Richard Henry Stevens

Richard Henry Stevens ( * April 9, 1893, † February 12, 1967 ) was a Major in the British Army and from 1939 Head of the Passport Control Office (PCO) of the British Secret Intelligence Service in the Netherlands. His name is closely connected to the Venlo incident of 1939.

1939, Stevens from India, where he was an intelligence officer. He spoke excellent German, French and Russian. Greek was his second mother tongue, moreover, he mastered Arabic, Hindustani and Malay. He had no specific training or experience for the secret service use in Europe.

Stevens was kidnapped in November 1939 at the Venlo incident, along with Captain Sigismund Payne Best to Germany. He revealed there vital secrets about the Secret Intelligence Service. The German Nazi propaganda presented Best and Stevens alleged mastermind of Georg Elser Bürgerbräuattentat. After more than five years of captivity as special prisoners in the concentration camp Sachsenhausen and Dachau concentration camp Stevens and Best came in April 1945 again. Stevens left the Army as a Lieutenant Colonel, to which he had been promoted during the captivity. He worked as a translator, among other things, 1951-1952 to NATO in Paris and London. Stevens died in 1967 from cancer.