Harold Dearden Psychiatrist Screenwriter Interrogator Camp 020 Signature Clip

Harold Dearden Psychiatrist Screenwriter Interrogator Camp 020 Signature Clip

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£9.99

Harold Dearden Psychiatrist Screenwriter Interrogator Camp 020 Signature Clip

Wiki advises: "Dearden was born in Bolton, Lancashire. He was educated at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge and London Hospital. He qualified as a physician in 1911.

During World War I, he joined the Royal Army Medical Corps. He was a medical officer for the 3rd Battalion of the Grenadier Guards. In 1916, he became honorary Captain. At the Battle of the Somme he was wounded, suffering from a lost eye and shell shock. He was later invalided out of the war. During World War II, Dearden worked as a psychiatrist and was principal interrogator at Camp 020. He wrote the play Interference (with Roland Pertwee). He also wrote the Two White Arms which became a successful film. In 1943, he married Ann Verity Gibson Watt, they had four children. He died at his home in Hay-on-Wye from cerebral thrombosis."

Per Wiki "Camp 020 at Latchmere House in south London was a British interrogation centre for captured German agents during the Second World War. It was run by Lieutenant Colonel Robin "Tin Eye" Stephens. Although other wartime interrogation centres were alleged to have used torture to extract confessions, Robin Stephens denied claims that torture had been used at Camp 020. His instructions for interrogators at Camp 020 ordered: "Never strike a man. In the first place it is an act of cowardice. In the second place, it is not intelligent. A prisoner will lie to avoid further punishment and everything he says thereafter will be based on a false premise." It is known that Stephens punished those who disobeyed this order, and in one case ejected a senior War Office interrogator from the camp."


This item was found in a very large collection of genuine autographs, letters and other ephemera purchased at an auction in Cardiff.

Condition:Clipped. Fixed to backing paper

Stockref:EF09/9170407

( Harold Dearden Autograph Signature)