Mark Pepys, 6th Earl of Cottenham

Mark Everard Pepys, 6th Earl of Cottenham (29 May 1903 – 19 July 1943) was an English peer, baronet, motor racing driver, member of the House of Lords, and MI5 officer.

He resigned from MI5 during the Second World War, soon after the German attack on the Soviet Union (Operation Barbarossa), as he did not support the continuation of the war against Germany. Early life Mark Pepys was born on 29 May 1903. He was a member of the House of Lords from 1924 until his death in 1943 and spoke in the Lords on roads matters. As a racing driver, in 1925 and 1926 he raced at Brooklands driving an Austin 7 and a works Alvis. It was reported that he always took his valet with him to races, to make sure he was well turned out. He later founded a motoring association called the Order of the Road, which promoted safe driving.

Cottenham served as an officer in the Leicestershire Yeomanry and was promoted to the rank of lieutenant on 25 April 1926. He resigned his commission on 4 May 1927.

In 1932, Cottenham wrote a series of articles for The Daily Express in which he declared his belief in spiritualism and stated that he was himself a medium. He had been introduced to the subject by the mother of the late Henry Segrave and by Estelle Roberts.

In 1939, Cottenham returned to the Leicestershire Yeomanry. By the beginning of the Second World War, he had been put in charge of MI5's Transport Section. However, in 1941, after Churchill had come to power, and after the Germans had launched Operation Barbarossa, he resigned from MI5 and went to live in the United States, as he no longer supported the war with Germany. Cottenham was succeeded in his peerages by his younger brother, Digby Pepys. Cottenham married Sybil Venetia Taylor, a daughter of Captain John Vickris Taylor, They had two daughters: Devon was a cousin of Cottenham's, as his grandmother Lady Evelyn Pepys (1839–1910) was a daughter of the first Earl of Cottenham.

Publications Cottenham's novel All Out (1932), dedicated to the widow of his old racing companion Henry Segrave, tells the story of a group of motoring friends fighting a gang of international criminals and includes a dramatic racing crash which was drawn from experience.

Motoring To-day and To-morrow (1928) is dedicated to Reginald Pound, with a note from Cottenham to say that "in motoring, as in other things, we cherish similar ideals, dislike the same tendencies". Motoring Without Fears (London: Methuen & Co., 1928) Motoring To-day & To-morrow, with a Preface by John Buchan, illustrated by A. E. Horne (London: Methuen & Co., 1928) Steering-Wheel Papers (London: Cassell, 1932) All Out: the story of Tom Furness's adventure (London: Cassell, 1932, novel) Sicilian Circuit: being some further adventures of Mr. Thomas Furness and his friends (London: Cassell, 1933, novel) Mine Host, America (London: Collins, 1937)