Talk:Rudolf Hess

Proposed addition: Albert Heal, Ernest Bevin and possible prior British knowledge

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I propose adding a brief, carefully attributed passage concerning an account given by former trade-union official Albert James Heal in 1969.

In an article by Malcolm Pithers entitled “The man who broke the secret news that Hess was coming”, published in the Yorkshire Post on 1 November 1969, Heal stated that Ernest Bevin had shown him a coded message shortly before Rudolf Hess’s flight.

According to Heal’s account, Bevin telephoned him on 9 May 1941 and asked him to attend a meeting in Sheffield. Heal said that Bevin subsequently showed him a coded message received from a female contact whom Heal knew. Heal claimed that he had devised the code while involved with the No More War Movement and that the decoded information indicated that Hess intended to fly to Scotland and contact the Duke of Hamilton.

A possible article formulation would be:

In November 1969, former Transport and General Workers’ Union official Albert James Heal told the Yorkshire Post that Ernest Bevin had shown him a coded message shortly before Hess’s flight. According to Heal, the message indicated that Hess intended to fly to Scotland and contact the Duke of Hamilton.

Later writers John Harris and Richard Wilbourn proposed that Heal’s unidentified female contact—the “London girl” whom Heal said died after the war—may have been the German anti-Nazi activist Hilda Monte. This identification appears to be a later hypothesis and has not been independently established. It should therefore not be presented as fact.

A possible additional sentence, subject to reliable-source and due-weight considerations, would be:

John Harris and Richard Wilbourn later suggested that the unidentified female intermediary described by Heal may have been Hilda Monte, although this identification has not been independently confirmed.

The proposal is intended only to report:

• that Heal made this claim in a named contemporary newspaper article;
• what Heal said the message contained; and
• the existence of Harris and Wilbourn’s later, explicitly attributed hypothesis.

It would not establish that Churchill or the British government generally knew about the flight in advance, that an official reception for Hess had been arranged, or that Monte’s involvement has been proved.

The known citation for the original report is:

• Malcolm Pithers, “The man who broke the secret news that Hess was coming”, Yorkshire Post, 1 November 1969.

The precise page number and the complete bibliographic details and page numbers of the Harris and Wilbourn publication should be verified before any material is inserted into the article. Comments on source reliability, due weight and placement in the section discussing possible British foreknowledge would be appreciated. ~2026-34896-46 (talk) 08:28, 15 July 2026 (UTC)

I have checked the scanned page. It is page 6 of the Yorkshire Post, Tuesday 4 November 1969, and the relevant article is Malcolm Pithers, "The man who broke the secret news that Hess was coming". The source details above should therefore be corrected from 1 November 1969 to 4 November 1969, p. 6. The article identifies the interviewee as Albert James Heal, a retired senior trade-union official and former Yorkshire Area secretary of the Transport and General Workers' Union.

I would keep any proposed article text limited to Heal's explicitly attributed retrospective claim. On this newspaper source alone, the unidentified contact should not be identified as Hilda Monte; that would need a separate reliable published secondary source and explicit attribution as that author's hypothesis.

Suggested wording, if editors consider the material due for inclusion, would be: "In November 1969, the Yorkshire Post reported a claim by retired trade-union official Albert James Heal that, on 9 May 1941, Ernest Bevin had asked him to decode a message received from a contact in Germany. According to Heal, the message indicated that Hess intended to fly to Britain and contact the Duke of Hamilton. The account was Heal's retrospective recollection and has not been independently corroborated."

Source: Malcolm Pithers, "The man who broke the secret news that Hess was coming", Yorkshire Post, 4 November 1969, p. 6. Comments on whether this is sufficiently significant and appropriately sourced for inclusion in the "Attempted peace mission" section would be welcome. ~2026-40048-08 (talk) 17:10, 17 July 2026 (UTC)

I think the claim is too trivial to mention, especially without additional corraborating sourcing. — Diannaa 🍁 (talk) 17:21, 17 July 2026 (UTC)

Broadly concur, the lack of additional corraborating sourcing from historians suggests that they don't give this account much credence.Pincrete (talk) 03:59, 18 July 2026 (UTC)

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Further research has now identified both the original newspaper report and a later published treatment of Heal’s account.

The original source is Malcolm Pithers, “The man who broke the secret news that Hess was coming”, Yorkshire Post, Tuesday 4 November 1969, p. 6. The report was based on an interview with Albert James Heal of Parkland Drive, Leeds.

Heal claimed that Ernest Bevin telephoned him on 9 May 1941 and asked him to attend a meeting at Sheffield City Hall. According to Heal, Bevin subsequently showed him a coded message concerning Hess’s intended journey and contact with the Duke of Hamilton. Heal said that he could decode it because the code was one he had devised while secretary of the South Wales No More War Movement.

Additional research by Leeds Libraries helps establish Heal’s identity and background. Albert James Heal, whose surname was also sometimes recorded as Heale, was born in June 1889 and had worked as a coal miner. He later became a Labour Party political agent and organising secretary in Ashton-under-Lyne and subsequently a trade-union official. He was associated with the Joint Industrial Council for the Glass Container Industry and the National Joint Industrial Council for Waterways. His obituary in the Yorkshire Evening Post of 8 February 1974 described him as having served on the Labour Committee for Agriculture during the Second World War. The 1969 article said that he was preparing a memoir concerning his involvement in the Hess affair. He died in Leeds in 1974.

This evidence establishes the identity and relevant professional background of the interviewee, but it does not independently prove the accuracy of his account.

A later published secondary source has also been identified:

• Andrew Rosthorn, “May 1, 1939: Our founder strikes a deal to kill Hitler”, Tribune, 5 March 2016, updated 11 October 2016. The relevant concluding material appears to have been credited to Bernhard Müller and Andrew Rosthorn.

The Tribune article reports that Professor Scott Newton found contemporary notices in the Hull Daily Mail showing that Bevin was scheduled to address a meeting at Sheffield City Hall at 6:30 p.m. on 9 May 1941, as Heal had recounted, and that a subsequent Bevin meeting in Hull was cancelled. This provides some secondary-source support for Heal’s account of Bevin’s movements, but it does not independently corroborate the existence or contents of the alleged coded message.

The same article reports that John Harris and Richard Wilbourn considered it “more than just possible” that Heal’s unidentified “London girl” was Hilda Monte. This is expressly a later hypothesis by Harris and Wilbourn. Neither Pithers’s report nor the evidence concerning Bevin’s itinerary establishes the woman’s identity. Monte should therefore not be described as the sender or author of the message. If the hypothesis is considered due for mention, it should be attributed explicitly to Harris and Wilbourn.

Given the concerns already raised about corroboration and due weight, any possible article wording should present the central account explicitly as Heal’s retrospective claim. For example:

“In a 1969 interview with the Yorkshire Post, former Labour and trade-union official Albert James Heal claimed that Ernest Bevin had shown him a coded message shortly before Hess’s flight to Scotland. Heal said that he decoded it using a code he had devised during his earlier involvement in the No More War Movement. Contemporary newspaper notices located by Professor Scott Newton were consistent with Heal’s description of Bevin’s itinerary, but the claim concerning the coded message has not been independently corroborated.”

Would editors consider the original report, together with Rosthorn’s later published account of Newton’s research, sufficient for a brief attributed mention? Do Heal’s obituary and the Leeds Libraries research adequately establish his identity and relevance? If the material remains too marginal for the main biography, would it be more appropriate in a footnote or an article dealing specifically with interpretations of Hess’s flight?

Hughvega (talk) 10:45, 20 July 2026 (UTC)

There is now additional published evidence that materially changes the sourcing position described above.

The original source has been verified as Malcolm Pithers, “The man who broke the secret news that Hess was coming”, Yorkshire Post, 4 November 1969, p. 6. It identifies Albert James Heal of Parkland Drive, Leeds, and reports his detailed account that Ernest Bevin telephoned him on 9 May 1941, summoned him to Sheffield City Hall and showed him a coded message concerning Hess’s intended journey and contact with the Duke of Hamilton. Heal said that he decoded it using a code he had devised while secretary of the South Wales No More War Movement.

This was not merely an unidentified anecdote. Research supplied by Leeds Libraries establishes Heal’s background as a former coal miner, Labour Party political agent and organising secretary, and later trade-union official associated with national joint industrial councils. His Yorkshire Evening Post obituary of 8 February 1974 also records his wartime service on the Labour Committee for Agriculture. This evidence establishes who Heal was and why he could plausibly have had professional contact with Bevin, although it does not by itself prove the coded-message claim.

More importantly, the account received later published investigation:

• Andrew Rosthorn, “May 1, 1939: Our founder strikes a deal to kill Hitler”, Tribune, 5 March 2016, updated 11 October 2016; relevant concluding material credited to Bernhard Müller and Andrew Rosthorn.

Rosthorn reports that Professor Scott Newton found contemporary Hull Daily Mail notices confirming that Bevin was scheduled to be at Sheffield City Hall at 6:30 p.m. on 9 May 1941—the time and place specified by Heal—and that Bevin’s subsequent Hull engagement was unexpectedly cancelled. This does not prove the existence of the coded message, but it independently supports significant, testable details of Heal’s account. Consequently, the concern expressed above that there is no additional published investigation or corroborating material is no longer fully applicable.

The sources should still be represented with precision:

• Pithers records Heal’s claim in 1969.
• Rosthorn reports Newton’s later investigation and the contemporary evidence concerning Bevin’s movements.
• Harris and Wilbourn’s identification of the unidentified “London girl” as Hilda Monte remains a later hypothesis and should not be presented as established fact.

The present article already mentions speculation that Hess was induced to fly by British intelligence. A documented claim involving Ernest Bevin, a precisely dated meeting, a coded warning and a named intended contact—the Duke of Hamilton—is directly relevant to that subject. Complete omission may give readers a less complete account of the published historical controversy.

I therefore propose a short, explicitly attributed addition rather than presenting Heal’s statement as fact:

“In a 1969 interview with the Yorkshire Post, former Labour and trade-union official Albert James Heal claimed that Ernest Bevin had shown him a coded message on 9 May 1941 indicating that Hess intended to travel to Scotland and contact the Duke of Hamilton. Heal said that he decoded it using a code devised during his involvement in the No More War Movement. A later investigation reported that contemporary newspaper notices were consistent with Heal’s account of Bevin’s movements, although the alleged message itself has not been independently verified.”

This wording is proportionate, attributes the disputed claim, records the limited corroboration accurately and avoids endorsing either the coded-message account or the later Hilda Monte hypothesis. I ask editors to reconsider whether a brief mention is now justified in light of the additional secondary source and contemporary itinerary evidence.

Hughvega (talk) 10:57, 20 July 2026 (UTC)

I agree to save these interesting details. That night Germans heavily bombed the UK. It's credible they had order not to shoot down Hess. ~2026-41901-31 (talk) 11:33, 29 July 2026 (UTC)