EWING, SIR ALFRED• 177his mail was intercepted and examined, on a warrant signed by Home
SecretaryWinston Churchill, his correspondence revealed him and
his assistant Wilhelm Kronauer to be at the center of an espionage
network. All the members of the organization were watched, and a
spy in the Royal Navy,George Parrott, was arrested in November- A British subject born in Hoxton, Ernst was taken into custody
on the eve of World War I, along with 21 other suspects, thereby es-
tablishing the reputation of CaptainVernon Kell, the first head of
the Security Service.
EWER, WILLIAM.A well-knownCommunist Party of Great Brit-
ainmember andDaily Heraldjournalist, William Ewer between
1919 and 1929 worked as a Soviet spy codenamed B-1 andherman
and ran sources in the India Office, Home Office, and Scotland Yard.
Educated at Merchant’s Tailors, Ewer graduated from Trinity Col-
lege, Cambridge, in 1907 and was known by his nickname ‘‘Trilby.’’
Although Ewer appeared to manage an independent news agency, the
Federated Press of America(FPA), it was actually a front for espio-
nage and to facilitate exchanges of information between himself and
his principal subagent in Paris, George Solcombe, aDaily Herald
foreign correspondent using the alias Kenneth Milton.MI5became
aware of Ewer’s activities in November 1924 when he placed an ad-
vertisement in theDaily Heraldseeking information about any de-
partment of British Intelligence. Intensive surveillance identified
Ewer and Rosa Edwards as running the news agency and spotted two
formerSpecial Branchdetectives,Hubert GinhovenandWalter
Dail, mounting a countersurveillance operation for Ewer. The FPA
was raided in April 1929, but no action was taken against Ewer be-
cause there was never any evidence that he had gained access to clas-
sified information. Instead he traveled to Poland, but returned to
England in September 1929 and was interviewed extensively by
MI5’sMax Knightin 1950.
EWING, SIR ALFRED.Formerly the director of naval education,
Ewing was responsible for developing the cryptographic unit within
the Admiralty known asRoom 40during World War I. Under Ew-
ing’s supervision, theNaval Intelligence Divisionbroke many of
the enemies’ codes and was responsible for solving the diplomatic
cipher used in theZimmermann Telegram.