The Saber and Scroll
Beyond BP there are a number of listening stations , military and government installations that are intercepting German intelligence . They are called Y stations and run by the army , navy , RAF , Marconi , Foreign Office , MI6 , and the General Post Office . These stations combine a mix of direction-finding and interception . Direction-finding tracks the exact location of enemy operations , but it is the intercepted intelligence that is precious to BP . The stations in Chatham and Denmark Hill provide BP with regular and powerful intelligence . Once intercepted and written down , they are transported to BP via motorcycle couriers coming to BP bringing , 3,000 messages daily from all over the country . 9
Mair Thomas
In October 1917 , in the midst of the
Great War , news headlines read of the famous spy Mati Hari ’ s execution by a French firing squad , Britain ’ s first bombing raids of German civilians , and the Russian government take-over by Vladimir Lenin . 10 During the same week , Mair Thomas was born on October 17 in the small village of Pontycymer in South Wales . 11 Her parents Thomas and Agnes Thomas both contributed to the household financially . Thomas worked in senior management as a winding engineer , while Agnes owned a dress shop . 12 Mair ’ s only sibling , Beti , her sister , was born in 1921 . The Thomas ’ s lived in a middle-class neighborhood with a maid that did the cleaning and looked after the girls . According to Mair , “ most of the people that lived on our side of the street kept maids ; they were well-off families with fathers that earned good money .” 13
Like most children , Mair was enrolled in primary school at age five and began taking piano lessons . Her love of music and skill would follow her throughout her educational journey . With dreams of becoming a concert pianist , Mair was thrilled to become the school pianist once she started secondary school at the age of eleven and kept the position until she graduated at age eighteen . 14 Two events affected Mair deeply before finishing secondary school in 1936 . The first occurred in 1934 , when her mother was diagnosed with “ pernicious anaemia ,” leading to her death in February 1935 . 15 The second was Mair ’ s newfound Christianity , which would provide her with strong “ faith , resilience , and a fighting spirit ,” lasting qualities for the rest of her life . 16
Following the death of her mother , Mair had a “ yearning for adventure ,” and applied to Mount Hermon College located in southern London . 17 Mount Hermon focused on missionary training , dedicated to bible studies and public service . Mair was assigned to London ’ s East End , which became highly populated with Jews fleeing persecution throughout Europe , primarily Germany . Anti-Semitism had been growing across Europe , and in 1935 , Germany passed Nuremberg Laws that deprived Jews of their rights and citizenship . 18 England had its own fascist group , the British Union of Fascists , headed by Oswald Mosley , who planned a march on October 4 , 1936 , in London ’ s East
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