Kenneth COHEN

   Cohen, Kenneth Herman Salaman (1900-1984), intelligence officer, was born on 15 March 1900 at 1 Lower Terrace Branch Hill, Hampstead, London, the son of Jewish parents, Herman Cohen (d. in or after 1932), a barrister and his wife, Bessie Salaman (d. in or after 1932).

     He was educated at Elstree School and then at Eastbourne College before joining the Royal Navy as a 'special entry' cadet in 1918.

 
     He subsequently served on HMS Iron Duke, and later became an expert on torpedoes. In 1935, as an interpreter in French and Russian, he transferred to the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS).

     On 22 July 1932 he married Mary Sarah, daughter of Ernest Martin Joseph, architect, with whom he had a son and a daughter.

     Soon after joining SIS Cohen was placed in charge of the London headquarters of a European network known simply as Z, which operated under commercial cover in parallel to the more overt SIS organization that depended upon a string of passport control offices attached to diplomatic premises abroad.

 
     Masquerading as Kenneth Crane and designated Z-3, Cohen worked through a front organization, Menoline Ltd in Maple Street and an office in Bush House, to recruit sources, including several distinguished foreign correspondents of British newspapers in France, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Czechoslovakia, and Italy.

     Upon the outbreak of war Z's assets were amalgamated into SIS's main organization and Cohen was attached to the French country section known as A5, becoming head of the Vichy section, designated P1 in May 1940. His task was to recruit sources from within the unoccupied zone of France, and one of his successes was Jacques Bridou, who was parachuted into France in March 1941 to establish the Alliance network, based in Pau and Marseilles and later to be headed by the formidable Marie-Madeleine Meric (Sister of Jacques Bridou and well known as Fourcade).

     In summer 1943, in anticipation of an invasion of Europe, Cohen was selected to take charge of Brissex, the British component of a large scheme, codenamed Sussex Plan, to parachute fifty-four two-man allied intelligence teams behind enemy lines. This huge paramilitary enterprise was intended to disrupt Nazi communications and logistics immediately after D-day and then liaise with local resistance organizations until overrun by the allies. The role played by Cohen required considerable tact and diplomacy because the American volunteers were inexperienced and the French intransigent.

     Cohen was appointed CMG in 1946, and in the aftermath of the war he held senior posts in SIS (chief controller of Europe and director of production).

     He retired in 1953 and was created CB.

     "With his sensitivity, astringent mind and understanding of international problems” (The Times) he served as European adviser to United Steel Companies from 1953 to 1966.

     During the last twenty years of his life his main interest was in promoting cross-channel friendship, and he served as chairman of the Franco-British Society from 1967 to 1972.

     He died in the Westminster Hospital, London, on 19 September 1984, survived by his wife.

 
                                                                                                                                                Nigel West

Sources
The Times (27 Sept 1984) ■ WWW ■ N West, MI6: British secret intelligence service operations, 1909-45 (1983)
Wealth at death
£541,491: probate, 1985, CGPLA Eng. & Wales
© Oxford University Press 2004
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Nigel West, 'Cohen, Kenneth Herman Salaman (1900-1984)',
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004
[accessed 9 Dec 2005: http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/67483]

Based on "Who Was Who"