Captain Bernard Frederick Trench (17 July 1880 – 10 October 1967) was a British soldier and famous spy who was caught and convicted by the German authorities just a few years before

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. In 1913 he was released as a present to Ernest Augustus the Duke of Brunswick when Augustus married the German Kaiser's daughter,

Princess Victoria Louise of Prussia german: Viktoria Luise Adelheid Mathilde Charlotte , house = Hohenzollern , father = Wilhelm II, German Emperor , mother = Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein , birth_name = Princess Victoria Louise of Prussia , ...

Background

Trench was a descendant of Lord Ashtown and of Archbishop Trench.

Career

Trench was commissioned a

second lieutenant Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces, comparable to NATO OF-1 rank. Australia The rank of second lieutenant existed in the military forces of the Australian colonies and Australian Army until ...

in the

Royal Marine Light Infantry The history of the Royal Marines began on 28 October 1664 with the formation of the Duke of York and Albany's Maritime Regiment of Foot soon becoming known as the Admiral's Regiment. During the War of the Spanish Succession the most historic achi ...

on 1 January 1899, and promoted to

lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations. The meaning of lieutenant differs in different militaries (see comparative military ranks), but it is often sub ...

on 1 January 1900. Captain Trench was arrested and went to trial with another man, Lieutenant Vivian R. Brandon R.N., who had been arrested a few days earlier. Trench had other accomplices on his mission to scout out information about the military installations on the island of

Borkum Borkum ( nds, Borkum, Börkum) is an island and a municipality in the Leer District in Lower Saxony, northwestern Germany. It is situated east of Rottumeroog and west of Juist. Geography Borkum is bordered to the west by the Westerems strait ...

but was the only person arrested from his spy ring. He was an agent of the spymaster and future first director of what would become the

Secret Intelligence Service The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6 ( Military Intelligence, Section 6), is the foreign intelligence service of the United Kingdom, tasked mainly with the covert overseas collection and analysis of human intelligenc ...

(SIS), also known as MI6,

Mansfield Smith-Cumming Captain Sir Mansfield George Smith-Cumming (1 April 1859 – 14 June 1923) was a British naval officer who served as the first chief of the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS). Origins He was a great-great grandson of the prominent merchant Joh ...

. Trench's codename was COUNTERSCRAP. Trench and Brandon's trial took place at the Leipzig Supreme Court in the so-called Great Court of the ''

Reichsgericht The Reichsgericht (, ''Reich Court'') was the supreme criminal and civil court in the German Reich from 1879 to 1945. It was based in Leipzig, Germany. The Supreme Court was established when the Reichsjustizgesetze (Imperial Justice Laws) came in ...

'' on 22 December 1910. Convicted of espionage they were both sentenced to a term of four years. During his imprisonment, Trench hanged himself from the ceiling by his neck but survived. In letters, he claimed that he did not intend to commit suicide or escape. Trench's letters, however, condemned Captain Lux, a French officer who escaped from the fortress during Trench's imprisonment. Trench complained that the lax security at the fort was possible because of a promise from the prisoners not to attempt to break out. Captain Trench and another British subject caught spying, Captain Bertrand Stewart, were pardoned and released by the German Kaiser as a present to

Ernest Augustus, Duke of Brunswick Ernest Augustus (Ernest Augustus Christian George; german: Ernst August Christian Georg; 17 November 1887 – 30 January 1953) was the reigning Duchy of Brunswick, Duke of Brunswick from 2 November 1913 to 8 November 1918. He was a grandson of Geor ...

when Augustus married the Kaiser's daughter,

. (They married on 24 May 1913). He fought in the Second World War and married Mary Audrey Taylor, daughter of Reverend Robert Fetzer Taylor, on 8 September 1943.

Bibliography

Notes

References

* - Total pages: 544 * * - Total pages: 160 * * * - Total pages: 360 * {{DEFAULTSORT:Trench, Bernard Frederick Royal Marines personnel of World War I Royal Marines personnel of World War II 1880 births 1967 deaths British spies Pre–World War I spies People convicted of spying Incarcerated spies Prisoners and detainees of Germany British people imprisoned abroad Recipients of German royal pardons Royal Marines officers