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A new museum dedicated to the spies who uncovered many enemy secrets during the Second World War has appointed its first director.
Giuseppe Albano was recently named as the head of Trent Park House of Secrets, which is due to open in spring next year.
The former county mansion in Enfield, north London, was used as a surveillance centre for senior German POWs between 1939 and 1945.
High-ranking prisoners were treated well by their captors and encouraged to relax and converse with each other – oblivious to the ‘secret listeners’ who monitored their conversations via bugging devices planted throughout the house and gardens.
During the Battle of Britain, for example, Luftwaffe pilots imprisoned at Trent Park unwittingly provided information about the strengths and weaknesses of German aircraft.
Later in the war, intelligence-gatherers obtained information about war crimes within the Third Reich, the 20 July plot against Adolf Hitler, and the location of the German rocket development centre on the Baltic island of Peenemünde, later bombed by the Allies.
Albano, a former director of the Freud Museum London, will be responsible for the opening and overall operation of the museum.
In recent years, Trent Park has undergone an extensive refurbishment programme to restore it to the grandeur of the 1930s – when it was home to renowned aristocrat Sir Philip Sassoon.
Considered one of the great hosts of his day, Sir Philip was the second cousin of Great War poet Siegfried Sassoon. It was requisitioned by the government on Sir Philip’s death in 1939.
‘Trent Park House has heard (and overheard) a lot of stories in its time,’ said Albano on his announcement as director.
‘As someone who’s always been passionate about historic houses and the tales they have to tell,’ he added, ‘I’m honoured to be taking on this role and look forward to opening Trent Park House as a museum and sharing its extraordinary history with everyone.’
