Margaret Reid

Margaret Reid, the daughter of Alexander Christie Reid, a doctor in Nottingham, was born on 24th August 1912. She studied at Girton College and after graduating from Cambridge University she joined the Civil Service. (1) In December, 1938, she was posted to the British Embassy in Berlin where she worked for Captain Frank Foley, Director of the Passport Control Office. Foley was in fact a senior figure in Military Intelligence (MI6). (2)

Reid arrived in Nazi Germany just after Kristallnacht. On 21st November, 1938, it was announced in Berlin by the Nazi authorities that 3,767 Jewish retail businesses in the city had either been transferred to "Aryan" control or closed down. Further restrictions on Jews were announced that day. To enforce the rule that Jewish doctors could not treat non-Jews, each Jewish doctor had henceforth to display a blue nameplate with a yellow star - the Star of David - with the sign: "Authorised to give medical treatment only to Jews." German bookmakers were also forbidden to accept bets from Jews. (3)

After Kristallnacht the numbers of Jews wishing to leave Germany increased dramatically. A journalist, James Holburn, who worked for The Glasgow Herald, reported large numbers of people outside the British Embassy: "Desperate Jews continue to flock to the British passport control offices in Berlin and elsewhere in Germany in the hope of gaining admission to Great Britain, Palestine or one of the Crown Colonies... A visit to the Passport Control Office here this morning showed that families were often represented only by their womenfolk, many of them in tears, while the men of the family waited in a concentration camp until some evidence of likelihood of emigration could be shown to the Secret Police. While harassed officials dealt firmly but as kindly as possible with such fortunate applicants as had come early enough to reach the inner offices - about 85 persons were seen this morning - a far larger crowd waited on the stairs outside or in the courtyard beneath in the hope of admittance. The doors were closed and guarded much to the annoyance of Germans seeking visas, some of whom complained angrily of being forced to wait among Jews and demanded preferential treatment, though without success." (4)

In the evening of 12th December, 1938, Margaret wrote to her mother. "Today I spent entirely on filing - work that ought to have been seen to days before. The staff is about double its normal size and they are closing the office for two days a week in an effort to keep pace with the rush. There was a queue waiting when we got there at nine this morning and I believe some of them had been there since 4 am. When we had elbowed our way through, the porter tried to turn us away until I explained three times that we were here to work, when he laughed and took us to Captain Foley - our chief." (5)

Margaret Reid was impressed with Frank Foley: "He is an active little man, wears a brown Harris Tweed jacket and appears to work 14 hours a day and remain good-tempered... He is not at all terrifying to work for and we are just managing to get each day's letters opened and numbered now that the staff is about doubled. I sit all day at the card index, with two other new girls and a man who came over from London a few weeks ago and the phone goes non-stop from nine (in the morning)... The big businessmen seem to have been preparing, some of them for a long time, and have the necessary capital in foreign banks, but more pathetic are the uneducated letters from wives whose husbands are in concentration camps (some of them have died there or are in hospital as a result of infection caught there and undernourishment). It is a panic-stricken land and many former adherents of the regime are now apparently violently anti." (6)

On 25th August, 1939, Captain Foley and his team, including Margaret, were ordered home. In a letter written on the ferry to Harwich, she expressed her regret at leaving the Berlin Passport Control Office behind. "They were a good crowd there and though I was worked off my feet I enjoyed the feeling of being of use and trusted." (7) Hubert Pollack has claimed that the Foley's team saved the lives of thousands of German Jews: "The number of Jews saved from Germany would have been tens of thousands less, yes, tens of thousands less, if an officious bureaucrat had set in Foley's place. There is no word of Jewish gratitude towards this man which could be exaggerated." (8)

After a few days rest Margaret Reid and Captain Frank Foley were sent to Oslo in Norway, to establish a MI6 station in the city. "My job will be more responsible as I shall have to reorganise the office on Berlin lines and be Captain Foley's private secretary... I must say I think I am one of the favoured ones." (9) Foley's main task was to run MI6 agents in Nazi Germany. Most of these were former trade unionists involved in sabotage activities. His most important spy was Paul Rosbaud, a scientist working in Berlin. (10)

On 7th April 1940, Foley received information that the German Army was about to invade Norway. Foley and Reid head for the port of Andalsnes. "The only train was not due to go for several hours. So we decided to proceed by bus. We were then very glad of the sandwiches our landlady at Otta had packed for us. We gave some to the driver and - fortified with a swig of whisky - I felt warmed and fit for anything that might lie ahead." (11)

The couple now joined up with Major-General Otto Ruge, the Norwegian commander-in-chief. For his work with Ruge, Foley was awarded the Knight's Cross of St Olav by King Haakon VII. The citation pointed out: "On the entry of the Germans into Oslo, Major Foley arranged to join up with the commander-in-chief of the Norwegian forces who were offering opposition to the Germans. He was responsible for handling all communications between the British government and General Ruge. He spared no effort to assist the Norwegian forces in the fight against the Germans and was repeatedly very dangerously exposed to enemy fire." (12)

Reid and Foley were evacuated from the port of Molde by the Royal Navy on 1st May, 1940. On returning to London, Foley wrote to Sir Stewart Menzies, the head of MI6, explaining the role she had played and her "extreme devotion to duty". As a result she was awarded the MBE and the Norwegian Krigsmedalje. Reid continued to work for Foley during the rest of the Second World War. (13)

In August 1942 Margaret Reid married the 59 year-old Lieutenant Colonel Cuthbert de Renzy Martin, the MI6 head of station in Madrid. (14) She retired from MI6 in 1943 and had two children. After the war, she and her family moved to the Lake District.

Margaret Reid died aged 61 on 20th April 1974. Her husband died eight months later.

Primary Sources

(1) Margaret Reid, letter to her mother (December, 1938)

I cannot tell you much about my work as we are under the Official Secrets Act and not supposed to gossip... Today I spent entirely on filing - work that ought to have been seen to days before. The staff is about double its normal size and they are closing the office for two days a week in an effort to keep pace with the rush. There was a queue waiting when we got there at nine this morning and I believe some of them had been there since 4 am. When we had elbowed our way through, the porter tried to turn us away until I explained three times that we were here to work, when he laughed and took us to Captain Foley - our chief.

(2) Margaret Reid, letter to her mother (January, 1939)

He is an active little man, wears a brown Harris Tweed jacket and appears to work 14 hours a day and remain good-tempered... He is not at all terrifying to work for and we are just managing to get each day's letters opened and numbered now that the staff is about doubled. I sit all day at the card index, with two other new girls and a man who came over from London a few weeks ago and the phone goes non-stop from nine (in the morning)... The big businessmen seem to have been preparing, some of them for a long time, and have the necessary capital in foreign banks, but more pathetic are the uneducated letters from wives whose husbands are in concentration camps (some of them have died there or are in hospital as a result of infection caught there and undernourishment). It is a panic-stricken land and many former adherents of the regime are now apparently violently anti.

Spartacus Educational

Margaret Reid

Primary Sources

(1) Margaret Reid, letter to her mother (December, 1938)

(2) Margaret Reid, letter to her mother (January, 1939)

Student Activities

References

(1) University of Leeds Library (1985)

(2) Lynn Barton, Western Morning News (2015)

(3) Martin Gilbert, Kristallnacht: Prelude to Destruction (2006) page 168

(4) James Holburn, The Glasgow Herald (November, 1938)

(5) Margaret Reid, letter to her mother (December, 1938)

(6) Margaret Reid, letter to her mother (January, 1939)

(7) Margaret Reid, letter to her mother (August, 1939)

(8) Michael Smith, Foley: The Spy Who Saved 10,000 Jews (1999) page 171

(9) Margaret Reid, letter to her mother (September, 1939)

(10) Michael Smith, Foley: The Spy Who Saved 10,000 Jews (1999) page 180

(11) Margaret Reid, letter to her mother (April, 1940)

(12) Knight's Cross of St Olav (August 1943)

(13) Michael Smith, Foley: The Spy Who Saved 10,000 Jews (1999) page 196

(14) University of Leeds Library (1985)