishing British film industry. Among those recruited by Dansey were the film actor Leslie Howard, the Hungarian Korda brothers who were film makers and owners of London Films and Ernest Bevin who was the General Secretary of the Transport and General Workers Union (he became Foreign Secretary in the post-war Labour Government and would probably have succeeded Clement Atlee as Leader of the Labour Party in 1951 had he not died prematurely). There were many others, some of whom were professional agents who had followed Dansey and some who were new to the game. It goes without saying that, as a result of the moral and tacit support from those sections of the British government departments who shared Dansey’s view that Nazi Germany was the biggest threat, many of these were able to translate their pre-war activities into practical action once the war with Germany officially broke out. Ironically, it was veterans of the British Battalion of the XVth. International Brigade who carried out much of the initial practical training for these programmes although like Tom Wintringham, for example, they were subsequently removed from the training schemes as they were perceived as ‘threats’ by the Colonel Blimp types in the War Office.

Without giving credence to any theories or ‘revelations’ posted here before, many of which have been soundly and rightly criticised for the aspersions cast on Dick Seaman’s mother, it would not be beyond the bounds of possibility that Dick Seaman was one of those with opportunity and access to fit the Dansey profile. Even better, from the point of view of Dansey, he was sufficiently wealthy not to have required payment for his services. The sale of his aircraft – was this the Moth? – may have been nothing more sinister than an action going some way to adding credence to some ‘legend’ that was being built up for him. Alternatively his action may have been the outcome of sympathy for those forces regarded as being ‘anti-communist’. This was a time when, for some people, the line between ‘anti-communist’ and ‘pro-fascist’, and vice-versa, was sufficiently blurred to be difficult to decipher at this remove. For others, the choice was clear and simple.

His death in Belgium, within weeks of the outbreak of the war, meant that the conflict and the Official Secrets Act that still remains in force to any official statement regarding SIS employees subsumed any questions regarding his operational status.

This post is not seeking scurrilous speculation about any of the principals involved with Dick Seaman, whether family or professional relationships. It is a genuine enquiry aimed towards those contributors to this fantastic and informative resource who may be able, and willing, to shed light on this particular aspect of Dick Seaman’s life.

Michael

[Vitesse2]

At that time, Dick was not all that wealthy - although I realise that is relative. His estate at the time of his death was just over £1400 - equivalent to about £80K today.

Bear in mind that in 1936 he was still financing his own racing and had not - and indeed would never - inherit his father's legacy, so was existing on a trust fund, theoretically controlled by his mother. Although as he was paid in reichsmarks by MB, that enabled him to have a very comfortable lifestyle in Germany from 1937 onwards, presumably hardly touching his UK funds.

As you may or may not be aware, Dick was one of the founding directors of Ramsgate Airport Ltd, the company set up in 1935 by Whitney Straight which eventually became the Straight Corporation, whose various activities included aircraft sales, aero clubs (Dick was on the Flying Committee of the Ramsgate club, for example), flying schools and airport operations. So perhaps all may not be quite as it seems from the Heston informant? As a director of a company which dealt in aircraft it would surely make sense for Dick to sell his plane through it, although the Whitney Straight connection might perhaps add a bit of spice to the mix, given the political and philosophical sympathies of his mother and stepfather. I can also think of at least one other Briton connected to motor sport who might fit Dansey's profile for Organization Z, but have never been able to confirm that.

However, widening the scope a little, I do think it is very odd that the Foreign Office claim to hold no files on Dick, despite the fact that he died abroad ...

Edited by Vitesse2, 19 July 2013 - 13:33.

[Doug Nye]

While there is a considerable body of evidence that Dick Seaman's political views - shaped by his upbringing, his class and especially by the circles in which he moved - were somewhere to the right of centre (to put it mildly) he was an extremely busy boy through 1936 into 1937. There was a media view then of "a racing driver" being a dashing, devil-may-care playboy figure. Seaman fitted that stereotype in appearance, in his fashionable Ennismore Gardens home address, and in his country estate at Pull Court. But the image does him no justice. Whitney Straight had introduced him to both motor racing and to aviation.

Seaman had the shrewd, businesslike, entrepreneurial and perfectionist Whitney Straight as his example, one of the most committed, best organised and most efficient private racing team proprietor/drivers the International sport had ever seen. Seaman was utterly committed to advancing within his sport, and in that he was most unusual - in fact a born professional. He may well have been persuaded to flirt with right-wing causes, but I am confident that any notion he devoted much time to them, or to any form of politically-inspired 'intelligence' activity, is probably exaggerated. His Delage exploits through 1936 led to his Daimler-Benz test drive for 1937...a potential heaven-sent opportunity which totally absorbed his interest and energy.

I doubt he would have been much involved in the sale of his light aircraft to any Spanish Fascist agency. But he would
certainly have been keenly interested in maximising the amount of money received for it, regardless of end user.

Interestingly, engineer/novelist Nevil Shute Norway - who had founded Airspeed Ltd in 1931 and who was a most talented aeronautical engineer - had built the one-off Airspeed AS8 Viceroy twin longrange transport and that also ended up in Spanish hands during the Civil War in a similarly embargo-busting deal. The Viceroy had been built originally to the order of T. Neville
Stack and S.L Turner to compete in the England-Australia MacRobertson air race, starting from Mildenhall. The crew were forced to retire at Athens. Their Viceroy was then returned to Airspeed at Portsmouth Airport, beside Langstone Harbour and today largely an industrial estate, but in 1936 it was sold via a French company named SFTA and fetched-up in Spain during the Civil War. I believe it was used, however, by the Republican side, opposing Franco and his Falangists...and regarded by Seaman and his friends, no doubt, as a bunch of bolshie communists.

I doubt very much that Dick Seaman paid much more than passing attention to all such goings on. He was A Racer, through
and through, and at the level he achieved they all wear blinkers and have tunnel vision.

DCN

Edited by Doug Nye, 19 July 2013 - 19:31.