John Brown (spy)

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John Henry Owen Brown was a Non-Commissioned Officer in the Royal Artillery in the British army, who served in France at the beginning of the Second World War. He was captured on 29 May 1940 and remained a prisoner of war until 1945. He volunteered to serve at Blechhammer camp in Upper Silesia, and generally ingratiated himself with the Germans. In due course he was transferred to the camp at Genshagen, which he effectively ran for the Germans. This move allowed him access to Berlin.

Throughout all this time, while being distrusted by the British P.O.W.s, he was reporting to MI6 by coded letters, giving guidance on targets for bomber attacks. More particularly he was engaged in subverting the German proposal to form a British Free Corps to fight for Germany. He was instrumental in identifying the British traitor John Amery, and had contact with William Joyce (Lord Haw-Haw).

After the war he was a witness at the trials of a number of traitors. He was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal for his services. He wrote of these events in In Durance Vile (Hale 1981), concluding "...I was only able to do what I did because of my Christian belief which sustained me in my durance vile through not only the danger, but the hopeless dreariness of prisoner-of-war life".