Philip Leslie Johns' secret life as a British Secret Service agent revealed
Devon born and bred Philip Leslie Johns, a British Secret Service agent, led a double life, with his wife unaware of his undercover activities, until their subsequent separation in 1928.
The amazing story of a man with a home in Torquay while being a member of the British Secret Service in late nineteen thirties. Philip Leslie Johns was born in Exeter in Devon on January 18th1900 to father and mother Philip Charles and Mary Mabel Johns living then residing at Ebrington Terrace St Thomas in the city of Exeter. By age seventeen Philip was in the Royal Navy and was on the vessel HMS George V – serving as a Paymaster Assistant. In July 1917 he was promoted to Paymaster and two years later would then be promoted again just after the end of the First World War. With the war lover at age only nineteen Philip was serving as Paymaster Midshipman on the naval ship HMS Curacao. For past services earned during the First World War Philip earned and was awarded two British medals which were not presented to him until after his final promotion in 1919 when made an Officer in the Naval Military service where he remained for until taking voluntary retirement in 1922 when formally serving as a Paymaster Lieutenant.
Having retired to civilian life Philip now married Amelia Sarah Coldridge (Millie) who was born in Teignmouth Devon although that married him at St Judes Church Kensington in London in 1923. They now spent their earliest years together residing in Belgium where it is likely Philip was first recruited by British the Military Intelligence (M16) though their so-called Brussels Station. Having only recently retired from the British Naval Military Service as an Officer this probably was why our Secret Services (MI6) had approached Philip as generally it only recruited from those serving in another serving an arm of the British Forces. We know his wife was always unaware of Philips “undercover activities for MI6” although from retrieved correspondence later we learned she had observed her husband “often met some very strange people” which in time gave her concern and an element of distrust. It may well have been this that eventually became a factor in the couples subsequent separation during 1928. Millie in not appreciating her husbands secret role was also likely to not know he had been awarded two medals for an “intelligence role during the First World War”. It is a fact that he was given both the British War Medal and Victory Cross during 1919 “in recognition of his service during World War 1”. Meanwhile they eventually separated and in having no children remained legally married until finally the divorce absolute was issued in 1932.
It would be later that year Philip met and then married his second wife Dorothy Elliott who had been born in Canada though married Philip in Paris in 1932. They eventually made a home in Britain at Torquay after purchasing an apartment in Ellington Court Apartments in St. Lukes Road North, Torquay. Now their first child Angela was born in 1933 and before a year later a second child Michael David was born in 1934. Both children were born in Mount Stuart Maternity Home then not far distant from Ellington Court in St.Lukes Road North.
During the immediate years before the Second World war Philip in retaining his undercover status travelled widely. On one occasion he was in Florida in America where it was even recorded in 1936 “he had a residence at Vero Beach, Indian River Florida”. On his return to Torquay he then went to Le Havre France before finally undertaking the long flight back to America and even visited New York. Eventually he returned to Torquay in the knowledge that a Second World War with Germany was approaching and immediately set about making arrangements for his wife and children to go abroad. The first to leave Torquay was his son Michael who as a four year child was taken by his mother Dorothy to live in America with the Fenton family. David Fenton had been the President of the Fisk Tyre Export Company based in London when Philip worked their. It was an American owned export company that had afforded him credibility (for the undercover activities) for his wide travelling activities on behalf of the manufacturing and export company. The company would later be taken over by the American giant Goodyear Company at which time David Fenton retired and returned to his American home. Meanwhile Michael was safely delivered to the Fenton family before Dorothy then returned to Torquay to make arrangements for their older child Angela and indeed herself to move abroad. This time it would be to Canada where Dorothy and Angela remained safely living in her sisters home until the threat of war or indeed war itself was over.