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[[File:Major Richard Henry Stevens (1939).jpg|thumb|Major Richard Henry Stevens (1939)]]<br />
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'''Richard Henry Stevens''' (9 April 1893 – 12 February 1967) was a [[major]] in the [[British Indian Army]] and from 1939 Head of the Passport Control Office (PCO) of the British [[Secret Intelligence Service]] in the [[Netherlands]]. His name is closely associated with the [[Venlo Incident]] in 1939.<ref name="vi">''[http://www.mythoselser.de/texts/stevens.htm Richard Henry Stevens]'', www.venlo-zwischenfall.de {{in lang|de}}</ref><br />
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==Background and earlier life==<br />
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Stevens mastered [[Arabic]], [[Hindustani language|Hindustani]], and [[Malayalam|Malay]], and until 1939 worked as an Intelligence Officer in India. That year he was transferred to Europe and put in charge of the SIS station in [[The Hague]].<ref name="ODNB">D. Cameron Watt, ‘[[Best, Sigismund Payne]] (1885–1978)’, [[Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]], Oxford University Press, 2004</ref> His second language was Greek and he also spoke excellent German, French and Russian but he had no specific training or experience of intelligence gathering in Europe.<br />
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==Abduction at the Venlo Incident==<br />
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In November 1939 he was abducted to Germany in the [[Venlo Incident]] with Captain [[Sigismund Payne Best]]. It has been suggested that he may then have revealed vital secrets about the Secret Intelligence Service under interrogation. In any event, the inexperienced Stevens was carrying on his person a plain-text list of SIS agents when he was abducted.<br />
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The two officers were imprisoned for over five years in [[Sachsenhausen concentration camp|Sachsenhausen]] and [[Dachau Concentration Camp|Dachau]] concentration camps before their release in April 1945.<ref>Peter Koblank: ''[http://www.mythoselser.de/niederdorf.htm Die Befreiung der Sonder- und Sippenhäftlinge in Südtirol]'', Online-Edition Mythos Elser 2006 {{in lang|de}}</ref> Nazi propaganda portrayed Best and Stevens as the alleged masterminds of the [[Bürgerbräukeller|Beer Hall]] attempt to assassinate [[Adolf Hitler]] by [[Georg Elser]].<br />
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==Later life==<br />
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Stevens retired from the Indian army as a [[lieutenant-colonel]] on the 26 February 1946, having been promoted to that rank during his captivity.<ref>London Gazette 12 April 1946, page 1864</ref> He then worked as a translator at [[NATO]] in Paris and London between 1951 and 1952. He died of cancer in 1967.<ref name="vi" /><br />
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==See also==<br />
* [[Sigismund Payne Best#Second World War intelligence work]]<br />
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==Notes==<br />
{{Reflist}}<br />
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==References==<br />
*Best, Sigismund Payne : ''The Venlo Incident'', London 1950<br />
*Brown, Anthony Cave: ''Bodyguard of Lies'', New York 1975 (Deutsch: ''Die unsichtbare Front'', München 1976) (German: ''The invisible front'', Munich 1976)<br />
*Deac, Wil: "The Venlo Sting", ''World War II Magazine'' 1/1997, New York 1997<br />
*Deacon, Richard/West, Nigel: ''Spy!'', London 1980<br />
*Haag 1949 ''Enquêtecommissie Regeringsbeleid 1940-1945'', 8 parts of 1949–56, Part 2 a, b, c, The Hague 1949<br />
*Graaff, Bob de: ''The Venlo Incident'', World War Investigator 13/1990, London 1990<br />
*Kessler, Leo: ''Betrayal at Venlo'', London 1991<br />
*Nater, Johan P.: ''Het Venlo incident'', Rotterdam 1984<br />
*Peis, Günter : ''The Man Who Started The War'', London 1960<br />
*Posthumus Meyjes, Herman C.: ''De Enquêtecommissie is van oordeel - een Samenvatting van het onderzoek naar het parlementaire de regeringsbeleid in oorloogsjaren'', Arnhem / Amsterdam 1958<br />
*Schellenberg, Walter: ''The Schellenberg Memoirs'', London 1956 (German Records, Munich 1979)<br />
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Stevens, Richard, Henry}}<br />
[[Category:1893 births]]<br />
[[Category:1967 deaths]]<br />
[[Category:World War II espionage]]<br />
[[Category:Secret Intelligence Service personnel]]<br />
[[Category:British Indian Army officers]]<br />
[[Category:Sachsenhausen concentration camp survivors]]<br />
[[Category:Dachau concentration camp survivors]]<br />
[[Category:British World War II prisoners of war]]<br />
[[Category:World War II prisoners of war held by Germany]]<br />
[[Category:Indian Army personnel of World War I]]<br />
[[Category:Indian Army personnel of World War II]]</div>Bot