Communists and suspected Communists: Sylvia Townsend-Warner and Valentine Ackland

File ref KV 2/2337-2338

Noted writer Townsend-Warner first came to the attention of the Security Service through the activities of her partner and fellow writer Valentine Ackland, who is featured heavily on this file along with Townsend-Warner. Ackland had written to the Communist Party offering her services to distribute literature in Dorset in 1935, and the intercepted letter initiated an investigation.

KV 2/2337 (covering 1935-1937) gives a wealth of detail about the women's domestic arrangements, gathered from intercepted correspondence, police reports, newspaper cuttings and their writings. Typical of this is a report from October 1935 by Wool Police (at serial 24): " Miss Ackland...spends a considerable time shooting rabbits, for which she uses a rifle, and when at home she more often than not wears male clothing in preference to female attire. Miss Warner is appears normal in habits."

Though no action was taken against the women, consideration of the case continued on until 1955 (KV 2/2238). In 1941 Townsend-Warner was considered as a lecturer to the troops, and the Service blocked this; while in the same year a suspicious telegram from Ackland to Elizabeth White was sent for consideration by the plain code experts - where it was deemed "harmless".