A spy in the family
IN THE months before his death last year, Wales’ former First Minister Rhodri Morgan travelled to the Swiss city of Zurich to retrace the steps of a remarkable relative who had worked as a spy for the British Empire.
His quest was to find out whether his greatuncle Morgan Watkin had actually met Lenin during his exile in Zurich before he became Soviet leader. And did he obtain key information from the communist revolutionary about Britain’s German enemy via his Russian spy network?
S4C cameras followed the charismatic, engaging Labour politician during his time there and the fascinating documentary Rhodri Morgan: Ysbïwr yn y Teulu (Rhodri Morgan: A Spy in the Family) is as much a tribute to the former Cardiff West MP and AM as it is a fascinating portrayal of his multitalented great-uncle.
Rhodri Morgan said in the programme: “I would like to find out exactly what Morgan Watkin did. To think it is possible he came across Lenin and received information from him that he could then feed back to the authorities in Great Britain … If that is true, then it’s a totally astounding story.”
In the programme we will discover more about the life story of Rhodri’s great-uncle, a farmer’s son from the Swansea Valley who left school at 12 to become a miner but ended up a gentleman spy as well as a brilliant academic.
We will hear how Watkin (1878-1970), went to Zurich during the First World War, seemingly to complete a PhD comparing French and Welsh medieval literature – but also to work for the then cabinet minister Lloyd George’s inner circle, communicating messages and reports in Welsh back home from Switzerland to mainly bypass the Foreign Office.
On his journey to Zurich, Rhodri Morgan was accompanied by his cousin, historian Nia Powell, who has studied Watkin’s papers, including his letters back home from Switzerland.
There are also key contributions from another historian, Rhodri’s brother Professor Prys Morgan, among others.
Switzerland, a neutral country, was full of spies from many countries during the First World War and Zurich, in particular, was teeming with them. There is no doubt that Watkin, later to become a celebrated Cardiff University professor, was a British spy, like a number of other Welsh-speakers favoured by the Welshspeaking wartime cabinet minister and later prime minister David Lloyd George.
But did he actually meet Lenin in a Zurich barber shop to share intelligence? And did the revolutionary really give him vital information about the morale and health of the German population suffering under a British naval blockade?
As Rhodri and his family play detective about their double-agent relative, we also hear about Watkin’s stay in Johannesburg, South Africa, towards the end of World War I, as he spied on the Boers, and about his love for the Welsh language and culture that lies somewhat uneasily with his work for a British establishment that was at the time largely dismissive of what was seen as an unimportant minority language.
Rhodri Morgan: Ysbïwr yn y Teulu is on S4C at 9.30pm on Thursday, March 29. English subtitles.