Camp 020 at Latchmere House in southwest London was a British interrogation centre for captured German agents during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

. It was run by Lieutenant Colonel Robin "Tin Eye" Stephens. Although other wartime interrogation centres were alleged to have used

torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogational torture, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. definitions of tortur ...

to extract confessions, Stephens denied claims that torture had been used at Camp 020. His instructions for interrogators ordered: “Never strike a man. In the first place it is an act of cowardice. In the second place, it is not intelligent. A prisoner will lie to avoid further punishment and everything he says thereafter will be based on a false premise.” It is known that Stephens punished those who disobeyed this order, and in one case ejected a senior

War Office The War Office was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the new Ministry of Defence (MoD). This article contains text from ...

interrogator from the camp. After the war, Stephens ran another in Bad Nenndorf in Germany but was tried for the maltreatment of prisoners, some of whom died. He was tried in a British military court of inquiry in Germany and found not guilty, but others involved were convicted. In 2012,

Ian Cobain Ian Cobain (born 1960) is a British journalist. Cobain is best known for his investigative journalism into human rights abuses committed by the British government post- 9/11, the secrecy surrounding the British state and the legacy of the Northe ...

in the book ''Cruel Britannia'' claimed that documents obtained at the National Archives proved that torture methods had been used at Camp 020 to extract information and that 30 rooms there had been turned into cells with hidden microphones, further that there were mock executions and several inmates were treated brutally by the guards. Members of the British Union of Fascists had been held at Latchmere House during this period. They included the environmental pioneer Jorian Jenks. There was a reserve camp, Camp 020R, at Huntercombe, which was used mainly for long term detention of prisoners. The BBC docu-drama ''Spy!'' depicted Camp 020 in one episode in 1980. The depiction stirred controversy, as the BBC dramatisation showed the use of physical assault on individuals being interrogated. In 2013, a pair of characters, based on Stephens, also appears in "The Cage", the second episode of series 7 of ''Foyle's War''.

Inmates

Known wartime inmates included: *

James Larratt Battersby James Larratt Battersby (5 February 1907 – 14–29 September 1955) was a British fascist and pacifist, and a member of the Battersby family of hatmakers of Stockport, Greater Manchester, England. He was forced to retire from the family firm du ...

* Hugo Bleicher *

Gösta Caroli Gösta Caroli (6 November 1902 – 8 May 1975) was a double agent working for MI5 during the Second World War under the codename SUMMER. Gösta Caroli and Wulf Schmidt Wulf Dietrich Christian Schmidt, later known as Harry Williamson (7 Decem ...

* Eddie Chapman * Jacques de Duve * Josef Jakobs * Werner von Janowski * Christiaan Lindemans * Karel Richard Richter * Wulf Schmidt * Duncan Scott-Ford * Gastão de Freitas Ferraz

References

{{reflist, 2 United Kingdom intelligence community Intelligence services of World War II Interrogations Torture in the United Kingdom Detention centers British World War II crimes

Inmates

See also

References