Vera Erikson: my femme fatale

How many of you, I wonder, believe in ghosts? I ask because I am haunted regularly by the ghost of a woman by the name of Vera Erikson. Except that wasn't her name or at least it wasn't her name other than for the inconvenient period in 1940 when she was arrested for being a Nazi spy. She might have been Vera Schalburg, Vera Stravritzka, Vera de Cottani, Vera di Chalbur, Vera de Witte....in fact Vera Anything. Vera visits me regularly and frequently arrives unannounced and often entirely unwanted. She has done this since I was a child and you will, of course, appreciate that being stalked by this woman can be exceedingly irritating. No matter what I do to try to rid myself of this ghost, she continues to appear and, I fear, will be a spectre that haunts me for all eternity.

Let me explain and some of you (Alan and Susan for example) will know about this. I live in the old police station in the village of Port Gordon and I've lived here all my life. I am currently typing this in my study which used to be the police office, through the door behind me is the passage which led to the two cells. Few people ever spent a night in those cells, save for the occasional drunk and disorderly. However, this tiny little village police station attained enormous notoriety on 30th September 1940. On that autumnal day, the village bobby, Bob Grieve, was amazed to receive a telephone call first thing in the morning from the stationmaster, John Donald, who reported some strange (in all senses of the word) people at the village railway station.

Bob Grieve went up to the station and, sure enough, there were two very out-of-the-ordinary individuals there. They had tried to buy tickets for "Forrest" (meaning Forres), their shoes were wet and they were decidedly foreign in manner. Although claiming to be Danish refugees they were, in fact, both German agents. And, the remarkable thing was (no sexism intended) that one of them was a woman. And that woman was Vera Erikson. Bob Grieve detained them and took them to the Police Station and to the very room I am sitting in now. Later, when joined by his superior officer, John Simpson, he searched their luggage and found a pistol, a knife and radio equipment. The pair were indeed German agents and that lone village bobby had arrested them.

They left the village shortly afterwards and were eventually taken to London. The third person in the gang (who had gone to Buckie alone rather than coming to Port Gordon with them) was arrested at Waverley. About nine months later a trial was held at the Old Bailey and the two men were found guilty and sentenced to death (and were executed a month later). The court had been told, however, that "Madame Erikson would not appear". The assumption widely being that she had turned King's Evidence.

However, the tale is a good deal more complicated than that. Vera was of Danish-Russian extraction and her family had fled the Bolshevik Revolution and settled in Jutland. Later she became a ballet dancer performing, amongst other places, at the the Folies Bergere and became hopelessly addicted to drugs. Still later she was recruited to the Abwehr (mostly to escape the mad and criminal White Russian aristocrat she had become involved with). She may have been sent to spy in London prior to the War, she may have compromised some British establishment figures (in a Mata Hari way), she may have had a child, she may have been recruited by the British, she may have been a double-agent. In fact, she may have been all of these things and so much more.

She disappeared after the War after being deported back to Germany, or so say the files in the National Archives. She probably never went near Post-War Germany and almost certainly had a new and highly secret identity and lived out the rest of her days in England (the Isle of Wight seems to be the most favoured location). Most of the evidence suggests she died in 1993. However, the sheer intrigue of, and misinformation about, Vera makes her incredibly enigmatic and attracts enormous interest (try googling Vera Erikson). She also attracts conspiracy theorists by the bucket-load and I suspect if you listened to some you would find out she had a hand in the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

You will understand that I have a very real interest in Vera because she once sat where I am sitting now. I'm often asked to do talks to local history groups about "the Port Gordon Spies" and I always try to be careful to stick to the facts that we do know; that said, I do cover the speculation about her and her later life without endorsing those things that we cannot confirm.

Vera, my femme fatale, has appeared again today because I've had an email, out-of-the-blue, with some new and very different facts which are not at all clear to me at the moment. Are they correct? Are they reliable? Oh Vera......here we go again. How is it possible for the ghost of this German agent to continue to exert such a hold on me?

In the old kirkyard at Rathven, about three miles from here, there is a memorial stone which has the words "Eternity. How long?". Yes, Vera, please will you answer that question.

Cabers, Cathedrals, Castles and Cashmere

It has been an incredibly busy weekend. Yesterday was the Gordon Castle Highland Games at Fochabers, about four miles from my home in Port Gordon. These games used to be one of the biggest highland gatherings on the circuit (particularly in the 1920s and 1930s) but fell into abeyance after the 8th Duke of Richmond and Gordon died in 1935. They were revived last year by Angus and Zara Gordon Lennox who own the Castle. Last year was good but had dreadful weather to contend with. Yesterday, however, was glorious, bright blue skies and warm sunshine all day. In fact, it couldn't have been better. Angus and Zara took over the castle a few years back from his father and mother and they have done absolutely incredible things in a relatively short period of time with the help of a fantastic and dedicated team of staff. It is wonderful to have Gordon Castle right at the heart of our local community once again and yesterday was testimony to that. Before you all ask, no I was competing in any shape or form. We did, however, have a Gordon Chapel stall selling postcards of our Burne-Jones windows (of which more later in the week) and of course the obligatory home bakes (the President's home-made carrot cake was snapped up quickly I am delighted to report). Well done Angus, well done Zara and well done everyone at Gordon Castle. So, folks, if you are in the Moray area in May 2013 make a point of getting to this great gathering.

Today I am going up to a meeting of the partnership in Elgin which is working to enhance the town's heritage potential. This encompasses a lot of different activities including a "trail" (better word to come) from the site of Elgin Castle through the historic High Street to the Cathedral and then on to the world-famous Johnston's Cashmere factory and visitor centre. All things I am very interested in and Johnstons is another steadfastly loyal supporter of Gordon Chapel as their former Managing Director, James Sugden, was my predecessor as treasurer. However, back to this partnership; this is an excellent opportunity to do something really imaginative in Elgin and part of the planning will be looking at the role which Grant Lodge, the former library in Elgin, can play. The favoured option being as a venue bringing together local studies (see I managed to get it in), other heritage services and the registrars. A northern John Gray Centre perhaps. Worryingly, I am on this group as an "Expert Advisor" (their words) so I guess I will have to be on top form this afternoon and not do the dotty professor thing.

The two things I've described, the Gordon Castle and the Elgin partnership, have one thing in common: a very real drive and determination to improve and enhance our heritage; to make it work better, be more accessible and, yes, earn its keep as effectively as it can. I am sure both will succeed.