Adrian Talbot Macartney Monck-Mason

The operator was Adrian Talbot Monck-Mason, a poultry farmer.

He was the son of Col. George Monck-Mason, R.A., (born 1850). His elder brothers were Major Godfrey Noel Grey Monck-Mason, O.B.E., late Indian Magistrates' Dept., (born 1882) and George Evelyn Arthur Monck-Mason, Esq., (born 1888). George E. A. Monck-Mason had been British consul in Romania before moving be the Consul in Mosul, Iraq, where following the murder of King Ghazi in 1938, he was murdered by a mob that stormed the consulate in a mistaken belief that the British were involved. The Iraqi government subsequently paid compensation of £20,000 to his widow, following intense media coverage of the tragedy.

It appears that Adrian Monck-Mason may briefly have been the British vice-consul in Skopje, Macedonia between 1924 and 1925. By 1929 he was reporting from Aleppo in the French Mandate of Syria. Many Special Duties Branch personnel seem to have had such links, which might indicate previous work for the security services. There seems to have been some issue over his departure from Montenegro in 1925 that might suggest others felt he had engaged in activities felt inappropriate for a diplomat.

He had been commissioned in the First World War as a Lieutenant with the Royal Field Artillery Special Reserve, though from Oct 1918 to Aug 1919, he was promoted acting captain whilst employed with the Royal Engineers. In 1929 he bought a 32 acre farm at Stonestile in Charing on top of the North Downs. The elevated location would prove ideal for locating a wireless transmitter during the war. During the war, what had been a commercial egg farm proved impossible to maintain. Instead he continued to raise chickens, but much of the farm was converted to arable growing.

He was interviewed by David Lampe for “The Last Ditch”. He described the site as being under one of the chicken houses. He also recalled a Royal Signals soldier trying to detect the strange wireless signals that had been detected in the area, assumed to be from a German spy. Reportedly, both Generals Alanbrooke and Montgomery were taken inside the hideout to see him at work during the war.

He married Margory I Tindal in Hampshire. He died in 1969.

Dorothy Eileen Monck-Mason, ATS Operator for the Special Duties Branch was the wife of John Hunter Monck-Mason (born 1909, married 1941), son of Adrian's brother Godfrey Monck-Mason.

A photo of him taken just before the war can be seen here.