Newly released files reveal 'agent provocatrice' in Second World War

17 Sep 2014 01:10 PM

Today we are making more than 3,300 Security Service records available online, including a file which has been opened revealing the previously dismissed use of an 'agent provocatrice' in Second World War operations.

Codename: Fifi

Marie Christine Chilver, codename 'Fifi', was employed by the secret service to test trainee secret agents. She was also known within the Special Operations Executive (SOE) as 'our special agent'.

The release of this file (HS 9/307/3) reveals Fifi's identity and her special talent for character assessment which enabled her to extract information from up and coming trainee secret agents. The file contains Fifi's reports on trainee agents and handwritten correspondence from her relating to SOE training operations.

Jonathan Cole, Researcher at The National Archives, commented: '"Fifi" was something of a legend of the Special Operations Executive. Until now, her existence and the deployment of her services had been dismissed but with the release of this file, her identity, impressive skills and the important role she played in Second World War secret operations is now finally revealed.' Read more in our blog.

Other individuals within the files include:

Cecil Day Lewis (KV 2/1385): This file contains remarks by MI5 on Lewis (poet laureate and father of actor Daniel Day Lewis) and his communist links, Lewis' application for a passport including his signature, and Ministry of Information correspondence
William Joyce, alias Lord Haw Haw (KV 2/245): This file includes press cuttings on Joyce with a Daily Herald newspaper report from 3 April 1941 in which William Joyce admits he is Lord Haw-Haw
Sir Oswald Mosley/Lady Mosley (KV 2/884): This file includes fascist leader Mosley's cuttings from a Blackshirts pamphlet and a poster advertising a public speech by Mosley