Twofer

Two fascinating stories.

The American Who Shocked Victorian England by Picking the World’s Strongest Lock

On July 22, 1851, on a day when a visitor to London had any number of amusements at his disposal... a group of men assembled in a small room in Westminster. 

They were drawn by a curious invitation: “To witness an attempt to open a lock throwing three bolts, and having six tumblers, affixed to the iron door of a strong room.” 

When Ian Fleming picked my grandfather to steal Nazi secrets

My grandfather was - at 39 - already an old man by military standards when he joined Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve in the early years of World War II. So it was perfectly plausible when he told my grandmother that they kept him well away from the front line, out of harm's way. 

His story was that the Admiralty had got him doing dull, technical stuff, poking around in the innards of new torpedoes and mines. But that couldn't be further from the truth, as my family discovered just a couple of years ago. 

In fact my grandfather, Lieutenant Theo "Rusty" Ionides, had been handpicked by none other than Ian Fleming to be part of the Bond creator's top secret crack team of commandos.

There's your history lesson for the day, Horatio.