Thomas Elphinstone Hambledon
Encyclopedia
Thomas Elphinstone Hambledon (Tommy Hambledon) is the fictional protagonist of many spy novels written by the British author "Manning Coles
" (actually the two-person writing team of Adelaide Frances Oke Manning and Cyril Henry Coles) from 1940 through 1963. Tommy was a teacher in a British boarding school in his first appearance in Drink to Yesterday and, during school vacations, a spy in Germany
for the Foreign Office. At the end of this book, which takes place in World War I
, he disappears at sea and is presumed dead. He reappears as the hero of the next book, Pray Silence (known in the US by the title Toast to Tomorrow), which begins in the 1920s. He is an amnesiac in Germany who gradually works his way up in the fledgling Nazi Party until, in 1933, he becomes Hitler's Chief of Police. He then recovers his memory and thereafter battles to defeat Hitler and his plans. At the end of the book he fakes his own death in Danzig (Hitler himself reads the oration at his 'funeral') and stows away with Reck on an English cargo ship bound for Cardiff. On their return to England he and Reck are faced with the problem of a series of unexplained sinkings of ships not long out of harbour in Portsmouth in They Tell No Tales.
In Green Hazard the Gestapo mistake him for Professor Ulseth, inventor of a new and extremely powerful high explosive, and kidnap him. He then finds himself once again in Berlin where he has to fool his 'hosts' into believing that he actually knows something about chemistry whilst praying that they will fail to recognise a former colleague. After World War II
, he continued his career in the Foreign Office and helped defeat a number of Communist plots. In these later adventures, he was frequently aided by a semi-comic team of model-makers from the Clerkenwell Road in London
, Forgan and Campbell who first appear in A Brother for Hugh. In this and some other of Manning Coles' subsequent novels Hambledon actually occupies quite a minor role - in The Man in the Green Hat he hardly appears at all in the first half of the book.
Cyril Coles himself was an avid model maker and was, at the time of his death, building a train set from scratch for his young grandson. Like so many other things in the background of Hambledon, the similarity with Cyril Coles's life is close.
Manning Coles
Manning Coles is the pseudonym of two British writers, Adelaide Frances Oke Manning and Cyril Henry Coles , who wrote many spy thrillers from the early 40s through the early 60s. The fictional protagonist in 26 of their books was Thomas Elphinstone Hambledon, who works for the Foreign...
" (actually the two-person writing team of Adelaide Frances Oke Manning and Cyril Henry Coles) from 1940 through 1963. Tommy was a teacher in a British boarding school in his first appearance in Drink to Yesterday and, during school vacations, a spy in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
for the Foreign Office. At the end of this book, which takes place in World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, he disappears at sea and is presumed dead. He reappears as the hero of the next book, Pray Silence (known in the US by the title Toast to Tomorrow), which begins in the 1920s. He is an amnesiac in Germany who gradually works his way up in the fledgling Nazi Party until, in 1933, he becomes Hitler's Chief of Police. He then recovers his memory and thereafter battles to defeat Hitler and his plans. At the end of the book he fakes his own death in Danzig (Hitler himself reads the oration at his 'funeral') and stows away with Reck on an English cargo ship bound for Cardiff. On their return to England he and Reck are faced with the problem of a series of unexplained sinkings of ships not long out of harbour in Portsmouth in They Tell No Tales.
In Green Hazard the Gestapo mistake him for Professor Ulseth, inventor of a new and extremely powerful high explosive, and kidnap him. He then finds himself once again in Berlin where he has to fool his 'hosts' into believing that he actually knows something about chemistry whilst praying that they will fail to recognise a former colleague. After World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, he continued his career in the Foreign Office and helped defeat a number of Communist plots. In these later adventures, he was frequently aided by a semi-comic team of model-makers from the Clerkenwell Road in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, Forgan and Campbell who first appear in A Brother for Hugh. In this and some other of Manning Coles' subsequent novels Hambledon actually occupies quite a minor role - in The Man in the Green Hat he hardly appears at all in the first half of the book.
Cyril Coles himself was an avid model maker and was, at the time of his death, building a train set from scratch for his young grandson. Like so many other things in the background of Hambledon, the similarity with Cyril Coles's life is close.