458 • THE RIGHT CLUB
to the French frontier by Sergeant Cartier, a member of the Swiss
Border Police who was in Cartwright’s pay, and safely dispatched
into enemy territory on his first mission to Paris.
Rieul’s instructions were to establish himself in the capital, carry
out some minor assignments, and then return to Basel. He traveled
by train and upon his arrival stayed with his uncle in Passy, who in-
troduced him to a friend that had access to the Ritz Hotel’s guest list.
As the hotel had been requisitioned by the occupation forces for the
use of senior German officers, this information was regarded as sig-
nificant, and after a brief period in Paris, Rieul returned to Switzer-
land to report a successful conclusion to his first mission.
Thereafter Rieul made more than two dozen trips back to Paris,
crossing the frontier in complete safety under the protection of the
Swiss intelligence service, with which SIS had reached an accommo-
dation: The Swiss provided the facilities needed for clandestine infil-
tration into France—a farm near Boncourt that straddled the
border—on condition that each agent report his arrival as soon as he
made the return journey.
At the end of the war Rieul was reunited with his family and they
returned home to Paris, where they lived until 1960 when, because
of his wife’s ill health, they moved to the Isle of Wight. Rieul has
now retired as director of a fertilizer supply company and lives near
Ryde on the Isle of Wight.THE RIGHT CLUB.Founded in 1939 by Captain Archibald Ramsay,
the Unionist MP for Peebles since 1931, the Right Club attracted a
membership similar to theLinkand theAnglo-German Fellowship
and was the subject of intensive surveillance and penetration byMI5.
Ramsay was detained in May 1940 under theDefence of the Realm
Actand remained in Brixton Prison until 1944.
RIMINGTON, DAME STELLA. Director-general of the Security
Servicefrom 1992 to 1996 and the first woman to be appointed to
the top job in any British intelligence agency, Stella Rimington, a
librarian, had accompanied her husband John to New Delhi when he
was posted to the British High Commission there. She was offered
part-time employment as a secretary by thesecurity liaison officer,
Sir Graham Lake. Upon their return to London in 1969, she accepted
a full-time post withMI5.