The Postcard
A postcard that was published by Wildt & Kray of London E.C. The card was printed in Saxony.
The card was posted in Dover using a ½d. stamp on Friday the 28th. August 1908 to:
Miss N. Noat,
'Walmstone',
Wingham,
Dover.
The message on the divided back was as follows:
"Dearest,
I have just had a full
afternoon and will now
wind up with a card to
you. I know you are
wanting this card.
Just let it be an emblem
for your life, Dear.
Look up, have faith in
God, He knows what is
best for each one of us.
'Through life's strange
windings dark or bright
Great Master joins thou.
Then in the path that
leads today we follow
Thee.'
Hope you are feeling
better this afternoon.
Fond love,
M."
Edith Tudor-Hart
So what else happened on the day that the card was posted?
Well, the 28th. August 1908 marked the birth in Vienna, Austria of Edith Tudor-Hart.
Edith Tudor-Hart (née Suschitzky) was an Austrian-British photographer and spy for the Soviet Union. Brought up in a family of socialists, she trained in photography at Walter Gropius's Bauhaus in Dessau, and carried her political ideals through her art.
She recommended Litzi Friedmann and Kim Philby for recruitment by the KGB.
Through her connections with Arnold Deutsch, Tudor-Hart was instrumental in the recruiting of the Cambridge Spy ring which damaged British intelligence from World War II until the security services discovered all their identities by the mid-1960's.
Edith Tudor-Hart - The Early Years
Edith's father, Wilhelm Suschitzky (1877–1934), was a social democrat who was born into the Jewish community in Vienna, but had renounced Judaism and become an atheist. He opened the first social democratic bookshop in Vienna (later to become a publishing house).
Tudor-Hart's brother Wolfgang, a filmmaker and a photographer like his sister, described their father as:
"A great man. I realised that later
on in life, not so much when I saw
him every day.
But, I met interesting people, some
of his authors who came and had
lunch with us, or met people who
came to his shop."
Edith studied photography at the Bauhaus in Dessau in 1928 before working in Vienna, taking photographs of working class districts while working as a Montessori kindergarten teacher. An anti-fascist activist and Communist, she saw photography as a tool for disseminating her political ideas.
Her brother became a well-known photographer and cinematographer in Great Britain. He cited his sister as an influence on his decision to pursue an artistic career over a scientific one.
Marriage
In 1933 Edith married medical doctor Alex Tudor-Hart, whom she had met in 1925. She was described by those who knew her in her youth as:
"Immensely vivacious, amusing,
curious, and gifted".
The couple fled to London in 1933 so that Edith could avoid prosecution and persecution in Austria for her Communist activities and Jewish background.
South Wales
Following her marriage, Edith moved to South Wales where her husband practised as a GP in the Rhondda Valley. She began to produce photographs for The Listener, The Social Scene and Design Today, dealing with issues such as refugees from the Spanish Civil War and industrial decline in the north-east of England.
From the late 1930's, she concentrated more on social needs, such as housing policy and the care of disabled children. This change in work may have been because after separation from her husband who had just returned from the Spanish Civil War, she had a breakdown and their son, Tommy, developed schizophrenia.
Spying Activities
Tudor-Hart was instrumental in recruiting members of the Cambridge Spy ring. While working as a photographer she also acted as a courier. Her rather unsubtle codename was "Edith".
Tudor-Hart had met Arnold Deutsch in Vienna in 1926, and with him she worked in the OMS, the International Liaison Department of the Comintern.
Tudor-Hart was placed under surveillance by Special Branch after October 1931 when she was observed attending a demonstration in Trafalgar Square. Tudor-Hart was of interest because of her friendship with Litzi Friedmann, made when she moved to London.
Arnold Deutsch discussed with Edith and Litzi the recruitment of Soviet spies. Litzi suggested her husband, Kim Philby with whom she had arrived in London from Vienna in May 1934. Tudor-Hart had spotted him as a potential Communist agent during his stay in Vienna, where he was a sympathiser of the Social Democrats who waged a civil war against the government of Engelbert Dollfuss.
According to her report on Philby's file, through her own contacts with the Austrian underground Tudor Hart ran a swift check for the NKVD and, when this proved positive introduced him to "Otto" (Deutsch's code name). Deutsch immediately recommended:
"That he pre-empt the standard operating
procedure by authorising a preliminary
personal sounding-out of Philby."
In 1938–39 Burgess used her to contact Russian intelligence in Paris.
Edith also acted as an intermediary for Anthony Blunt and Bob Stewart when the rezidentura at the Soviet Embassy in London suspended its operations in February 1940.
Edith Tudor-Hart - The Later Years
After WWII, Edith opened an antique shop in Brighton. She died of stomach cancer at the age of 64 in Brighton on the 12th. May 1973.
UPS
Also on that day, the American Messenger Company, as predecessor of United Parcel Service, was founded in Washington, United States.