Historical Dictionary of British Intelligence

MASTERMAN, SIR JOHN• 337

In January 1917 Mason was recalled to London, where he received

a promotion to the rank of major but succumbed to bronchitis. The

remainder of his military service was spent in convalescence and the

preparation ofThe Four Corners of the Earth. After the war, Mason

continued to write his series of highly successful detective mysteries

based on Inspector Hainaud. He never married and is believed to have

declined the offer of a knighthood. He died in London in November

1948.

MASSINGHAM. Special Operations Executive(SOE) code name
for the North African headquarters based in Algiers. It was estab-
lished in October 1942 to run operations into southern France, Cor-
sica, Italy, Sardinia, Sicily, and Spain under the leadership of
Douglas Dodds-Parker.
After the invasion of Italy,massinghamestablished a forward
base at Monopoli, codenamedmaryland. massinghamclosed
down in October 1944, having inserted 55 wireless stations, 22 Al-
lied missions, and 11 other SOE personnel into France.

MASTERMAN, SIR JOHN.Through sheer ill fortune, John Master-
man found himself in Freiburg when World War I started in August

1914. Instead of being repatriated, as he had expected, he interned at
      Ruhleben, a camp set up on Berlin’s racetrack. There, despite one
      unsuccessful escape attempt, he was to spend the next four years.
      After his release in November 1918 Masterman was invited to White-
      hall Court to dine with Sir Mansfield Smith-Cumming, theSecret
      Intelligence Service’s first chief. ‘‘C’’ had been anxious to hear news
      of Kurt Hahn, the educationalist who had helped Masterman avoid
      being sent to a prison camp after his abortive escape.
      Masterman’s transformation from a Christ Church don to an intel-
      ligence officer in World War II was brief. In March 1940 he was
      called up and given a commission in theIntelligence Corps. Fluent
      in German, he attended the interrogation course at Swanage and was
      then posted to the War Office as secretary to the committee that had
      been set up to investigate the evacuation of the British Expeditionary
      Force from Dunkirk. Once the Howard Committee had completed its
      report, Masterman was transferred to the Security Service, where he
      worked in thecounterespionagedivision, first atBlenheim Palace