George Smedley Governor of Spandau jail who tried to engage with Rudolf Hess
GEORGE SMEDLEY, who has died aged 98, was the British governor of Spandau Prison in West Berlin from 1974 to 1976, by which time its sole inmate was Rudolf Hess.
Hess, who had been appointed Deputy Führer to Adolf Hitler in 1933 but was captured in 1941 after flying to Scotland, was said to have been the least cooperative of the Second World War prisoners who had been held at Spandau since 1947.
By the time Smedley arrived, Hess, known as Prisoner Number 7, was the jail’s sole inmate; Baldur von Schirach, former head of the Hitler Youth, and Albert Speer, the wartime armaments minister, had been released in 1966.
Because running a jail with only one inmate was far from a full-time job, Smedley was able to attempt to engage with Hess. He spent some time in the prison garden trying to persuade Hess to teach him German, although his efforts were in vain. Nevertheless, with Hess now considered a low risk, Smedley was able to arrange more exercise entitlement for him.
In August 1987, long after Smedley had moved on, Hess hanged himself in Spandau. A month later the jail was razed to prevent it becoming a shrine for neo-nazis.
Roscoe Relph George Boleyne Smedley was born at Surbiton on September 3 1919, the only son of Charles Smedley, a lieutenant with the Machine Gun Corps in France during the First World War, and his wife Aimie (née Relph), a nurse.
His father died in 1920 from wartime injuries and the regiment helped young George to be educated at King’s School, Ely. He left at 16 and joined the Foreign Service. During a posting in London he read Law at King’s College, London, studying in his free time.
Meanwhile, convinced that the country would soon be at war again, Smedley joined the Artists Rifles TA. In 1940 he transferred to the South Lancashire Regiment and, from 1942 to 1946, served as captain in the Indian Army, later claiming that the pay was better overseas and he had an allowance for his horse.
After demobilisation Smedley was called to the Bar by Inner Temple, although he later joined Lincoln’s Inn, which he found more clubbable. Yet soon he was back with the Foreign Service, enjoying postings that included Rangoon (1947), where his son was born, Baghdad (1954) and Kuwait (1965). He was appointed Consulgeneral at Lubumbashi, in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo) in 1972.
In 1974 he was appointed to the British Military Government in Berlin, which had been established after the Second World War to run the British sector of the city (it was wound up in 1990 after German reunification).
His final diplomatic post was as head of the Nationality and Treaty Department in London from 1977 to 1979, where he was involved in finalising the treaty that paved the way for the independence of the New Hebrides as Vanuatu in 1980.
In retirement Smedley lived in Co Durham, where his legal training proved useful as an adjudicator for the Immigration Tribunal, deputy traffic commissioner for the North Eastern Traffic Area and member of the Mental Health Review Tribunal. He was also a warden at St Mary’s Church, Whorlton, near Barnard Castle, and served on deanery and diocesan synods.
With the income from his tribunal work boosting his diplomatic pension, Smedley was able to invest in forestry in Northumberland, Co Durham and North Yorkshire. It was a hobby he took seriously, regularly attending meetings of woodland owners.
George Smedley was married and widowed four times. His wives were: Muriel Murray (1947-75); Margaret Gourlay, Muriel’s cousin (1979-91); Marjorie Drummond (1993-94); and Margaret Linton (2004-06). He is survived by the son of his first marriage.
George Smedley, born September 3 1919, died May 2 2018