Carl Hans Lody | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 20 January 1877 Berlin, Free State of Prussia, German Empire |
| Died | 6 November 1914 (aged 37) Tower of London, London, England |
| Cause of death | Execution by firing squad |
| Allegiance |  German Empire |
| Service |  Imperial German Navy |
| Years of service | 1900–01, 1914 |
| Rank | Oberleutnant zur See[a] |
| Awards | Iron Cross, Second Class (posthumous) |
Carl Hans Lody, alias Charles A. Inglis (20 January 1877 – 6 November 1914; name occasionally given as Karl Hans Lody), was a reserve officer of the Imperial German Navy who spied in the United Kingdom in the first few months of the First World War.
In May 1914, two months before the start of World War 1, Lody was approached by German naval intelligence officials. He agreed to be a peacetime spy in southern France, but after war broke out, in late August he was sent to the United Kingdom with orders to spy on the Royal Navy. Lody had been given no training in espionage, and within only a few days of arriving he was detected by the British authorities. The British counter-espionage agency MI5, then known as MO5(g), allowed him to continue his activities in the hope of learning more about the German spy network. His first two messages were allowed to reach the Germans, but later messages were stopped, as they contained sensitive military information. At the start of October 1914, concern over the increasingly sensitive nature of his messages prompted MO5(g) to order his arrest.
Lody was put on public trial – the only one held for a German spy captured in the UK in either world war – before a military court in London. He was convicted and sentenced to death after a three-day hearing. Four days later, on 6 November 1914, Lody was shot at dawn by a firing squad at the Tower of London in the first execution there in 167 years.
When the Nazi Party came to power in Germany in 1933, it declared him a national hero. Lody became the subject of memorials, eulogies and commemorations in Germany before and during the Second World War. A destroyer bore his name.
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