Peter Tennant (1910-1996)
Born:
November 29, 1910
Died:
December 22, 1996
Peter Frank Dalrymple Tennant, born on November 29, 1910, and died on December 22, 1996, in Haslemere, England, was a British diplomat and spy. Tennant worked as a lecturer (don) at the University of Cambridge. He had a great interest in and extensive knowledge of Scandinavia. Later, he served as a press attaché and secret contact for the Special Operations Executive at the British legation in Stockholm during World War II. His work was facilitated by his fluency in Swedish. After arriving in Stockholm to take up his position as press attaché, rumors spread that he was actually the head of the Secret Intelligence Service station. This rumor helped keep the real espionage chief hidden. The year after his arrival in Stockholm, Tennant himself became the head of espionage for the Swedish section of the Special Operations Executive. Through contact with the Swedish author Amelie Posse and the resistance group she founded, the "Tuesday Club," Tennant contributed to the establishment of an anti-Nazi resistance organization, supplying them with British radio transmitters. At the same time, he built an independent secret organization with an anti-Nazi and pro-British orientation, consisting mainly of Swedish syndicalists. This was based on a directive from headquarters in England, which divided Sweden into ten districts whose leaders were to maintain radio contact and be prepared to carry out sabotage against a potential German occupation. The following year, however, the strategic outlook had changed, and the organization was deemed unnecessary by the British. In 1945, Tennant moved with his family to Paris to serve as a press attaché at the embassy there. That same year, he was awarded the Order of the British Empire. Tennant was married to the Swede Hellis Fellenius from 1934 to 1952. They had a son and two daughters together. In 1953, he married Galina Bosley, and they remained married until her passing in 1995.