Stonehouse: Cabinet Minister, Fraudster, Spy

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These soon failed, for a number of reasons varying from an economic downturn to Stonehouse simply using them as personal bank accounts.

British MP John Stonehouse appears to have begun his political career as an idealist but greed got the better of him.The lengths and heartless lies of the betrayal and deception John Stonehouse would tell and go through to become one of Britain’s notorious leaders/enemy, is incomprehensible. It was incontestable that he had faked his own death, but he was still holding on to the title of MP 20 months later. I read the paperback edition and have since compared to the original hardback as reference was made to some editing issues and it seems those have been dealt with. Being a former RAF pilot and the son of a Labour mayor of Southampton helped lubricate his ascent in the party.

Either Stonehouse was not as clever as he thought – or too clever for his own good making this one of the most bizarre non-fiction stories I have read to date. Thus began a long and peculiar back and forth between the UK and Australia – neither of whom wanted to be caught up in Stonehouse’s drama.After painstakingly taken the time to create a new identity (in fact two) he then concocted a plan to fake his own death. The book is a breezy read, up to the trial, fairly sprinting through Stonehouse’s live, up to the point he did that which made him famous.

The StB file on him, which became available for scrutiny after the end of the cold war, contains a litany of complaints that he became elusive and uncooperative, especially after suspicion fell on Owen. The biggest point of difference between them is whether Stonehouse was, as many have since concluded, an agent for the eastern bloc. If you haven’t studied all the evidence first hand, as I haven’t, it is not possible to properly judge who is right, but she makes that part of her case with vigour.His daughter over-protests her case when she claims he was “killed by human cruelty” and expresses a wish that he had got away with his disappearance.