MI5 work before and during the Second World War Roberts was recruited in the 1920s as an MI5 field agent to infiltrate first communist and then fascist groups by the spymaster
Maxwell Knight. In the 1930s he was tasked to infiltrate the
British Union of Fascists. After the bank was asked to release him for war service one of his bosses wrote back expressing surprise at the choice of someone so unremarkable for important work: "what are the particular and especial qualifications of Mr Roberts - which we have not been able to perceive - for some particular work of national military importance which would take him away from his normal military call-up in October?" By 1942, Roberts was posing as a German
Gestapo agent named "Jack King", a member of the
Einsatzgruppe London, to obtain information about Nazi sympathisers in the UK. Originally his mission was to infiltrate
Siemens-Schuckert (GB) Ltd, the suspect British arm of the German company, until he met a "crafty and dangerous woman" named Marita Perigoe. According to Roberts, writing in his reports back to MI5, some of the
fifth column fascists he dealt with had such hatred for Britain, driven by
anti-semitism and the propaganda of Mosley’s group, that they "applauded" women and children being killed by German bombs.
Postwar espionage (MI6) In 1947, Roberts was seconded to the
Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) to work in
Vienna, posing as a British civil servant and passing information to a Soviet agent, Jellinek. This low-grade, accurate but harmless information passed to enemy spies he described as "chicken feed", a term also used by the spy writer
John le Carré. At the time Vienna was a very dangerous place full of spies from all sides. Roberts wrote about some of the dangers he faced every day in his work in Austria. In one incident he waited for an arranged meeting at a cemetery in the city and narrowly avoided being picked up by a Soviet
ZiL car. In contrast to the brilliance of Roberts' work before and during the war, he had effectively been moved to a much less demanding and stimulating desk job, which caused him to become depressed. His work at this point was viewed much less favourably by his superiors in MI5 and MI6.
Cambridge spy ring On returning to London, Roberts asked his friend
Guy Liddell, deputy director of MI5, about a double agent who had been uncovered in Vienna. Roberts told him that he thought it likely that there would be a mole in MI5, and that anyone who had the right background, and was a member of the correct
clubs, would be above suspicion. He suggested that such a spy would probably be motivated by ideology rather than financial gain. Following this conversation Roberts felt that he himself had come under suspicion. After the
Cambridge spy ring, a group of double agents including
Guy Burgess,
Donald Maclean and
Kim Philby, were discovered by MI5, Roberts, who was then in Canada, was visited by Barry Russell Jones of MI5, who asked him about any suspicions he might have about his former colleagues. Roberts gave him the name "Tony", referring to
Anthony Blunt, who had already been identified as a member of the spy ring. Roberts was reportedly traumatised by Russell Jones's visit. It appears that he had had doubts about Blunt from a very early stage and had tried to raise his concerns in 1941. In a 14-page letter sent in 1969 to Harry Lee of MI5, Roberts wrote of his anxiety and frustration about his time in the service, and stated that he believed he had been followed and spied on by agents in London. He also wrote that he had not felt accepted by colleagues in MI5, since he had been educated at a state
grammar school, not at a
public school, and was not a university graduate. Harry Lee replied to Roberts, apologising for the visit in Canada and assuring him that he had not been under suspicion and had not been followed. ==Life after MI5==