Spies in Mallorca: the incredible story of Tommy Harris
During the Spanish Civil War, the Second World War and the early years of the Cold War, Mallorca occupied a strategic position in the Mediterranean that attracted the attention of numerous secret services. Agents from both sides were present here, so today we’ll be talking about spies in Mallorca, and in particular about a British agent, Tommy Harris, who took part in one of the most significant espionage operations of the 20th century.
The British secret services
Well known thanks to the popular James Bond film series, featuring Agent 007, the British secret services are divided between MI5 and MI6. Today, the ‘Security Service’ or MI5 is responsible for the UK’s internal security, whilst the ‘Secret Intelligence Service’ or MI6 handles external security on a global scale.
These types of government agencies always seek to recruit individuals with excellent training and, even better, those with the right connections. To give an idea of how far these services can go to infiltrate organisations, it is worth noting that Benito Mussolini himself, when he was editor of the Milan-based newspaper ‘Il Popolo d’Italia’, was an MI5 agent.
Foreign Intelligence agencies
It is often said that ‘information is power’, and for this reason, throughout history, the most powerful countries have always allocated significant resources to their secret services. The best known are: the CIA (US), the KGB (USSR) – now replaced by the FSB (Russia) – as well as the aforementioned MI5 and MI6 (UK). Another that became very famous was the STASI (of the former GDR, the German Democratic Republic), but possibly the most dynamic and effective of all is the Mossad (of Israel).
Who was Tommy Harris?
Tomás Harris Rodríguez was born in England in 1908 to an English father and a Spanish mother from Seville. Both his father’s and mother’s families had been successfully involved in art and antiques, and Tommy too turned his attention to this field. He studied at the Slade School of Fine Art in London and at the British School at Rome, in Italy. This excellent education, combined with his privileged family background, enabled him to become a painter, sculptor, collector and art dealer, eventually establishing himself as a leading specialist in Goya.
It appears that his elder sister, Enriqueta, was already well established in the art world and knew Anthony Blunt very well. He was a professor at the University of Cambridge, appointed ‘Curator’ of the Royal Collection and even personal advisor to the Queen of England; in short, a veritable institution in the worlds of art and high society.
Being half-English and half-Spanish, cultured and refined, and with good personal connections, Tommy Harris would have been the ideal candidate for a secret service role. And that must have been the thinking at MI6 when they recruited him to work with them.
Tommy’s wife, Hilda, was a wonderful hostess and used to organise dinners and events at their elegant home in the prestigious neighbourhood of Mayfair. There, exquisite meals and the finest wines were served at gatherings attended by the most refined members of British society, including many alumni of the prestigious University of Cambridge. Artists, aristocrats, art dealers, antique dealers, historians, military figures and government officials were regulars at these gatherings. Among them were Kim Philby, Desmond Bristow, Donald MacLean, Lord Victor (3rd Baron Rothschild), Guy M Liddell, Ewen Montagu, Guy Burgess and Anthony Blunt himself, mentioned earlier.
The Harrises moved in these circles, an ideal breeding ground for rubbing shoulders with influential friends and gathering substantial information.
The motivation, ideals or ambition?
Many of the figures mentioned were involved in espionage or counter-espionage activities. Some did so because their government posts required it, others out of personal ambition, political convictions, or perhaps simply to spice up their lives with a touch of adventure. Blunt, Philby, Burgess and MacLean, despite being born into well-to-do families, were all committed communists. Tommy Harris, however, appears to have been simply an anti-fascist.
Tommy Harris and Operation ‘Garbo’
‘Garbo’ was the unusual name given to Joan Pujol García, a shrewd Catalan who fought in the Spanish Civil War as a second lieutenant on the Republican side, and who later managed to infiltrate the secret services of Nazi Germany. As if that were not enough, he later offered his services to the British, acting as a double agent, in reality deceiving the Germans and aiding the Allies.
And… Why are we mentioning Garbo, when the article focuses on Tommy Harris? Precisely because the direct contact with the British secret service was Tommy Harris. If Pujol was the public face, Harris was the mastermind behind the figure who has gone down in history as Garbo. Together, they created a fictitious network—in reality non-existent—of almost 20 sub-agents scattered across England who provided information to the Germans via Pujol, whom they knew by another name, ‘Arabel’.
His greatest success was the most spectacular deception operation of the Second World War: convincing Hitler and the Nazi high command, through false leads, that the great Allied landings of 1944 were to take place via Calais, and not in Normandy as was ultimately the case. This deception ensured the success of the operation and saved thousands of lives on both sides.
What is remarkable about this man is that, on his own merits, he was awarded both the Order of the British Empire and the Iron Cross by the Nazi regime. This man’s life was truly eventful, and there isn’t enough space here to recount all his adventures. For those interested in these topics, we particularly recommend reading a book or watching a documentary about Joan Pujol, alias Garbo.
Allan Hillgarth and espionage in the Mediterranean
Espionage networks spread like the branches of a tree, and many of their members are interconnected, even if they themselves are unaware of it. We do not know how Harris and Hillgarth – a navy captain and British consul in Mallorca in the 1930s and 1940s – might have been connected. But what we do know is that he also worked for the British secret services from his office in El Terreno. He bought and moved into a beautiful estate in Santa María del Camí, Son Torrella, and was on good terms with Joan March, the Mallorcan smuggler who later became a banker.
He had a whole network of agents in all the Spanish ports, others infiltrated within the police and the Ministry of the Interior, and also in the aristocratic circles of our country. He was, so to speak, ‘Churchill’s eyes’ in the western Mediterranean.
He took part in another well-known operation to deceive the Nazis, Operation Mincemeat, leading them to believe that a major Allied landing would take place on the Greek islands, when in fact it ultimately took place in Sicily.
The Cambridge Five
The famous University of Cambridge, which educates brilliant students—generally from wealthy and well-connected families—has been an ideal place for recruiting secret agents. Such were “the Cambridge Five”: Anthony Blunt, John Cairncross, Kim Philby, Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean, who worked for the British secret services for years. The major scandal erupted when it emerged that they were also spying for the Soviets, acting as double agents. As suspicions closed in on them, several defected and fled to Russia: Burgess and Maclean in 1951, Philby in 1963. The following year, 1964, Blunt was uncovered, although he managed to avoid prison by cooperating with the authorities and, possibly, thanks to his excellent relations with the Queen of England. Cairncross never admitted to being part of this group or to these activities.
As several of them were close friends of Harris, there has always been speculation as to whether Tommy was also working for the Soviets, although this has never been confirmed.
The Harris family move to Mallorca
After the Second World War, Tommy Harris moved to Mallorca in 1947, together with his wife Hilda. In 1949, he bought a lovely house in Camp de Mar, and his initial intention was to devote himself to his great passion: art. He created his own work, compiled the book “Goya, engravings and lithographs” and worked as an art dealer. His social life here on the island was probably not as interesting as it had been in London, although among his few friends was the well-known writer Robert Graves. It is known that the local atmosphere was not entirely to his wife’s liking, and the couple had heated arguments, exacerbated by Tommy’s addiction to alcohol and anti-anxiety medication.
We do not know to what extent he remained involved in secret service activities, but it is almost certain that from here he helped spread the news that Joan Pujol ‘Garbo’ had died of malaria in Angola in 1949. This was a diversionary tactic to avoid reprisals from the Nazis, who, despite having lost the war, remained very active.
Harris lived on the island for many years, from 1947 until 1964, when he died in somewhat strange circumstances.
An ending shrouded in mystery
On 24 January 1964, the Harrises set off in their car from Camp de Mar to Felanitx, stopping off in Palma, apparently to have lunch with Robert Graves. As was customary for Tommy, the meal was accompanied by copious amounts of alcohol, and later on, arguments with his wife were inevitable. Nevertheless, after lunch they set off again along the Palma–Llucmajor road, and at the 23.500 km mark the car veered off the road and crashed into a tree, killing Tommy whilst his wife escaped unharmed.
The exact cause of the accident remains unknown: excessive speed? Erratic driving due to having drunk too much? A distraction caused by the argument? A technical fault with the car?
A fault with the car would be highly unlikely, as it was very new (from 1963) and the model, a Citroën DS 19 ‘Shark’, was known for having very good suspension and brakes that were advanced for its time. Unless it had been deliberately tampered with to cause a disaster…
Theories have circulated that it may have been the KGB who caused this accident, as not long before his close friend Kim Philby had fled to Moscow and, months later, Anthony Blunt was also exposed as a Soviet agent. It is possible that Harris knew many things that were not meant to be known and that the KGB decided to eliminate him, although none of this has ever been proven.
Harris’s darker side
The life of a spy can never be entirely transparent, which is why there are aspects we are unaware of. He was highly successful in his business as an art dealer, and it is said that during the Spanish Civil War he took advantage of the situation to buy works of art at ridiculously low prices from people in financial difficulty. He was also accused of sending paintings by classical Spanish artists (Velázquez or Goya), not always authentic, to Venezuela, as well as being identified as a financier or payer for the Cambridge Group. We are unlikely ever to know whether these activities were true or whether he actually collaborated with the Soviets. But what we do know is that he spent his final days in Mallorca and that his remains rest in the Son Valentí cemetery in Palma.
Final conclusion
The story of Tommy Harris shows that Mallorca was not merely a place of respite for artists, writers or travellers. During some of the most turbulent periods of the 20th century, the island also became the scene of secret operations and figures who influenced the course of history from the shadows. Even today, many of those stories remain shrouded in mystery.
If you enjoyed reading this article, you might be interested in reading our article about the Nazis in Mallorca: Nazis in Mallorca