Kate Yo 🔖 has been reading a sordid story of espionage and abuse. 



They steal identities
They break the law
And they sleep with the enemy
The true story of Britain's secret police.

“This is not about a lying boy friend, or a boyfriend who cheats on you. This is a fictional character created by the state, and funded with taxpayers money.”

That line makes you sit up and take notice. It's a refence to undercover police spies infiltrating domestic political activist groups based mainly in London during the sixties.

The sixties were a time of revolutionary ideas and revolution. This generation wanted to do things differently from their parents. They had benefited from good education and wanted to change the political structure in Britain.

The Left was diverse in its aims but they were united by one thing, opposition to the Vietnam war. There were protests against it in London, and the first happened around 1967/68 in Grosvenor Square. 

Thousands marched to the American Embassy and were held back by police. Civil disorder broke out, with the crowd fighting police and throwing firecrackers. To stop this disorder police rode horses through the crowd. These scenes were watched on black and white televisions, alarming the country. Harold Wilson's government was fearful these groups could bring down the political and economic structure. Whitehall turned to the police, Special Branch in particular, to provide answers.

Conrad Dixon, a Special Branch officer in Scotland Yard told his superiors, "give me ten men and one million pounds, and I will sort the problem out for you." Dixon's idea was so strongly supported it was funded direct from the treasury.

For Dixon’s plan to work, it had to be something that activists would not believe. Police spies among activists not for weeks or months but years. When Dixon had chosen his ten men he called them the  Special Demonstration Group - SDS. This group was so secret that even some high ranking police did not know of its existence. 

It was in place for four decades. This unit needed had to have absolute secrecy. The men grew their hair long, wore civilian clothes and were expected to live among these groups as one of them.

Once they did that they needed to do a jackal run. It was called this in reference to Frederic Forsythe's book, The Day Of The Jackal. The main character in the book did this graveyard search, combing through graveyards looking for dead children who were born close to the time they themselves were born.

Afterwards they went to St Catherine's House to get the birth certificate of the child he had chosen.

Bob Lambert Special Branch officer / SDS recruit stole the the identity of Mark Robert Robinson who was born in Plumstead in East London in 1959. The child died at the age of seven of cardiac failure after being born with a malformed heart.


Once they had the birth certificate, they looked at the parents' names and occupations on the certificate and created a back story to make their characters like real people. Over eighty dead children were used in this way.

Once they completed their back story they needed to find a flat. The seedier the better. Then they had to insert themselves into these groups. That was going to be difficult with no ties in the community.  And to overcome this difficulty they looked to women who were activists and then use her integrity in the group. Once they established a relationship they then needed to create an exit strategy for when their deployment ended.

This usually meant going to a foreign country.

Robert Lambert was a skilled manipulator who went from Robert “Bob” Lambert to Bob Robinson. Around 1983 Lambert was tasked with infiltrating the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) and London Green Peace. He went to a meeting and struck up a conversation with a girl called “Charlotte”. She had just finished work and he offered her a lift home in his van.

All SDS officers were supplied with a van. They needed a van for their story to work. This van was to take them to work as a gardener in the more well heeled areas in London, and this excuse was also used for visiting his real family and meetings where all SDS officers met weekly to give their take on what was happening.

As Bob and Charlotte's relationship grew, she became pregnant. Bob Lambert did nothing to persuade Charlotte to terminate. Indeed, the opposite was true. He threw himself into fatherhood and was with Charlotte for the birth of their son.

At the hospital where Charlotte's family were, he told her he had to leave. Her family objected very strongly, telling him that Charlotte needed him, but he left her despite their objections.

Unbeknown to Charlotte he was already married with two children. Charlotte didn’t come from a very stable background. She had very little money and after some time on benefits, took on some part time work. Depending on her family to mind her baby. Charlotte at first didn’t mind taking on the family's financial responsibility. But after a while she felt he needed to do something to contribute toward putting bread on the table. Lambert refused, saying his efforts were better used by the ALF.

When their son was eighteen months he accused Charlotte - one of four female relationships during his deployment - of neglecting their sex life, and arguing with her when there was no need. He then left Charlotte for Karen, telling Karen that a woman tricked him into having a baby while telling him she was on the contraceptive pill.

Lambert took the boy to his meetings with his handlers, as cover. Some took their dog as cover.

In 1987 activists left incendiary devices in three Debenham stores. Later Caroline Lucas named Bob Lambert under parliamentary privilege as the third operative who left a incendiary device at Debenhams store in Harrow. The stores were targeted for selling animal fur. There wasn’t anybody hurt in these incident. The other two activists were arrested shortly after the incendiaries went off causing millions in damage. With their arrest, which he had secured, Bob Lambert knew it was time to get out of Dodge.

He organised a false raid on Karen's flat where they police let it slip they were looking for Bob. When news of this got out Bob told Karen he had to go on the run. He said he was going to Spain. Karen offered to go with him. But he insisted he go alone. He also rang Charlotte saying he would return, that he could never leave his son. This was a text book exit strategy. 

Instead of going to Spain he returned to Special Branch, where he was promoted to a managerial position. Now he became the spy master.

Charlotte tried to move on with life. Eventually she married a man who treated her son like his own. He died after being with her for five years, and Charlotte thought that her son had now lost two fathers.

She did try to find him at the time, going to social services and the Child Support Agency, but they drew a blank. How could they find him when Charlotte didn’t even know his real name? Twenty four years later when Charlotte's son was a 25 year old man, Charlotte came home from work. It was such a lovely day that she made coffee and took it and the paper with her to read. She went into shock as there was Bob looking out at her.

She couldn’t believe it. Her parents were sceptical. Her father went to the shop and bought a paper. When they compared pictures of Bob they were satisfied it was him.

Bob Lambert retired from Special |Branch and became an academic with a teaching post at St Andrew’s University. He wrote a book Countering Al Qaeda In London, and this launched him on to the speaker circuit. His pals still in the SDS and Special Branch couldn’t believe it. He was breaking his own rules not to bring their activities to light as this would damage the integrity of their mission.

Every time he spoke publicly he was taking a grave chance. He went to give a talk in London, organised by two anti-fascist groups, one society many cultures and unite against fascism. Five former London Green Peace activists organised to go to this talk where Lambert was speaking along with some MP’s. After he spoke but before the applause broke down one man got up from his seat and shouted I have a question from the floor. He said I am Dave Morris London Greenpeace, (no links to the wider green peace movement, although it was a peaceful group unlike the ALF)

Morris asked:

are you going to apologise for organising disgusting infiltration of groups including Morris own group five years as Bob Robinson? We are outing you today because you were involved in this activity, and we want to ensure you are not infiltrating the groups here today.

A few days later Lambert became aware that the Guardian newspaper was to do a piece on him, so he issued a statement. He apologised for the deceit and for forming fake relationships and friends. He apologised most especially to Karen.

No mention of Charlotte. She rang his secretary and tried to get through to him but his secretary said he wasn’t available.

But she took a message for him. He then rang Charlotte and sounded emotional. But it was no use: she couldn’t believe a word he said.

This trauma was all too much for Charlotte, it led to months of psychiatric treatment in the Priory hospital in London. Charlotte said she had been very confused about it all, and says:

I don’t understand. What am I supposed to have done that I was chosen by the state to be treated like this? I was no threat to national security. And what was my child? Collateral damage?

Paul Lewis and Rob Evans, 2014, Undercover: The True Story of Britain's Secret Police. Guardian Faber. ISBN-13 : ‎978-1783350346

Kate Yo is a Belfast book lover. 

Undercover ✑ The True Story of Britain's Secret Police

Kate Yo 🔖 has been reading a sordid story of espionage and abuse. 



They steal identities
They break the law
And they sleep with the enemy
The true story of Britain's secret police.

“This is not about a lying boy friend, or a boyfriend who cheats on you. This is a fictional character created by the state, and funded with taxpayers money.”

That line makes you sit up and take notice. It's a refence to undercover police spies infiltrating domestic political activist groups based mainly in London during the sixties.

The sixties were a time of revolutionary ideas and revolution. This generation wanted to do things differently from their parents. They had benefited from good education and wanted to change the political structure in Britain.

The Left was diverse in its aims but they were united by one thing, opposition to the Vietnam war. There were protests against it in London, and the first happened around 1967/68 in Grosvenor Square. 

Thousands marched to the American Embassy and were held back by police. Civil disorder broke out, with the crowd fighting police and throwing firecrackers. To stop this disorder police rode horses through the crowd. These scenes were watched on black and white televisions, alarming the country. Harold Wilson's government was fearful these groups could bring down the political and economic structure. Whitehall turned to the police, Special Branch in particular, to provide answers.

Conrad Dixon, a Special Branch officer in Scotland Yard told his superiors, "give me ten men and one million pounds, and I will sort the problem out for you." Dixon's idea was so strongly supported it was funded direct from the treasury.

For Dixon’s plan to work, it had to be something that activists would not believe. Police spies among activists not for weeks or months but years. When Dixon had chosen his ten men he called them the  Special Demonstration Group - SDS. This group was so secret that even some high ranking police did not know of its existence. 

It was in place for four decades. This unit needed had to have absolute secrecy. The men grew their hair long, wore civilian clothes and were expected to live among these groups as one of them.

Once they did that they needed to do a jackal run. It was called this in reference to Frederic Forsythe's book, The Day Of The Jackal. The main character in the book did this graveyard search, combing through graveyards looking for dead children who were born close to the time they themselves were born.

Afterwards they went to St Catherine's House to get the birth certificate of the child he had chosen.

Bob Lambert Special Branch officer / SDS recruit stole the the identity of Mark Robert Robinson who was born in Plumstead in East London in 1959. The child died at the age of seven of cardiac failure after being born with a malformed heart.


Once they had the birth certificate, they looked at the parents' names and occupations on the certificate and created a back story to make their characters like real people. Over eighty dead children were used in this way.

Once they completed their back story they needed to find a flat. The seedier the better. Then they had to insert themselves into these groups. That was going to be difficult with no ties in the community.  And to overcome this difficulty they looked to women who were activists and then use her integrity in the group. Once they established a relationship they then needed to create an exit strategy for when their deployment ended.

This usually meant going to a foreign country.

Robert Lambert was a skilled manipulator who went from Robert “Bob” Lambert to Bob Robinson. Around 1983 Lambert was tasked with infiltrating the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) and London Green Peace. He went to a meeting and struck up a conversation with a girl called “Charlotte”. She had just finished work and he offered her a lift home in his van.

All SDS officers were supplied with a van. They needed a van for their story to work. This van was to take them to work as a gardener in the more well heeled areas in London, and this excuse was also used for visiting his real family and meetings where all SDS officers met weekly to give their take on what was happening.

As Bob and Charlotte's relationship grew, she became pregnant. Bob Lambert did nothing to persuade Charlotte to terminate. Indeed, the opposite was true. He threw himself into fatherhood and was with Charlotte for the birth of their son.

At the hospital where Charlotte's family were, he told her he had to leave. Her family objected very strongly, telling him that Charlotte needed him, but he left her despite their objections.

Unbeknown to Charlotte he was already married with two children. Charlotte didn’t come from a very stable background. She had very little money and after some time on benefits, took on some part time work. Depending on her family to mind her baby. Charlotte at first didn’t mind taking on the family's financial responsibility. But after a while she felt he needed to do something to contribute toward putting bread on the table. Lambert refused, saying his efforts were better used by the ALF.

When their son was eighteen months he accused Charlotte - one of four female relationships during his deployment - of neglecting their sex life, and arguing with her when there was no need. He then left Charlotte for Karen, telling Karen that a woman tricked him into having a baby while telling him she was on the contraceptive pill.

Lambert took the boy to his meetings with his handlers, as cover. Some took their dog as cover.

In 1987 activists left incendiary devices in three Debenham stores. Later Caroline Lucas named Bob Lambert under parliamentary privilege as the third operative who left a incendiary device at Debenhams store in Harrow. The stores were targeted for selling animal fur. There wasn’t anybody hurt in these incident. The other two activists were arrested shortly after the incendiaries went off causing millions in damage. With their arrest, which he had secured, Bob Lambert knew it was time to get out of Dodge.

He organised a false raid on Karen's flat where they police let it slip they were looking for Bob. When news of this got out Bob told Karen he had to go on the run. He said he was going to Spain. Karen offered to go with him. But he insisted he go alone. He also rang Charlotte saying he would return, that he could never leave his son. This was a text book exit strategy. 

Instead of going to Spain he returned to Special Branch, where he was promoted to a managerial position. Now he became the spy master.

Charlotte tried to move on with life. Eventually she married a man who treated her son like his own. He died after being with her for five years, and Charlotte thought that her son had now lost two fathers.

She did try to find him at the time, going to social services and the Child Support Agency, but they drew a blank. How could they find him when Charlotte didn’t even know his real name? Twenty four years later when Charlotte's son was a 25 year old man, Charlotte came home from work. It was such a lovely day that she made coffee and took it and the paper with her to read. She went into shock as there was Bob looking out at her.

She couldn’t believe it. Her parents were sceptical. Her father went to the shop and bought a paper. When they compared pictures of Bob they were satisfied it was him.

Bob Lambert retired from Special |Branch and became an academic with a teaching post at St Andrew’s University. He wrote a book Countering Al Qaeda In London, and this launched him on to the speaker circuit. His pals still in the SDS and Special Branch couldn’t believe it. He was breaking his own rules not to bring their activities to light as this would damage the integrity of their mission.

Every time he spoke publicly he was taking a grave chance. He went to give a talk in London, organised by two anti-fascist groups, one society many cultures and unite against fascism. Five former London Green Peace activists organised to go to this talk where Lambert was speaking along with some MP’s. After he spoke but before the applause broke down one man got up from his seat and shouted I have a question from the floor. He said I am Dave Morris London Greenpeace, (no links to the wider green peace movement, although it was a peaceful group unlike the ALF)

Morris asked:

are you going to apologise for organising disgusting infiltration of groups including Morris own group five years as Bob Robinson? We are outing you today because you were involved in this activity, and we want to ensure you are not infiltrating the groups here today.

A few days later Lambert became aware that the Guardian newspaper was to do a piece on him, so he issued a statement. He apologised for the deceit and for forming fake relationships and friends. He apologised most especially to Karen.

No mention of Charlotte. She rang his secretary and tried to get through to him but his secretary said he wasn’t available.

But she took a message for him. He then rang Charlotte and sounded emotional. But it was no use: she couldn’t believe a word he said.

This trauma was all too much for Charlotte, it led to months of psychiatric treatment in the Priory hospital in London. Charlotte said she had been very confused about it all, and says:

I don’t understand. What am I supposed to have done that I was chosen by the state to be treated like this? I was no threat to national security. And what was my child? Collateral damage?

Paul Lewis and Rob Evans, 2014, Undercover: The True Story of Britain's Secret Police. Guardian Faber. ISBN-13 : ‎978-1783350346

Kate Yo is a Belfast book lover. 

1 comment:

  1. A fair bit of work went into this Kate.
    It is a chilling read - the extent to which they will go to debase, devalue and demean people.
    I read a bit about Conrad Dixon a while back. He too went into academia - seemingly a place where old spies go to die! He got a PhD in the working conditions of seamen.

    ReplyDelete