The agent with a naked German in her cupboard

ONE of Agent Jack’s first recruits was a glamorous fascist who was caught with a naked German paratrooper in her cupboard.

Eileen Gleave was on MI5’s radar at the start of 1940 when she was said to be considering plans for an arson attack on a London synagogue. But she avoided arrest and came to attention again only when she was recruited by the MI5 spy.

In December 1946, visiting a prisoner of war camp in London, she met Joachim Kirmse, a German paratrooper suspected to have been in the Gestapo. They fell in love and, after escaping the camp, he secretly moved in with her.

But MI5 had kept tabs on her and sent police round. ‘Just after 7am on a Monday morning, Detective Inspector George Smith of Special Branch knocked on Gleave’s door,’ the new book recounts.

‘She let the policeman into her kitchen, but denied having seen Kirmse. Smith noticed there were two dirty cups on the table and asked if he could have a look around. Eileen hesitated, and then agreed.

‘“I went to a bedroom… and noticed the large divan bed had apparently been slept in

by two persons,” Mr Smith reported. ‘“I endeavoured to open the wardrobe door and, after exerting considerable pressure, was successful. I found a man inside, naked.”’

Gleave was prosecuted for harbouring an escaped prisoner, but the magistrate took pity on her after it emerged that Kirmse had a wife and five children in Germany. She was bound over to keep the peace for 12 months.