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#Wednesday #WomeninBritishIntel Mary Corrie Sherer (1914-1988) MI5’s first female agent runner, but sadly denied full officer status. Mary joined MI5 in 1936 as a secretary at the age of 21. She was posted to #Malta where she worked as a personal assistant.
Outbreak of #WW2 she returned to #London & assisted Lord Rothschild – expert on German & Italian sabotage methods. As a result of her work she was promoted to desk officer. In 1942, she was posted to #Washington as an adviser on sabotage to the Head of British Intelligence in..
...North America. In 1943, she returned to London and joined MI5 section B1A, which was responsible for running turned German agents – Double Cross. Kenneth Barton of MI6 Section V described Mary as possessing a sharp sense of humour ‘often at other people’s expense’.
Tough, robust, and ambitious, she could hold her gin as well as any man and smoked filterless Kent cigarettes. As a child of the Indian Raj, her military upbringing certainly bore through in her appearance and mannerisms. She often wore a red jacket with epaulettes & walked ...
...with a long martial stride. She was a no-nonsense certain of woman with a strong sense of duty. Mary was given the responsibility of managing Lily Sergueiew, codenamed TREASURE – ironic as her volatile nature proved she was anything but treasure to deal with.
Lily was a French national who had volunteered her services to the Germans with the intention of double crossing them. Mary was convinced Lily had the makings of a successful agent. Yet, her male bosses remained sceptical.
Mary stood her ground & argued the case that a woman double agent, equipped with her own wireless and gullible German handler, would prove an important role in Operation Bodyguard – the Allied strategic deception plan in Europe carried out as part of the build up to Overlord.
It was not a good match as both women as their personalities clashed. Lily recorded their first meeting in her diary: Mary was sat on ‘the edge of a chair, her arms folded, chin resting on a closed fist. She glances at me through slightly slanted green eyes; her gaze...
... is not friendly. Her brown hair is soberly brushed up and fixed without art, and her features are icy. “She would be easy to hate,” I reflect. However, there was a vulnerability to Mary who certainly had a tender side. Mary helped nurse Lily when she was ill.
Lily provides many details about Mary (Mariya) within her diary, noting her leopard coat that she always wore. On 18 May 1944, she observed that Mary wore a burgundy suit with golden buttons, noting "she pretends it makes her look like a general".
Mary & Lily had a love-hate relationship, which all came to a dramatic conclusion with the death of Lily’s beloved dog – that is a story for another day. In short, it threw a spanner in the works, as a grieving Lily threatened to blow her cover to her German handlers - eek!
Mary, the consummate professional managed to calm Lily down & eventually got Lily to reveal what the warning code would have been to the Germans blowing her cover. Mary dutifully checked every message that had been sent to the Abwehr, and confirmed that Lily had never used it.
Lily had not been the perfect agent that Mary had hoped for - she certainly did not help Mary advance her career within MI5.
After the war, Mary left MI5. She met Phyllis McKenzie who had worked for British intelligence in New York during the war. They spent the rest of their lives together & moved to Rome where, in 1947, they opened up the Lion Bookshop on Via del Babuino near the Spanish Steps #LGBTQ
Mary spent her days surrounded by books and doted on an eclectic mix of dogs: Pekinese, pugs & French Bulldogs – sounds perfect to me!
In 1979, Mary was awarded an MBE ‘for services to the British community in Rome’. She eventually returned to the UK and passed away at her home on 7 February 1988. Her family announced her death in The Times. Mary received no obituary.
