Todays very interesting talk was about the life of Sir Edgar Speyer - Banker, Traitor, Scapegoat, Spy? - by experienced speaker Professor Antony Lentin (Wolfson College) - past Professor of History and Tutor in Law for the Open University.

BANKER, TRAITOR, SCAPEGOAT, SPY? 

The Troublesome Case of Sir Edgar Speyer

by Antony Lentin 

In the past month Antony Lentin has featured in the Guardian and on ITV news to speak about his book Banker, Traitor, Scapegoat, Spy? With the last Night of the Proms still ringing in our ears, we hope that you'll spare a thought for their uncredited benefactor, Sir Edgar Speyer, who, because of his German parentage, was ostracised on the outbreak of war in 1914 and has been unfairly erased from our history books.

Sir Edgar Speyer was a conspicuous figure in the financial, cultural, social and political life of Edwardian London.

In the early summer of 1914 Speyer and his wife, the concert violinist Leonora Speyer, stood at the peak of their success and celebrity in London society. However within weeks, at the outbreak of WW1 they became objects of suspicion and aversion. In 1921 a judicial enquiry found Speyer guilty of disloyalty and disaffection and of communicating and trading with the enemy and he was stripped of his citizenship.

The downfall of Sir Edgar Speyer has been described as `a minor tragedy of the war'. This book is the first detailed account of the episode. It re-examines the Speyer case from documents newly released, presents the evidence and invites the reader to decide whether Sir Edgar was an innocent victim, a scapegoat, or a traitor to his adopted country.