Historical Dictionary of British Intelligence

OLDHAM, ERNEST• 401

ity and intelligence agencies seemed more adept at combating each

other than the ProvisionalIrish Republican Army.MI5, theRoyal

Ulster Constabulary(RUC) Special Branch, and the army all ran

competing organizations in the province, and Oldfield’s task was to

direct their activities against the common target and resolve the tense

relations between the RUC and the army, as personified by the mu-

tual hostility of the police and the army. Despite a complete lack of

any formal executive powers, Oldfield’s formidable reputation en-

sured cooperation, and within six months he was able to transform

the intelligence environment, remaining ensconced in his quarters at

Stormont Castle for weeks at a time.

During his infrequent visits to London, Oldfield lived at his flat

in Marsham Court, which was conveniently located directly above

Locket’s Restaurant, and his meals were often sent up to him with a

waiter. On one evening, when was waiter was delivering his dinner,

an incident occurred that was the subject of a report by Oldfield’s

Special Branchpersonal protection officer. This resulted in an inter-

view in March with theCabinet secretary,Sir Robert Armstrong,

at which Oldfield was challenged about his homosexuality, and he

was forced to acknowledge that over the past two decades he had lied

on hispositive vettingquestionnaire, which specifically requested a

declaration of any sexual proclivities that might leave him vulnerable

to blackmail. His security clearance was revoked immediately and he

resigned his post attached to theNorthern IrelandOffice in June, to

be replaced bySir Brooks Richards, theintelligence coordinator

to the Cabinetsince mid-1978.

OLDHAM, ERNEST.In the middle of 1930 Captain Ernest Oldham
walked into the Soviet embassy in Paris and, using an alias, offered
to sell British Foreign Office documents. Soon afterward, the Soviets
were able to confirm his identity when Oldham was seen at the Hotel
Beau Rivage in Geneva with the British delegation to the League of
Nations conference. Subsequent checks showed that Oldham lived in
Pembroke Gardens, West London.
It was not until after Oldham’s suicide in 1933 that the Soviets
learned that Oldham was a cipher expert whose service dated back
to December 1913 and had been the head of the department responsi-
ble for the distribution of diplomatic telegrams since August 1928.