Walter Greenway Spy and Hero: His Life Story

[Resurgam13]

Hello,

I've just finished reading "Walter Greenway Spy and Hero: His Life Story" * (Blackwood, 1917) and was left with the impression that it was mainly a work of fiction, with little basis in fact. I could find nothing on the web and wondered if any list-members could shed any light on the book?

Kind regards,

Geoffrey

* The plot concerns an Edwardian moral reprobate who repents and works undercover in Mesopotamia in 1916, losing an arm in the process, before his eventual death.

[Mark Hone]

Perhaps fittingly, this chap features in an intriguing mystery brought to my attention by a colleague at Trent College, Derbyshire. Their war memorial lists two people only by their initials. One of them is 'W.G' and, lo and behold, the said Walter Greenway turns out to be an old boy of the school; indeed his entry in a contemporary booklet about former pupils serving in the forces contains the soubriquet 'Spy and Hero'. Why on earth did they list a dead spy only by his initials on the war memorial but give his full name in a school publication? His identity was hardly a secret following the publication of the biography in 1917. The most famous name on the school war memorial is given in full; it is that of one Albert Ball VC.

About the other 'initials only' entry 'A.J.H', they have been able to discover absolutely nothing. Very strange.