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No. 6 Special Workshop School @ near Tulloch, 20 miles from Fort William

Discussion in 'Top Secret' started by davidbfpo, Jun 11, 2025.

  1. davidbfpo

    davidbfpo Patron Patron

    An odd BBC News story, as the house is up for sale:
    From: Lochaber's Inverlair Lodge: World War Two secret agents' house put up for sale and Inverlair Lodge, Tulloch, Roy Bridge, Inverness-Shire, PH31 4AR

    Nothing here on the premises or unit.

    Previous publicity in 2008-2010 hence: Secret Scotland - Inverlair Lodge and Inverlair Lodge for sale
     
  2. Aixman

    Aixman War Establishment addict Patron

    I am preparing the history of the Special Training Schools of the S.O.E. and can therefore provide some further information. The circumstances are to some extent confusing,
    partly from the obligation of secrecy at that time, combined with a sometimes lax attitude to nomenclature within the S.O.E., using different names for the same institution.

    In internal S.O.E. terminology, it was called ‘The Cooler’, which aptly reflects its purpose, as it served to hold agents who had started or absolved their training and had proved unsuitable for operations. S.O.E.’s policy of separating agents for various reasons prevented them from being assigned to their respective Country Sections or dismissed, which led to the early establishment of this institution (summer of 1941).

    Obviously, it was founded under the name “No. 6 Special Workshop School”. Major Aonghais Adamson Fyffe, as its commandant, soon recommended dropping that cumbersome name, as it provoked curiosity and questions and did not help to keep the institution secret and inconspicuous (it lay outside Scotland's Protected Area). So, simply "Inverlair" became the semi-official name.
    (Source: Aonghais Adamson Fyffe's vivid report on his wartime experiences in Harrison, David: Special Operations Executive - Paramilitary Training in Scotland, 1940 - 1944, p. 31)

    The title of its war establishment read "I.S.R.B. Workshop" (WE VIII/244/1), the abbreviation commonly used as a cover name for S.O.E. ("Inter Services Research Bureau").

    Because S.O.E. used "Special Training Schools" and "Stations" side by side, for different purposes, and sometimes the name and the purpose of institutions changed under the same number, these terms are often confused both in contemporary reports of the S.O.E. itself and in postwar literature. So, “No. 6 Special Workshop School” should not be confused with "Experimental Station No. 6", another S.O.E. institution, an official name used for the war establishments for Station XII (WE VIII/223, with surviving issues 2 to 6), better known as "Aston House", taken over by S.O.E. from MI(R), one of its forerunners. Unlike for the other S.O.E. Stations, there is no specific war establishment for Station XII.
     
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