Published on:
08
October 2007
At 7.30pm on Wednesday 10th October in the Tommy Downs Room, Alloa Town Hall, there will be an interesting and unusual lecture - The Balloonist and the Housewife. The speaker will be Janet Morgan, Lady Balfour of Burleigh.
The lecture will be based on Lady Balfour's recent book The Secrets of Rue St Roch, which tells the exciting story of Captain George Bruce (later Lord Balfour of Burleigh and father of the present Lord Balfour) and the underground espionage mission which he set up behind enemy lines. Based at No 41, Rue St Roch in Paris in 1917, as war raged across Europe, he organised a spy ring of intrepid and fearless men and women, including housewife turned code expert Madame Lise Rischard, schoolmaster and journalist Joseph Hansen and the dashing Belgian adventurer and balloonist Baschwitz Meau. They all risked their lives to infiltrate German-held territory in an amazing intelligence-gathering operation.
Captain Bruce kept a set of files from his Paris office, papers which were lost for over fifty years and only rediscovered in 1995. Official War Office records had been destroyed in 1919 and during the Second World War, so the documents kept by Captain Bruce are very important. They enabled Janet Morgan to reconstruct a full account of her late father-in-law's espionage mission, from the original daring idea to its successful execution. The research involved searching for his agents' descendants, deciphering coded letters and secret reports, looking at maps, timetables, moonlight diagrams, as well as learning about railways, pigeons, espionage and ballooning! Meticulously researched, her book tells an enthralling story of loyalty, ingenuity and remarkable bravery.
Janet Morgan is an historian, whose other books include the Crossman Diaries and the authorized biographies of Agatha Christie and Edwina Mountbatten. She is also a director of several public companies and has a long-standing interest in museums. She lives in Clackmannanshire.
Lord and Lady Balfour are Friends of Clackmannanshire Museum and Heritage Service and we are delighted that Lady Balfour is coming to give this very special lecture, which has been arranged by and for the Friends but is also open to non-members. We would like to welcome everyone to attend what will be a very intriguing talk. All we ask is that people make a small donation to the work of the Friends. Refreshments will be available.
For further details please contact Susan Mills at Clackmannanshire Council Museum and Heritage Service, Speirs Centre, Primrose Street, Alloa (01259 216913).