Derrick Morley

The other officer who joined us permanently was Major Derrick Morley. Derrick was a strange cross between a playboy and a very able financier. An Irishman with no great capital behind him, he had travelled extensively in Europe during the late 1920s and early 1930s, always with introductions to Princes and millionaires. While in Paris he had formed a liking for the Impressionists and expended some £2,000 of his limited capital in buying works by Degas, Toulouse-Lautrec etc., which later became worth tens of thousands of pounds.

In the thirties he had gone into the great merchant banking house of Messrs. Wragg, and later became their Foreign Exchange expert. On the outbreak of war, although the Army was anathema to him, he endeavoured to join up but was rejected on medical grounds because he had flat feet. Undeterred, he pulled such strings as he could and, one morning, a friend of his - I think the chairman of Mortnum and Mason - telephoned him to go for an interview at the War Office.

The Army was then recruiting knowledgeable civilians who could do the rather small-time job of becoming Intelligence Officers at our innumerable training centres. On being questioned, Derrick said that he was a banker, then admitted to speaking several languages and having a considerable knowledge of international affairs.

The Major who was interviewing him said, “Right. You are just the man who I have been looking for. You can judge the sort of chaps who are capable of doing low-grade Intelligence work just as well as I can. I am a Regular and I want to get into the war. I'll have you gazetted as a Captain. Report here tomorrow and take over from me.”

... He was posted to our section to act as Harold's No.2. But Harold was so secretive that, intelligent as Derrick was, he remained completely mystified about what Harold was trying to do.

However, in due course, Johnny found another use for him. He became our roving Ambassador and was flown out to Sweden, Portugal and Spain to instruct our Ambassadors in those neutral countries how best they could help in furthering our Deception Plans. That was much more his cup of tea, and in such work he proved invaluable.

... We did not become intimate until some time after the war ...As the years passed we became ever closer, so that I now look upon him as my best friend. Never have I met a man with more exquisite manners, shrewd intelligence and enchanting wit.

Source: DW's unpublished Memoirs, slightly adapted for 'The Deception Planners' pp 129-131.