Charles Arnold-Baker

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Charles Arnold-Baker

OBE
Born
Wolfgang Charles Werner von Blumenthal

(1918-06-25)25 June 1918
Berlin, German Empire
Died6 June 2009(2009-06-06) (aged 90)
London, England
NationalityGerman and English
Occupation(s)Member of MI6, barrister, academic, and historian
SpouseEdith May
ChildrenTwo
AwardsOfficer of the Order of the British Empire, King Haakon VII Medal of Freedom
Academic background
EducationWinchester College
Alma materMagdalen College, Oxford
Academic work
Notable worksCompanion to British History

Charles Arnold-Baker,

King Haakon VII
Medal of Freedom (1945).

Background

Charles Arnold-Baker was the son of

Roman Catholic Church on his deathbed. His ashes were interred, however, in the triforium of the Temple Church, London.[citation needed
]

Wolfgang Charles Werner was educated at Winchester College and Magdalen College, Oxford (BA History 1940).[1] As World War II approached Charles and his brother Werner Gaunt (Richard) took British nationality, and adopted their stepfather's surname, witnessed by Deed poll, and abandoned the use of their first Christian names.[1]

War

Upon the outbreak of war they both volunteered for the

Buffs as a private soldier, but was promoted to corporal within 10 days and commissioned directly on 25 February 1941. He then commanded one of two platoons of the 70th Battalion which were guarding Chartwell during Churchill's recuperation from illness there for three months. Out of courtesy he was invited with the other officers to dine weekly with Churchill during this period. It is unclear whether the Prime minister realised he was a German.[2]

From there he was posted to the 9th Battalion on 4 August 1943, but on 14 December 1943 he joined MI6 where he was given the code-name Anderton and worked with the traitor Kim Philby, whom he disliked, and in whom he saw none of the supposed Philby charm. He was one of the first to voice suspicions about Philby. His brother Richard was also in MI6 and interrogated Rudolf Hess.[2]

Belgium

Charles took part in the liberation of Belgium, where one of his first duties was to take over Breendonk Concentration Camp, a poignant experience for a German. He and his boss, Richard Gatty, were accidentally the first Allied soldiers in Antwerp, where Charles was billeted on the generous hospitality of the Baroness van der Gracht de Rommerswael, having got ahead of the advancing Canadians and arrived in the town while the Germans were still there. Aided by the competent Belgian Commissaire Bloch, Gatty and he then rounded up the entire German local network of 68 spies, an action for which the Brussels office of MI6, which was headed by Robert Barclay and included Malcolm Muggeridge, claimed the credit, provoking an angry written protest from Gatty to Barclay which said "our job is to tell lies to the enemy."[citation needed]

Norway

Charles then took part in the liberation of

Auschwitz. In his 2007 memoirs, For He Is an Englishman, Memoirs of a Prussian Nobleman, Captain Arnold-Baker recorded that as an MI6 officer in Oslo he arrested Fritzsch: "We picked up, for example, the deputy commandant of Auschwitz, a little runt of a man called Fritzsch whom we naturally put in the custody of a Jewish guard – with strict instructions not to damage him, of course."[4]

He also arrested senior German military figures[

Soviet army, since this was plainly the new threat. In this he was thwarted, and his reports concerning his interrogations of such figures as a high civilian official in the German administration of occupied Russia, von der Ow, who described the anti-communist feelings of much of the population of the western USSR,[5] were buried by his superiors who were, as it later emerged, Soviet spies.[2]
It seems that as a consequence he voiced suspicions about Philby which were later conveyed by M. Oldfield to Washington.

Civilian career

Arnold-Baker was called to the

Q.C., a former colleague from MI6. He received the Gwylim Gibbons Award from Nuffield College, Oxford, in 1959.[citation needed
]

After leaving the Admiralty Division he accepted a post as Secretary of the National Association of

International Union of Local Authorities 1966–1978, and was a Delegate to the European Local Government Assembly at Strasbourg 1960–78. He also developed strong relations with the Women's Institute and was for many years one of the very few men invited to their AGM. Through this connection he was approached by Keep Britain Tidy to lobby Parliament for better legislation against pollution. The result was the 1971 Dangerous Litter Act.[citation needed
]. He was an early advocate of the use of solar power, as developed by his friend Admiral Plunkett.

In 1978 he left the NALC to pursue an academic career as a Professor of Arts administration at the

City University, London, where he lectured in Law and architecture, a subject on which he had no formal training. Nevertheless, his lectures were always packed.[citation needed
]

In 1966 he commenced writing The Companion to British History. The work was originally commissioned by the Oxford University Press, but after several disagreements with editors he decided to let his son publish his work using the family business of Longcross Press which he had founded. The book, longer than the Bible, has run through three editions plus a paperback version. It was the subject of a full-page story by The Daily Telegraph.[6] In January 2009 the Spectator described it as "one of the most remarkable books ever written".

From 1942 he lived in the Inner Temple, where he was the Senior Barrister, and looked after his invalid wife. He completed a further edition of his Companion to British History published by Loncross Denholm Press (Dec 2008).[7]

His work "Local Council Administration" is owned by every Parish, Town, and District Clerk in the country and known in local government circles simply as "the Bible". The familiar yellow book is one of the master reference books for Local Councils to this day. Many quotes and points from the seventh edition of Local Council Administration, written by Arnold-Baker, were used at the start of each of the seven parts of

J.K. Rowling's hugely successful first book for adults, The Casual Vacancy
. The title came from a quotation used by Arnold-Baker in point 6.11.

Arnold-Baker married in Kensington, London, on 2 January 1943 to Edith May, née Woods (1918–2010). They had two children:

Publications

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 978-0-19-954089-1
    . Retrieved 22 May 2021.
  2. ^ a b c d The Times 10 June 2009 (Obituary)
  3. ^ The Times 10 June 2009 (Death Notices)
  4. ISBN 9781905217441
    .
  5. ISBN 1-905217-44-7 p. 259 [1]
  6. ^ Grice, Elizabeth (30 May 2006). "In the footsteps of Dr Johnson". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 12 March 2019.
  7. ^ Heffer, Simon (23 December 2008). "Christmas is the time to revisit our obsession with the past". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 12 March 2019.

External links

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