304 • LANGLEY, J. M.
from a hospital for prisoners of war in Lille and was escorted to Paris.
Later he crossed into the unoccupied zone and, declared unfit for fu-
ture military service, he was repatriated by the Vichy authorities.
Back in England, Langley was recruited by theSecret Intelligence
Serviceto organize a sophisticated network of escape routes, man-
aged by paid guides—a task that in early 1941 must have seemed
impossible. However,Donald Darlinghad already made a start from
Lisbon, and an embryonic line of volunteers had been established
from Belgium down to the Pyrenees. Posing as an architect assessing
repairs needed to British diplomatic premises, Langley made an un-
successful tour ofMI9’s assets in Lisbon and Madrid and swiftly fell
foul ofSam Hoare.
By September 1943 Langley had helped create a relatively sophis-
ticated organization, with agents and couriers running escape lines
the length of occupied France, moving hundreds of evaders over the
Pyrenees into Spain. At this point Langley passed the command of
MI9 toAirey Neaveand concentrated on the development of a spe-
cial intelligence school where Allied personnel were trained in es-
cape techniques in anticipation of the invasion. The course included
simulated enemy interrogations and an introduction to some of the
ingenious equipment that had been concealed in ostensibly ordinary
clothing for use in escapes.
Soon afterD-Day, Langley went to France to supervise the mobile
interrogation teams created to screen returning Allied PoWs, and he
was in Paris as it was liberated. As the 21st Army Group moved
through Belgium and Holland, specialist MI9 groups made contact
with groups of evaders and returned them to their units. At the end
of the war, ‘‘Intelligence School 9’’ had established itself inBad Sal-
zuffen; it was finally disbanded in July 1945 when Langley was ap-
pointed town major of Antwerp.
Langley was demobilized in 1946 and, although offered a perma-
nent post in theSecret Intelligence Service, preferred to join Fisons
to work on long-term surveys into raw materials. He attended the
Harvard Business School in 1954, and in 1967 opened a bookshop.
He later moved to Ipswich, where he took over another bookshop,
and died there in April 1983, having collaborated with Professor
M. R. D. Foot on a history of MI9 that was published in 1979.