Geoff Hanley (Photo source: Express and Star)
Many thanks to my friend, Phillip, for sharing this brilliant article from the Express and Star:
Researchers discover Wolverhampton man’s secret past
He was a happily married insurance agent with a secret that he took to the grave.
Geoff Hanley was known to be a keen radio ham but nobody realised exactly what he was doing once he donned a pair of special issue headphones in his garden shed.
He would leave his family night after night to operate from the ‘radio shack’ that was specially blacked out for fear of air raids and in which he kept a sten gun, Lee Enfield 303 rifle and hand grenades.
When the siren sounded he ensured his wife, two children and dog were safe in the shelter he had dug in the garden of their Wolverhampton home but he would not join them. He stayed above ground at his post in the shed continuing to secretly monitor German military radio signals.
The operation was so hush-hush that even he may not have been entirely sure how the information he gathered was being used. But he was certain of two things – it was important and he could not speak about it to anybody outside those he worked with.