Kenneth Cohen

Kenneth Herman Salaman Cohen was a British sailor and intelligence officer who served in both world wars. He was an officer of the Royal Navy who served as a cadet during World War I to see the Scuttling of the German fleet at Scapa Flow. He would often say that he was "the first Jew in the Royal Navy." After specializing as a torpedo officer during Interwar Period, he "retired" at the rank of Lieutenant commander in 1935. His retirement was a smokescreen to join the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS or MI6). Before Britain had formally entered World War II, Cohen worked for Thomas Kendrick and Claude Dansey as Z-3, placed in charge of the London Branch of the Z Organisation as deputy director. In 1943, he became the lead SIS spymaster and case officer for the entire region of Western Europe. He was also the Chair of the Tripartite Planning Committee for Operation SUSSEX. After the war, he became SIS Director of Personnel, Controller for Eastern Europe, and the Director of Production. In 1972, he became Vice President of the European League for Economic Cooperation, advocating heavily for Britain to join the European Union. He was also a member of the Garrick Club, a councillor for Chatham House, and was chair of the Franco-British Society. Cohen's grandfather was James Hermann, a briefly-served Rabbi in Brighton who ran a boarding school for Jewish boys, and later became the President of the Middle Street Synagogue. Herman became a well-respected lawyer and barrister. Cohen's mother was Bessie Salaman.

Cohen missed out the bulk of the First World War while he was attending Keyham, but he wrote about its aftermath upon joining the crew of the HMS Iron Duke to meet the surrendering German High Seas Fleet at the Firth of Forth and Operation ZZ: "Boarding parties were duly sent out to examine the victims—no-one could believe there would be no sign of resistance but there was none. It had been a magnificent spectacle and never since the days of the Persians can there have been such an endless spread of warships." Claude Dansey, known Colonel Z, was the director of the Z Organisation. A little into a year of his time at SIS, in 1936, Cohen was one of the very first officers recruited into the newly created Z Organisation, also sometimes referred to as the Z Network. The Z Organisation was the brainchild of Claude Dansey, who recognized that if the Germans would ever compromise the Passport Control Office, British intelligence would be irreparably damaged, and created the Z Organisation as a backstop.

Cohen was placed in charge of the London headquarters branch of the Z Organisation, based out of a rented office suite at Bush House, Aldwych, and another building on Maple Street, Fitzrovia. During the Phoney War, in 1939, Cohen continued working with Kendrick and took a new cover identity as Captain Crank, redeveloping clandestine intelligence operations with Kendrick around the continent.

World War II Shortly after the outbreak of World War II, Claude Dansey was forced to merge the Z Organisation into SIS, against his own wishes. Dansey's fears were realized when, shortly after the merger, the entire SIS network in Europe was compromised by a double agent.

Postwar career, later life, and death After the war, Cohen was appointed to several high-ranking positions within SIS. He was made the Director of Personnel, Controller for Eastern Europe, and again as the Director of Production.

Soviet agent Diamond cleared for duty According to Nigel West, while serving as the Director of Personnel for SIS in 1947, Cohen ignored a standard residency and nationality requirement in the vetting of George Blake. Despite the fact that SIS required its officers to have British nationality, he allowed Blake to become a fully operational officer of the spy agency. Blake was decades later held under suspicion by SIS Section V and MI5 as being potential mole or double agent for the Soviet Union who operated under the code name "Diamond." According to Stafford, when Andrew King was worried about his own application status at SIS, Cohen told King: "C says that since spies are only people of foreign origin, don't bother." Nigel West disputes the assertion that Andrew King was a mole or double agent, stating that King was only dismissed from the service in 1966 because he was a homosexual.