The Frythe, a once-private residence that became home to Station IX during WW2.
The work of the SOE was of the highest class. They showed themselves capable of deeds of great daring; they had excellent intelligence; they used it well. They made a very great contribution to our war effort.” — Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill.
Station IX (originally known as the Inter-Services Research Bureau) was a highly classified British facility that produced special weapons and equipment for the Special Operations Executive (SOE) during the Second World War. The SOE was a secret British organization that operated during the war. It was formed in July 1940 by merging three existing departments that were involved in espionage, sabotage and irregular warfare. Its mission was to support resistance movements in occupied Europe and Asia against the Axis powers. The SOE was also known as the “Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare”.
Station IX was located at a mansion called The Frythe, near Welwyn Garden City, north of London. It was acquired by the British government in 1942 and converted into a secret research and development facility. Engineers at Station IX gave many of their projects the prefix “Wel-” (from “Welwyn”) as a homage to the location. Station IX was one of several similar workshops and laboratories throughout England during the war.
Station IX was commanded by Lieutenant Colonel John Dolphin, who was born in Christleton, a small village on the outskirts of Chester, on 1 October 1905. He attended Marlborough College, a boy’s boarding school in Wiltshire, then went on to Loughborough Engineering College as a student apprentice. He graduated in 1926 and joined a local company Hydraulic Engineering Co. in Chester, where he worked until 1928. He then worked as an inspector, an engineer and a sales manager for various companies until he set up his own business, John Dolphin Ltd, Consultants, in 1938.
Dolphin had joined the Marlborough College Contingent Junior Division Officers’ Training Corps as a cadet and became a second lieutenant 4th/5th Battalion the Cheshire Regiment (Territorial Army) on 27 April 1928, rising to lieutenant on 27 April 1931, and moving to the TA Reserve of Officers on 15 July 1931.
He was called up on 24 August 1939, just before the Second World War started in September 1939, and then received temporary promotions to captain, then to war substantive major and temporary lieutenant colonel in July 1942. His military rank was a disguise for his work in the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), where he was part of the “sabotage service” (Section D). In this role, he was involved in plans to create a resistance organization in the UK.
He became the Commanding Officer of Station IX in June 1943 where he designed and developed several machines for the SOE, such as the Welbike, a small foldable motorcycle that could be air-dropped for use by paratroops, the Welman, a one-man midget submarine that could attack enemy vessels (it proved to be unsuccessful in combat operations) and the Welfreighter, a larger midget submarine that could carry up to four passengers and 600 kg of cargo and could land and supply agents behind enemy lines. He received the Commander of the Order of the British Empire and the Territorial Decoration for his service. He retired from military service with the honorary rank of lieutenant colonel on 12 November 1960. He died on 2 May 1973 in Whitchurch-on-Thames, Oxfordshire.
Major H.Q.A Reeves was one of the most innovative and productive engineers at Station IX. He was born in Seaford Sussex in 1909 and attended Harrow and Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, where he studied engineering. During World War II, he invented many weapons and devices for the SOE, such as the Welrod, a simplified pistol with a built-in silencer that was used for assassination operations by irregular forces and resistance groups, the Sleeve gun, a gadget that concealed a small firearm under a long-sleeved coat or jacket; the Welgun, a basic submachine gun that was simple and cost-effective; and the Welbum, a device that provided motive power for parachutists who were dropped into water. He also designed the Motorised Submersible Canoe (MSC), an open submersible that enabled a single frogman to carry out clandestine reconnaissance or sabotage missions. He was also behind the silencer for the Sten gun, fluorescent night sights, and other inventions. He died in 1955 in a tragic accident while testing a jet engine silencer at RAF Bitteswell.
Another important person involved in Station IX was Professor D.M. Newitt, who was the Chief of Scientific Research at the facility. Newitt was born in London in 1894 and started working as an assistant chemist for Nobel in Scotland. He served in the East Surrey Regiment during the First World War and was awarded the Military Cross. He graduated from the Royal College of Science in London in 1921 and went on to postgraduate studies in chemical engineering at Imperial College, London. During the Second World War, he oversaw the secret research on a variety of topics, including military vehicles and equipment, explosives and technical sabotage, camouflage, biological and chemical warfare. He also collaborated with other scientists and experts from different fields and institutions to develop new technologies and techniques for the SOE. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1942. After the war, he became a professor of chemical engineering at Imperial College and later a pro-rector of the college until his retirement in 1961. He died in 1980 in Farnham, Surrey.
Station IX contributed significantly to the Allied war effort and demonstrated the importance of scientific research and development in warfare. James Bond creator Ian Fleming, who was a British naval intelligence officer during the war, visited Station IX several times and was impressed by the ingenuity and creativity of its staff. He later incorporated some of their ideas into his Bond stories. Station IX was also an inspiration for Q Branch, the fictional division of MI6 that supplies Bond with his equipment.
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