3 replies to this topic

[Allen Brown]

Hello all.

 

Could you guys help me with a question regarding Taddy Moore (or Teddy Moore), an inter-war motorcycle racer?  A documentary maker wants to mention him in a program about the Nazi's "Black Book" of Brits that they intended to arrest as soon as they'd invaded Blighty.  The mystery is why Moore had attracted their attention.

 

Could anyone help me with some information about Moore?  Has his presence in the "Black Book" been discussed before?

 

The request I've received is below.

 

Many thanks

 

Best regards

Allen

 

 

 

Allen –

 

Good to talk to you on the phone.  Just to sum this up…

 

I’m working on an edition of our history programme WITNESS.  It looks at the so-called BLACK BOOK for which in WW2 the Nazis compiled the names of people to be arrested as soon as they’d invaded Britain.  There are some 2700 names, some with very brief notes.  Many are predictable – major politicians etc. 

 

But a few names are puzzling and made me ask – why was that person included?  Probably most would have been shot straight away so they must have done something to offend Nazi sensibilities in Berlin.

 

Even though I know NOTHING WHATSOEVER about old  cars and motorcycles it struck me as odd that three motorcycle racers were included.  There are almost no other sportsmen on the list so there must be a story here.  The three are

 

TEDDY MELLORS (wrongly spelt in the list as Taddy)

TEDDY MOORE    (also wrongly spelt as Taddy)

FERGUS ANDERSON

 

I now know enough to realise that Mellors and Anderson are fairly well-known to motorcycle fans with an interest in history: I’m less sure about Moore. 

 

Teddy Mellors died in what appears to have been an accident at home in 1946 and Fergus Anderson was killed in a racing accident in Belgium in 1956.   But can anyone explain why the Nazis took against them?  Any leads would be much appreciated – though I realise this dead end may simply remain a dead end.  

 

 

[Vitesse2]

The only name which leaps to mind from that era, Allen, is Jack Moore. But he was killed in the 1938 Junior TT. So perhaps some sort of confusion with Mellors?

 

Just a hunch, but the connection here might be Ewald Kluge, who rode for DKW and later became an Auto Union reserve driver. Kluge toured and raced in Australia over their summer of 1937/38 and the whole team were suspected of conducting spying operations on Australian defences - see also the Alan Gascoigne Sinclair thread passim. His Wikipedia entry records that he was imprisoned by the Soviets after WW2 for his Nazi sympathies. Perhaps Mellors and Anderson had said nasty things about the Fuhrer within earshot of the wrong person/people? It didn't take much to get your name in the Black Book!

[Tim Murray]

FWIW the full listing of the Black Book is available on the Forces War Records site:

https://www.forces-w...lers-black-book

The record for Fergus Anderson doesn’t give any reason for his inclusion in the ‘Involved In’ box:

https://www.forces-w...fergus-anderson

but both Mellors and Moore have ‘Felsenthal/Kurt Felsenthal’ listed as the reason for their inclusion. Here are all the people linked to Felsenthal:

https://www.forces-w...senthal&DeptId=

Anderson and Mellors (and Moore?) were part of the British ‘Continental Circus’ in the 1930s, touring Europe from race meeting to race meeting during the season. I’m guessing they may all have got caught up in some intelligence operation and were therefore earmarked by the Nazis.

[Tim Murray]

Interesting that two of the names in the ‘Black Book’ associated with Kurt Felsenthal (together with Mellors and Moore) are the same person. Gaston Barbé/Gaston Dickwell, listed as a British intelligence agent, was a Belgian motorcycle racer in the 1930s who sometimes raced under his own name, sometimes as ‘Dickwell’. He’s sometimes listed as racing a Barbé-DKW. Googling ‘Gaston Barbé DKW’ comes up with several hits, including:

http://racingmemo.fr...MP BELGIQUE.htm