The Victorian Spy - Henri Le Caron (Paperback)

Henri Le Caron, (1841-1894), was born Thomas Miller Beach in Colchester, Essex. He went to Paris at 19 and found employment in business connected with America and, infected by the excitement of the Civil War, crossed the Atlantic in 1861 to enlist in the Northern Army. In 1865, he came into contact with the Fenian movement, and having learnt of the Fenian plot against Canada, wrote home to his father. Beach Snr told his MP who in turn told the Home Secretary, and the latter asked for more information. Le Caron, inspired by genuinely patriotic feeling, offered to become a spy and turned from restless adventurer to cloak-and-dagger operative risking everything-his career, his family, and his life-for Queen and country. He worked undercover until 1889 when his cover was finally blown. In "The Victorian Spy", Peter Edwards reveals the early history of Canadian, British, and, American intelligence agencies and Le Caron's infiltration of the Irish Republican movement.