Recruited by MI6

Bill Miller

My war service was very unusual. Called up at the very beginning of the war, was enlisted in the 1st London Div Sigs RCS as a wireless operator. On operational duties in Charing (Kent)with a wireless mobile vehicle in Oct 1940 I was approached by my section officer, Capt Palmer, who asked if I would agree to my name being forwarded for special duties which involved overseas duties. I agreed.

The next thing I knew I was ordered to report to a Major (can't remembers his name) at a certain room at the War Office. After breakfast off I went to London. Little did I realise that meal was the very last meal with the Army. I was told I had been transferred to a special communications unit, and was to proceed to Bletchley by rail, where I would be met. Signing the Official Secrets Act I was not to tell anybody, or contact in my old unit.

I was met and eventually taken to a private billet where the landlady would provide me with a room and all my meals. I would not have to pay. To cut a long story short I was recruited by MI6. At Bletchley Park I eventually handed in my uniform and became a civilian, and issued with a passport.

My first posting in this capacity, operating clandestine radio links, was to Bilbao, Spain, near the frontier of occupied France. A little later I was transferred to the British Embassy in Madrid, and eventually to the British Consulate General in Tangier, where I remained throughout the war.

An edited version of my memoirs has been published in "The Secret Wireless War" by Geoffrey Pidgeon (this can be obtained at libraries).

I would like to know of any of my old army friends. In 1947 I was transferred to the diplomatic Wireless Service until my retirement in 1979.

Bill Miller 8th November 2012