Evan, Viscount Tredegar of Tredegar House, Newport, South Wales
Bad History on Wikipedia
What was Evan’s Army Unit, Rank and Role in the Second World War?
The Wikipedia entry for Evan Frederic Morgan, 4th Lord Tredegar, 2nd Viscount Tredegar has been sabotaged.
Attempts to correct the rogue history are reversed by the history vandals.
The present bogus wording includes this statement :
“During World War II he [ Evan] was a high-ranking officer in MI8 ”.
Meaning Military Intelligence, Section 8.
This lie has been invented to give Evan more importance than he deserves. MI 8 was where the real spies lurked and listened.
MI8 was a part of British Military Intelligence group responsible for signals intelligence. It originally consisted of four sections, by the outbreak of the Second World War MI8 was responsible for the extensive War Office ‘Y Group’ and briefly, for the Radio Security Service. Bletchey Park was a spin off.
The reference to Evan being a part of MI8 is an example of bad history, this bad history can be found in at least two books where the authors have been duped by the same informant.
What is the truth? Well, Evan Morgan, Viscount Tredegar did briefly hold a position in one of the MI Units, this was in MI14.
Based on the evidence in National Archives file WO 71 / 1078 it can be gleaned that at his Court Martial on 19 April, 1943 Evan Morgan is described as “Temporary Major (War Substantive Captain) The Viscount Tredegar Royal Corps of Signals, attached Holding Battalion, Scots Guards”.
In his statement to the Judge Advocate General ahead of his trial Evan declared:
“ I am Officer in Charge Special Section (Carrier Pigeon) Service and I work at Wing House, Piccadilly, W1. I assumed these duties during the first week in November 1942.”
From this it can be seen that Evan’s best chance of taking a leading contribution to the Second World War lasted barely six months.
The pigeon operations directed by Evan Morgan at MI 14 involved liaison with the civilians who bred the pigeons all over the country who were organised in groups. The breeders were under the general direction of Evan’s unit known as the Special Section, Carrier Pigeon, of the Royal Corps of Signals.
Evan’s main responsibility was to ensure that pigeons were bred and available for use by MI 14 including operations abroad, the actual direction of the operations being the responsibility not of Evan but of others in MI 14.
The Pigeon Service was a much larger organisation than the Special Section. The Special Section was also concerned with pigeons that were dropped into occupied territory. Evan was working alongside those with a direct role of logging the incidences of how and where pigeons were dropped ( by means of parachute), recording this on a map on display at Wing House. Pigeons were dropped by the RAF mainly in Holland and the Low Countries for possible use by local resistance groups for sending messages to be sent back to Britain.
One has to conclude that Evan had an important role in 1942/3 but a mediocre one, he was hardly a “high ranking officer” and was NOT in MI8.
All the glory was ended after Evan was brought down by Court Martial, found guilty on two counts and “severely reprimanded” on charges brought under the Official Secrets Act.
William Cross, Biographer of Evan, Viscount Tredegar
William Cross, FSA Scot is the author of six books on Evan Morgan including “ Not Behind Lace Curtains: The Hidden World of Evan, Viscount Tredegar” and co-author of “ Aspects of Evan : The last Viscount Tredegar including the transcript of Evan’s Court Martial for offences against the Official Secrets Acts.”