Spymaster (The Man Who Saved MI6 - Thomas Kendrick 1871-1972)

Thomas Joseph Kendrick (1871-1972) was one of the British Secret Service’s most senior spymasters in the 20th century. From tracking Communist agents across Europe in the 1920s to Nazi spies in the 1930s, he was placed as SIS's head of station in Vienna, at the heart of European espionage.

In Vienna he crossed paths with the British spy and (later unmasked to be a traitor) Kim Philby and Communist Edith Tudor-Hart, figures that would go on to rock the British Secret Service for decades. Kendrick had entered the dangerous world of German double agents and foreign spies...  

Dubbed ‘the elusive Englishman' by Hitler’s Secret Service, his real identity baffled the Abwehr, until he was finally denounced by a double agent. Kendrick's arrest by the Gestapo and ‘Soviet-style’ interrogation caused panic in Whitehall as the whole of the European network of British spies was now at risk. The spymaster refused to give up the SIS network...  Kendrick was unceremoniously thrown out of Austria. 

But not before he had saved thousands of Austria's Jews. 

 Dr Helen Fry has written numerous books on the Second World War with particular reference to the 10,000 Germans and Austrians who fought for Britain. With a portfolio of experience as a WWII historian, Helen undertakes consultancy work for documentary companies and as a consultant historian for location filming of WWII scenes for several TV channels including BBC, ITV and Channel 4. 

She has also been engaged in a range of wider historical projects, including for schools curriculum and adult education, relating to WW1, WWII and The Cold War.

She is an ambassador for the National Centre for Military Intelligence (NCMI) - a new national museum sharing its once classified secrets. She is President of the Friends of the National Archives, a trustee of the Medmenham Collection and Honorary Member of The Association of Jewish Refugees.