Catalogue description Brian GOOLD-VERSCHOYLE, alias FRIEND: British. GOOLD-VERSCHOYLE was identified by the...

Brian GOOLD-VERSCHOYLE, alias FRIEND: British. GOOLD-VERSCHOYLE was identified by the Russian intelligence agents Gen. Walter KRIVITSKY and Henri PIECK as having been used as a courier for delivering secret intelligence from agents in the UK, predominantly the Foreign Office cypher clerk John KING. KRIVITSKY said GOOLD-VERSCHOYLE, who was an ardent and exceptionally naive supporter of the Soviet Union, was unaware that he was assisting in espionage. GOOLD-VERSCHOYLE left the UK in 1936 to travel under alias to Moscow to undergo radio training. He was sent by the Russians to Spain during the Civil War, and was reportedly kidnapped by the OGPU and transported back to Russia following a fall-out with the Russian Ambassador in Valencia for whom he was working. Official Russian sources reported him killed on a railway journey in Russia in 1941 as a result of German bombing