William Forbes-Sempill, 19th Lord Sempill

Born at the family seat of Craigievar Castle in Aberdeenshire, Sempill was educated at Eton, although in November 1907, having studied there for a year, he ran away, eventually making it to Craigievar before being discovered. Following this incident, he was privately tutored. In 1910, Sempill was apprenticed to Rolls-Royce. ==Military and civil aviation==

At the outbreak of war, Sempill joined Royal Flying Corps, being granted a probationary commission as a second lieutenant on 15 August 1914, which was confirmed less than four months later. In the meantime Sempill was appointed to flying duties. The following year, in February, Sempill took up a position as an "experimental officer" at the Central Flying School, and he received a promotion to lieutenant in April. Less than four months later he was appointed a flight commander with the temporary rank of captain. In August 1915, he was appointed to instructional duties. Sempill's time at the Central Flying School was not to last, as he relinquished his Army commission at the end of the year on being accepted for temporary service in the Royal Naval Air Service. Sempill's rapid rise through the ranks continued in the Navy, and at the close of 1916 he was promoted to squadron commander. On 1 April 1918, with the amalgamation of both flying services into the Royal Air Force, Sempill was transferred, and was appointed one of several deputy directors in the RAF's personnel department with the temporary rank of colonel. He was awarded the Air Force Cross in the 1918 Birthday Honours. Sempill stayed at the Air Ministry until 8 October 1918, when he was seconded to the Ministry of Munitions. On the cessation of hostilities, he became a test pilot, and he retired from military service in 1919. On 26 March 1936, he made a record-breaking flight in a BAC Drone ultra-light aircraft (G-ADPJ) 570 miles from Croydon Airport direct to Berlin Tempelhof Airport in 11 hours. He flew back a day or so later in 9 hours though he interrupted the flight with a stop at Canterbury, Kent. In early 1931, Sempill was appointed chairman of National Flying Services, the government-subsidised owner and operator of London Air Park, Hanworth. On 22 March 1931, he hosted a visit by members of the Japanese Royal Family and the Japanese Ambassador to Britain. He arranged and hosted a widely publicised visit of the German airship LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin to Hanworth on 18 August 1931. On 2 July 1932, the airship returned as part of a round-Britain tour. ==Japanese spy==

Beginnings In 1920, he led a civilian British deputation of former naval airmen to Japan – the Air Ministry and the Foreign Office saw the prospect for lucrative arms contracts with Japan – to help develop aircraft carriers, after the Japanese had bought three Supermarine Channel flying boats. Sempill was well respected within Japanese circles, and received a personal letter from Prime Minister Tomosaburo Kato (1922–1923), thanking him for his work with the Imperial Japanese Navy, which he described as "almost epoch-making." With the termination of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance in 1921, Sempill should have ended close military contact and discussions regarding naval aviation technology and tactics. However, on his return to the United Kingdom in 1923, Sempill kept in contact with the Japanese Foreign Ministry through the Japanese Embassy in London. Suspicion and questioning . In 1925, Sempill accompanied a mission of foreign air officials to the Blackburn Aircraft factory at Brough, East Yorkshire. The Japanese had previously asked questions about aircraft being developed. Sempill later asked the same questions, in his official capacity, about the then-secret Blackburn Iris. On 28 February 1934, he succeeded his father, John Forbes-Sempill, 18th Lord Sempill, as Lord Sempill and Baronet of Craigevar. His wife Eileen, who had accompanied him on many of his air tours, died in July 1935. Sempill had "an affinity with militarist right-wing regimes". On discovering that Makihara was in custody, Sempill telephoned and then called at Paddington police station to assure the police of Makihara's innocence and character. Sempill was also probably passing on detailed information about the British government. In August 1941, Winston Churchill and President Franklin D. Roosevelt held a meeting in Newfoundland aboard HMS Prince of Wales to discuss the military threat posed by the Japanese. Soon after, communications between the Japanese embassy in London and Tokyo were deciphered by the Bletchley Park code breakers. The decrypted messages were transcripts of the conference notes. When passed to an alarmed Churchill, he called them "pretty accurate stuff". Three months later, more notes from Churchill's personal agenda and inner circle were intercepted as they were being sent by the Japanese Embassy in London to the Foreign Ministry in Tokyo. Privately, Churchill concluded with Anthony Eden that only two men could be the source of such leaks: Commander McGrath or Lord Sempill. On 9 October 1941, a signed note from Churchill read: "Clear him out while time remains." The following week the Admiralty told Sempill he must either resign or be sacked. After Sempill made an official protest, Churchill backtracked. The Prime Minister told the Admiralty: "I had not contemplated Lord Sempill being required to resign his commission, but only to be employed elsewhere in the Admiralty." A subsequent note from Churchill's aide Desmond Morton, dated 17 October 1941, outlined the new position: "The First Sea Lord ... proposes to offer him a post in the North of Scotland. I have suggested to Lord Swinton that MI5 should be informed in due course so they may take any precautions necessary." On 13 December 1941, six days after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Sempill's office was raided. A search revealed secret documents that he should have handed back to the Admiralty over three weeks earlier. Two days later, Sempill was discovered making phone calls to the Japanese Embassy. Despite the evidence of treason in wartime (see Treachery Act 1940), no arrest or prosecution was ordered; Sempill agreed to retire from public office. ==Personal life==

In 1919, Sempill married Eileen Marion Lavery, (1890–1935) daughter of the Irish painter Sir John Lavery. He was her second husband, having divorced her first husband in Tangiers after having a daughter Diana with him. The Sempill's first daughter, Ann Moira, was born in 1920. Their second daughter, June Mary, was born in 1922, and was killed aged 18 as a result of enemy action on 11 May 1941 – the last day of the Blitz – at 15 Basil Street, London. She had been serving with the WVS Mobile Canteen Service. Six years after his wife's death from tuberculosis in 1935, They had three daughters, Kirstine Elizabeth, Janet Cecilia and Brigid Gabriel who married Jeremy Menuhin. Sempill converted to Roman Catholicism in the early 1930s. He was also a druid and a Cornish bard. ==Later years and death==

In 1944, Lord Sempill called on the Premier of Nova Scotia, Alexander Stirling MacMillan, in Halifax, and he offered to buy a part of the province. In 1956, the Swedish government awarded him the Order of the Polar Star. At various times he was president of the British Gliding Association and of the Institute of Advanced Motorists. In 1963, he sold Craigievar Castle to the National Trust for Scotland. He died in Edinburgh on 30 December 1965. His daughter, Ann, inherited the Sempill peerage, as it was one that could be passed to a female heir. However, the baronetcy, which could only be inherited in the male line, passed to his younger sibling, Ewan Forbes, who had been registered at birth and raised as female, but lived as a man, and had his birth re-registered as male. This inheritance was challenged on grounds of sex by a cousin, John Forbes-Sempill, but upheld in the courts. ==Legacy==

It was not until the release of intelligence records by the Public Record Office in 1998 and 2002 that Sempill's activities as a spy during the war and in the 1920s respectively became common knowledge. Sempill's motives and activities, as well as accusations of spying, are still a subject of academic debate. Sempill's motives remain unclear. The National Archives states that "on the evidence of these [1920s] files", Sempill's activities on behalf of the militaristic Japanese and Fascist contacts were less from any desire to help the enemy but more motivated by his own impetuous character, obstinacy, and flawed judgement. In correspondence of the early 1940s, between Churchill's office, the Attorney General and the Director of Public Prosecutions, it is observed that Sempill had debts and an overdraft in excess of £13,000 (equivalent to £750,000 in 2012). ==Honours and arms==

• Air Force Cross (AFC) • 3rd Class of Commander in the Order of the Rising Sun, Japan. • Order of the Polar Star, Sweden. Coat of arms ==See also==