Wales' Unknown Hero - Soldier, Spy, Monk

Bernard Lewis lives in Neath. He has a Diploma in Local History from the University of Wales (Swansea) and is the author of five books on Swansea/Neath local history, including Swansea and the Workhouse – The Poor Law in Victorian Swansea, Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths Around Swansea and Swansea in the Great War.

"Bernard Lewis has written an engaging biography of a man of great gifts which is of both historical and personal value to the reader." - The Guards Magazine"A real life Welsh James Bond." - Neil Prior, BBC NewsThe astonishing biography of Henry Coombe-Tennant (1913–89), whose family lived at Cadoxton Lodge near Neath and created Port Tennant at Swansea. Henry's mother, Winifred Coombe-Tennant, was a well-known suffragette, political campaigner and psychic medium, and he was the result of her extra-marital affair with the brother of the Prime Minister. According to Winifred, her spirit-world contacts claimed that Henry was to become the ‘New Messiah’, bringing peace to a troubled world. After Eton, Cambridge and China (having taught himself Mandarin), Henry went into the Welsh Guards, before being captured during World War II, escaping from his POW camp and making it back to Britain. He then joined Special Forces, parachuting into occupied France to assist the Resistance. Post-war, he served with NATO and then MI6, becoming ‘our man in Baghdad’ after a bloody revolution in Iraq. Converting to Catholicism in the early 1960s, he ended his days as a Benedictine monk at Downside Abbey near Bath. An incredible life and a fascinating read, this is the untold story of a forgotten Welsh hero.

• Acknowledgements 71. A New Messiah 92. The Wise One 213. Unhappy at Eton 324. A Success at Cambridge 435. The Welsh Guards 586. Into Battle 687. Prisoner of War 848. Over the Wire 1019. On the Run 11510. Special Forces 14011. Behind Enemy Lines 15312. Advancing on Germany 17713. The Palestinian Mandate 20314. Inside Intelligence 21815. A Benedictine Monk 234Select Bibliography 253Index 256