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EGYPT - BRITISH SPECIAL INVESTIGATION BRANCH AND STUDENT INSURRECTION, 1945-1946 An archive of "Top Secret" materials relating to Egyptian actions against British rule in 1945-6, compiled by Capt./Major L.B. Mountford, S.I.B., C.M. Police, [1945-1946] (collection) image 1
EGYPT - BRITISH SPECIAL INVESTIGATION BRANCH AND STUDENT INSURRECTION, 1945-1946 An archive of "Top Secret" materials relating to Egyptian actions against British rule in 1945-6, compiled by Capt./Major L.B. Mountford, S.I.B., C.M. Police, [1945-1946] (collection) image 2
Lot 99

EGYPT - BRITISH SPECIAL INVESTIGATION BRANCH AND STUDENT INSURRECTION, 1945-1946
An archive of "Top Secret" materials relating to Egyptian actions against British rule

23 March 2022, 12:00 GMT
London, Knightsbridge

Sold for £4,080 inc. premium

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EGYPT - BRITISH SPECIAL INVESTIGATION BRANCH AND STUDENT INSURRECTION, 1945-1946

An archive of "Top Secret" materials relating to Egyptian actions against British rule in 1945-6, compiled by Capt./Major L.B. Mountford, S.I.B., C.M. Police, including:

'Assault by Egyptian Mob on C.M.P. Outpost in Ramleh Square, Alexandria, on 4th March, 1945' [..."culminating in the death of two British Miliary Policemen..."], "Confidential" investigation report carried out by Mountford, upwards of 100 typescript pages, 60 gelatin silver print photographs, including the "mob" attacking, the aftermath showing the damage to C.M.P. building, forensic images of the deceased soldiers, the bullets, a suspect, etc., a sheet of fingerprints of the victims, hole punched, some pages loose, in original cloth-backed boards, O.H.M.S. label on upper cover, folio, [4-12 March, 1946]

'Death of Sayid Abbas Sayid Ritha, an Iraqi of Karbala, from a Revolver Shot Wound Inflicted by 2326931 Sign... of No. 3 Coy., 4 G.H.Q., Signals, Paiforce', "Confidential" investigation report carried out by Mountford, approximately 70 typescript pages (some signed ink), one photograph of the bullet used in the shooting, annotated in ink, hole punched, in original stiff wrappers, printed "On His Majesty's Service" label with report subject on upper cover, folio, Baghdad, 1 December 1945

'Secret Reports', folder of "Top Secret" reports, mostly drawn up by Mountford, including: 'Unlawful possession of W.D. firearms. Arrest of four natives', 'Bomb outrages by Egyptian Civilians', '... Hand-made bomb in Sharia Dar El Shifa', 'Arrest of five natives for conspiracy and receiving three Mills Grenades from a B.O.R.', 'Discipline - Officers' [relating to obtaining of a ring from a Greek spinster "under the promise of marriage... now believed to be false..." by a British officer] , arrest of Salem Abdel Aziz Weheba, a member of the Misr El Fatat (Young Egypt) Society, upwards of 100 typescript pages, some pencil notes and transcriptions of evidence from the Arabic, several photographs of a member of the Young Egypt Society (and S.I.B. informer, noted "Frequents native brothels in Berka"), loose in contemporary cloth-backed portfolio, inked "Political Dept., C.C.P." on upper cover, folio, [1946]

Folder of printed ephemera, including hotel and travel receipts (Alexandria, Tripoli, Cairo etc), and 6 pages of "fairly confidential" typescript instructions relating to drills and allowed usage of words for corresponding with wives of soldiers, hole punched, in original stiff portfolio wrappers, folio, [1946]

Miscellany including: 2 letters written by Mountford, from Cairo in July 1946, to his wife ("... Apart from the local bomb outrages things are quiet enough... I have decided I do not like this country, its people or its climate..."); three original caricatures, 2 seemingly portraits of Mountford; six photographs of deceased persons, one captioned in pencil on the verso "28 Aug. 45... soldier murdered by rifle fire by his friend, after an argument. Syrian type, from Transjordan"; metal cigarette case, with "Oriental" view engraved on upper cover, engraved "Capt. L.B. Mountford, Baghdad 1945" inside lid, items loose, various sizes, [1945-1946] (collection)

Footnotes

"BOMB OUTRAGES BY EGYPTIAN CIVILIANS... UNLAWFUL POSSESSION OF W.D. FIREARMS... ARREST OF FIVE NATIVES FOR CONSPIRACY..." - A remarkable archive of top secret case studies kept by a high ranking member of the Special Investigation Branch during the student riots against British occupation in Egypt in the 1940s. Includes reports into the deaths of British military personnel, riots on 4 March 1946 (supported with a series of photographs showing the movements of the "mob" attacking a police station), the murder on a train of an Iraqi student by a drunken British soldier, illegal sale of weapons, double-crossing Egyptian civilian police officers, visits to brothels, and an understanding of the wider political picture. Mountford, the S.I.B. who wrote up most of the cases, wrote his wife (12 July 1946) that "I think that the whole shoot of international politicians are actuated by something more than mere patriotic fervour. Big business has got it's finger in the pie again".

Mountford was the source of many of the dramatic true cases written up by Norman Phillips in Guns, Drugs and Deserters. The Special Investigation Branch in the Middle East, Werner Laurie, 1954, a dust-jacketed first edition of which is included in the lot. Mountford is named often in the text.

Provenance: Leonard B. Mountford, Special Investigation Branch ("S.I.B."), Cairo District. In these papers he is referred to either as Major in his role as Assistant Provost Marshal, or Captain in the Military Police. The letters written home to his wife are sent to addresses in Catford, or Bromley, South London, and it is known that on his return to England Mountford joined the Flying Squad.

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