Some might say he had the perfect cover,. "A lone MI5 agent who neutralised hundreds of Nazis during the Second World War is today unmasked as a modest suburban bank clerk whose civilian bosses had considered him nothing ‘special’. The ‘genius’ undercover operative managed to infiltrate and control Nazi sympathisers living in England – preventing them from passing intelligence to Berlin. Information he prevented ever reaching Hitler’s henchmen included the need for a ‘renewed Blitz, with more bomb damage aimed at undermining public morale’. Until today, the agent had been known only by his pseudonym, Jack King. But SECURITY SERVICE files reveal his real identity was Eric Arthur Roberts, a father-of-two from Epsom. Born in 1907 and educated in Penzance, he spent 15 years working for Westminster Bank without managers noticing anything remarkable about his skills. Indeed, senior staff expressed surprise when the SECURITY SERVICE requested Roberts’ release in 1940. Assistant controller RW Jones wrote: ‘What we would like to know here is – what are the particular and especial qualifications of Mr Roberts – which we have not been able to perceive?’ In fact, he had been identified by Maxwell Knight – MI5’s top agent runner – as a potentially huge asset. One MI5 officer described Roberts as ‘thoroughly familiar with everything connected with the various pro-Nazi organisations in this country’. According to his personal record sheet, he had only a ‘slight’ knowledge of German, although he had twice visited the country on holidays in the 1930s. He had, however, somehow acquired a knowledge of the pro-Nazi groups operating in Britain in the period before the outbreak of the Second World War – although how he came to do so is not disclosed in the documents." http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2805753/Home-Counties-bank-clerk-genius-secret-agent-smoke-hundreds-Nazis-living-wartime-Britain.html#ixzz3H1HRMkJ9
