July 2025
- Phil Hadley
- Jul 1
- 5 min read
One of the amazing and intriguing men of World War Two that I had the privilege to meet through my father’s work as a Christian evangelist was Charles, who to all intents and purposes was just a retired farmer. I remember being with my father on two visits to Charles’ home in North Devon. On the first the family, mum and kids, sat in the car while dad disappeared inside for what seemed like ages, but when father left Charles accompanied him to the car and greeted the family.
On the second occasion I was a little older and it was just my father and I and so we were both invited into the cottage situated between the pub and the churchyard. While Charles and Dad spoke about church matters I sat quietly my eyes scanning the room with its oak beams for clues of this man’s wartime past. He must have guessed my curiosity for at the end of the conversation he disappeared and came back with a pen that he asked me to unscrew. I took the top off and held it out for him. He showed me that when unscrewed correctly it revealed a compass. He asked me to unscrew a shaving brush. I couldn’t. That one unscrewed on a reverse thread revealing a secret cavity that Charles said was used to hide a map and a compass. He gave me a clothes brush and challenged me to see what I could find. Failing to see any crack that would indicate it could be twisted open I gave up. He showed me that when the pad of bristles was removed it revealed a space for a double edged saw.
I was agog for this white haired old man was none other than the real life inspiration for Q in the James Bond films, played, at that time, by Desmond Llewelyn. This man was Charles Fraser-Smith.
He was born in 1904 in Folkestone, Kent. He and his three siblings lost their father when Charles was aged 7 and for reasons unknown were adopted by their uncle and aunt Frank and Edith Piper who lived at Croxley Green in Hertfordshire. Their mother appears later in official records working as a housemistress for some family friends but it is not known why she didn’t bring the children up. The Pipers were Christians attending the open brethren assembly in Croxley Green and took their parental roles seriously.
Charles was educated at Watford Grammar School and Brighton College although his aptitude was for the more practical subjects. When his brother became a Christian at a Crusader Camp and then began to share his faith on the family holiday at Littlehampton that followed Charles also committed his life to Christ – a commitment that lasted a lifetime and informed all he did and was.
Rejecting careers in medicine and engineering Charles went farming and then after 3 years went to Morocco as a pioneering agricultural missionary in 1926, aged just 22, where he ran an experimental farm. He married Blanche Ellis from Yorkshire who was also working in Morocco in Christian work in 1930. Their son Brian was born in 1932 and later a daughter Christine. In 1936 the two set up an orphanage and got the boys trained on the farm setting them up with skills for life.
Charles and Blanche were still working in Morocco when war was declared and once France fell and the Vichy Regime was established they decided they could not see their farm produce go to the Nazis and so decided to return to the UK sailing into Liverpool on a Norwegian vessel.
Sir John Laing provided them with a home in Harrow. Charles’ first wartime role was a dispatch rider for Civil Defence. One night at the beginning of the Blitz he was detailed to take an engineer as pillion on his motorbike to inspect an unexploded bomb. Charles left the engineer assessing the situation and went to phone the bomb disposal squad. When he returned the delayed timer bomb had exploded killing the engineer outright.
Charles then got a job with Avro at their underground factory in Yeadon in Yorkshire. Blanche and the family joined him living with her parents in Leeds. In giving a talk about his work in Morocco to a brethren church in Leeds, Charles was unaware that in his audience was not only a university lecturer called F.F. Bruce who went on to become a renowned professor of Biblical Criticism, but also the Director of the Ministry of Supply in Leeds, G Ritchie Rice, and Sir George Oliver, Director General of the Ministry of Supply in London.
Charles was summoned to Rice’s office the following evening and grilled on some of the more unusual aspects of his work in Morocco. He was offered, and accepted, a job in the Ministry of Supply in Leeds. Within 3 weeks both he and Rice were moved to London and Charles took up a new role in Portland House in Tothill Street. With a front of working for a department known as Clothing & Textiles for the Armed Forces, Charles and those who worked under him were known as CT6. Charles was to run a supply operation in highly specialised goods and gadgets for secret agents, spies, resistance workers, POWs and the like. Orders came from MI6, MI9, SOE, SAS and other clandestine groups such as the OSS.
Charles’ gadgets have become legendary and you’ll find details of them in his books and on the internet. His gadgets helped photograph V! and V2 rocket launch sites including in some cases the plans for them, carry the body of The Man Who Never Was in Operation Mincemeat, equipped many agents operating behind enemy lines, helped many downed pilots evade capture and aided the escape of many POWs. One can understand why as a young teen sat in this man’s home being shown three of his wartime gadgets I was in awe.
When peace came Charles continued to work for the M.O.S. for two years before leaving to buy Aylescott Farm in the north Devon countryside not too far from Barnstaple. He continued his experimental agricultural work gaining an international reputation as well as his support for missionary work.
Blanche died in the 1960s from leukaemia, her diagnosis in 1963 causing Charles to leave the farm in the capable hands of his son Brian. Charles remarried Selina (known as Lin) Richardson from Lincolnshire. He did a wide range of charity work for groups like the United Nations Association and the Bible Society and became an author of several books in his later years revealing his wartime service to many for the first time. Charles died on 9th November 1992 at his home aged 88.
My father described him as a humble man with a keen brain which he applied to any and every problem he came across including those which precipitated my father’s visits to him for his counsel. His quiet contribution to the Allied victory cannot be understated. Neither can his lifetime of work for the kingdom of God. I consider it a privilege to be able to say I met him.
It is still possible to get second hand copies of his books on auction/resale sites with prices ranging from about £8 to £250 for some of the rarer ones with his signature and “Q”. For further reading I would recommend:
The Man Who Was “Q”: The Life of Charles Fraser-Smith by David Porter;
The Secret War of Charles Fraser-Smith by Charles Fraser-Smith with Gerald McKnight & Sandy Lesberg;
Secret Warriors by Charles Fraser-Smith with Kevin Logan;
Men of Faith in the Second World War by Charles Fraser-Smith.
Until next month, shalom.
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