thumb|Captain Sigismund Payne Best, with monocle (1939)
Captain Sigismund Payne Best OBE (14 April 1885 – 21 September 1978) was a British Secret Intelligence Service agent during the First and Second World Wars. He was captured by German Gestapo and Sicherheitsdienst (SD) men on 9 November 1939 in the Venlo Incident.
Early life
Born in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, and raised at 26 Strawberry Hill Road, Twickenham, Middlesex, Best was the son of Downing College, Cambridge (B.A. 1871, M.B. 1878), and St George's Hospital-educated physician George Payne Best (1844-1907), M.R.C.S., and his wife Catherine Sophia (née Allison). His paternal grandmother was the daughter of an Indian maharajah and a British woman; this was kept a closely guarded family secret. After studying science in London, Best worked as a businessman. In 1908, he went to study violin at the Music Academy of Lausanne. He then studied economics and musicology at the University of Munich, graduating in both in 1913. In Munich, he acquired an excellent knowledge of the German language. Back in England, he went as a volunteer into the army. His first wife, Dorothy Stallwood Adams, died in 1918.
Captain Best was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) and awarded the Belgian Croix de Guerre.
Life in the Netherlands
thumbnail|Nieuwe Uitleg: the street in The Hague where Best had his office in 1939
After his demobilisation in 1919, Best returned to the Netherlands, where he and his partner in business and intelligence, P.N. van der Willik, set up a British firm, called the Continental Trade Service, also called Pharmisan, a trading company, mainly in pharmaceutical products, and a consultancy agency for British businessmen. In 1919, he married Margaretha van Rees, a Dutch painter.
Living in a prime residential location in The Hague, he was known as a serious British businessman. Best's cover was a thin one. Although he was married to a Dutch wife, his tall figure, spats and monocle made him, in the eyes of many Dutchmen, the embodiment of a British spy. At times he would think it safe to confide that this presumption was wholly justified.
Kidnapping
In any case, not only were the talks a complicated German bluff, but the entire operation was brought to an abrupt end. Himmler had decided, over Schellenberg's objections, to have the British operatives abducted; the attempt by Georg Elser to assassinate Hitler at the Bürgerbräukeller, believed by Himmler to be the result of British machinations, forced the matter. The next day, in a daring and violent abduction, Best and Stevens were kidnapped from the Café Backus on the outskirts of Venlo; Klop was fatally wounded in the shootout with German agents and rushed to Berlin. Under interrogation,<!--torture?--> Best and Stevens gave up detailed information on British espionage activities. Worse, Stevens was carrying on him a plaintext list of SIS agents in Europe.
During his imprisonment, he came into contact with a number of famous figures, including not only Elser, but also the famed theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, whose last message he relayed to Bonhoeffer's friend George Bell. Bell and Bonhoeffer's efforts to interest the British government in supporting German anti-Nazi forces failed in large part because of Churchill's distaste for Chamberlain's actions and the fear of another Venlo Incident. In late April 1945, Best was on the transport to Tyrol where he was liberated by regular German troops under the Command of Wichard von Alvensleben.
Life after World War II
After the war, Best ran an import-export business in The Hague dealing in Humber bicycles.
References
Sources
- Andrew, Christopher. "The Mobilization of British Intelligence for the Two World Wars" in the Collection Mobilization for Total War: The Canadian, American, and British Experience
- Owen, David. Hidden Secrets: The Complete History of Espionage and the Technology Used to Support It