Themes
The Navy's People
Learning
Charles Sheppard
Article highlights
-
Transfer to the Far East
Transfer to the Far East
An Admiralty Fleet Order released in 1935 called for volunteers to become Japanese interpreters, with the ultimate aim of becoming a naval attache.
Sheppard quickly accepted the opportunity. He studied for six months at the School of Oriental Studies in London, following this with a three year stay in Japan.
Letter stating Sheppard to undertake Japanese language course (RNM)
Sheppard arrived in Tokyo in the summer of 1936 to work as a Language Officer. He spent the next three years immersing himself in both the Japanese language and culture, touring various parts of the country.
Sheppard was due to return to general service in July 1939 and so prepared to return to England. He suddenly received an order to move to Shanghai with five days notice, accompanied by his wife, Rosemary. This marked the end of his career as a sea going officer.
Sheppard worked as an assistant for the Naval Liaison Officer, Captain P G James, in Shanghai. The Embassy and Consulate were mainly concerned with the Japanese and the territory that they controlled throughout China after their invasion during the 1930s.
The territory was under the control of the Japanese Army and Navy who preferred negotiating through foreign service officers, hence why a Naval Liaison Officer was attached to the Embassy in Shanghai.
Much of the Navy's work at the time related to breaches of an agreed 'Flag Verification Proceedure', whereby the Japanese Navy were allowed to stop and board British ships at sea off the Chinese coast, in order to inspect the ship's register and to check that it was a genuine British ship.
Sheppard did not serve in an Intelligence role at the British Embassy, although he sometimes received classified information. Other members of staff dealt in the actual collection of this material and in clandestine activities.
However, mysterious figures, often with German accents, approached Sheppard on occasions claiming to hold top secret information. He muses regretfully on one such incident:
'My telephone rang. I answered it, and a delightful husky female voice asked me to come up to the eighth floor as she had something of interest to tell me. By this time I had had more than enough of agents or spies, who were no direct concern of mine, and I asked her to tell me what it was about before I would come up. She replied that she could not do so over the telephone and that I would have to come up myself to hear about it. In that case, I said, I am sorry but I cannot come up without knowing more about it. The conversation ended there, but I have always regretted turning down the chance of meeting someone I felt sure, from her voice, must have been a beautiful spy.'
Captain James was relieved as NLO Shanghai in 1940. Sheppard took over James' role, achieving the rank of Acting Commander.
