A Reluctant Spy by Miller H Caldwell
Last edited: Tuesday, October 13, 2015
Posted: Tuesday, October 13, 2015
When my great aunt was a double spy. Her story must be told.
Widow with her son in Hitler's Army and elderly parents in Scotland. Torn loyalties resolved by being a double agent but for who?
Preface
Hilda Campbell was born in 1889 in Elgin. She studied modern languages at Aberdeen University and in 1910 went to Germany to further her knowledge of the German language and culture. At a concert at the Kűnsthalle in Hamburg, Hilda met Dr Willy Richter, a local General Practitioner. They married in 1913 and spent their honeymoon in Scotland visiting relatives. They also met my god-mother Vera Wild (née Caldwell) and invited her to come to stay with them in Hamburg the following summer.
Vera arrived in mid July with the promise of a two month visit before she returned to Glasgow as she had been accepted to study pharmacology at the university. The First World War broke out on 4th August 1914 and found Vera trapped behind enemy lines in Germany. Through a network of Hilda’s friends, Vera returned home via Harwich after an eventful trip. An account of her return home can be found in the Forres and Nairn Gazette of 2nd September 1914 by courtesy of the Elgin Library Educational Services.
Hilda taught English privately in Hamburg. Nothing else was known of her life until..........
Hilda's story would be some great fiction. But it's even better because it is true and written by a very good author, her grandnephew with love. It is the kind of story that is likely to be picked up for the screen by the likes of Steven Spielberg. I certainly hope that readers find it and read her fascinating experience.
Since we are of mostly German, and some Scottish, heritage, my sister took four years of German in high school. At a young age, she married a German-speaking neighbor. He was drafted into the Army during the Vietnam War and sent to Germany. She followed and the occupied a rented house off base. She got to practice her conversational German with her landlady. As far as I know, she was never approached to become a spy. ;-)
I have two life stories that I haven't written. One is of a Colombian citizen serving a mandatory 20 years in a California prison for murder by failed plastic surgery. His common-law wife was my first attendant and decided that I shouldn't write the story of their lives to protect her two, then young, children. Both are now graduated from US colleges and very successful like their mother, a dermatologist. The other is a friend and occasional attendant whose entire life has been affected by being caught up in prostitution, murder, two imprisonments, and other problems. She is a good friend and wants me to tell her story. It is difficult because I would need a lot of time with her to draw the whole thing out.
Since we are of mostly German, and some Scottish, heritage, my sister took four years of German in high school. At a young age, she married a German-speaking neighbor. He was drafted into the Army during the Vietnam War and sent to Germany. She followed and the occupied a rented house off base. She got to practice her conversational German with her landlady. As far as I know, she was never approached to become a spy. ;-)
I have two life stories that I haven't written. One is of a Colombian citizen serving a mandatory 20 years in a California prison for murder by failed plastic surgery. His common-law wife was my first attendant and decided that I shouldn't write the story of their lives to protect her two, then young, children. Both are now graduated from US colleges and very successful like their mother, a dermatologist. The other is a friend and occasional attendant whose entire life has been affected by being caught up in prostitution, murder, two imprisonments, and other problems. She is a good friend and wants me to tell her story. It is difficult because I would need a lot of time with her to draw the whole thing out.
Ron