Hard Lying: An Intelligence Office on the Levantine Shore, 1914-1919 - Lewen Weldon

£14.99

Lewen Weldon was mapping the eastern desert of Egypt when World War I broke out. A fluent Arabic speaker, he was recruited to run a network of spies and confidential agents who were landed from a steam yacht onto the Syrian coast behind Turkish lines. He took his men to the shore in small boats at night, which also allowed him to land and conduct personal interviews before returning back through the surf. This vivid tale of adventure becomes eyewitness history as we encounter Armenians escaping the massacres, passionate Arab nationalists, resolute Turkish soldiers and a heroic network of Jewish volunteers. Weldon’s modesty and self-deprecating Irish wit, complete with a few prejudices, take us to the vivid heart of his experience, in which each man depended for his life on his colleagues. This is a story that simply had to be told. “We were extraordinarily lucky with our agents. I don’t think more than seven were actually captured. Six of these were hanged and one had his head cut off.”

With a biographical afterword by Barnaby Rogerson.

‘An Irish surveyor unexpectedly finds himself Captain of a spy ship dropping and retrieving secret agents along the Levant coast during WWI.  A Lawrence of the sea, Weldon’s memoirs are vivid, spiced with courage, knowledge and humanity; a gripping read, as well as a core document of British military intelligence in the Levant.’ T. J. Gorton

Lewen Weldon was mapping the eastern desert of Egypt when World War I broke out. A fluent Arabic speaker, he was recruited to run a network of spies and confidential agents who were landed from a steam yacht onto the Syrian coast behind Turkish lines. He took his men to the shore in small boats at night, which also allowed him to land and conduct personal interviews before returning back through the surf. This vivid tale of adventure becomes eyewitness history as we encounter Armenians escaping the massacres, passionate Arab nationalists, resolute Turkish soldiers and a heroic network of Jewish volunteers. Weldon’s modesty and self-deprecating Irish wit, complete with a few prejudices, take us to the vivid heart of his experience, in which each man depended for his life on his colleagues. This is a story that simply had to be told. “We were extraordinarily lucky with our agents. I don’t think more than seven were actually captured. Six of these were hanged and one had his head cut off.”

With a biographical afterword by Barnaby Rogerson.

‘An Irish surveyor unexpectedly finds himself Captain of a spy ship dropping and retrieving secret agents along the Levant coast during WWI.  A Lawrence of the sea, Weldon’s memoirs are vivid, spiced with courage, knowledge and humanity; a gripping read, as well as a core document of British military intelligence in the Levant.’ T. J. Gorton

Hard Lying: An Intelligence Officer on the Levantine Shore, 1914-1919
ISBN: 978-1-78060-199-1
Format: 256pp demi pb
Place: Levantine Shore

Author Biography

Lewen Weldon always defined himself as an Irishman. He was born in England, on 15 October 1875, the fourth child of Rev Lewen Burton Weldon.  Lewen’s father was Anglo-Irish, part of the land-owning, Protestant ascendancy who could trace their family history back to English settlers coming over in the 17th century. Lewen’s father had grown up in Ireland, one of eleven children.  Lewen’s mother, Olivia Maria Barrington was also Anglo-Irish.  It was typical of such families that the eldest son inherited the land and the younger brothers sought employment in one the professions, typically either in the church, the military or colonial administration. Hard Lying describes most of Lewen’s activities between 1914-1919 as he witnessed them.  He does not record the work of his colleagues.  He was the amphibian, always conscious that his work was balanced by an additional stream of land-based intelligence provided by Parker Pasha infiltrating the desert frontier.  Weldon was awarded the Military Cross in 1918, ‘for an unusual combination of service on land and sea.’ In 1919 he returned to his old job and was quickly promoted to become the Surveyor-General of Egypt from 1919-1923.