The actor, who plays Q in Spectre, discloses the secrets of his grandfather’s wartime heroism – including his family’s real surname
By Ingrid Stellmacher and Patrick Foster
To James Bond fans, Q is the geeky genius responsible for the barely believable gadgets that help keep Daniel Craig’s 007 alive. But for Ben Whishaw, the actor who plays the character, the role has a greater dash of realism.
In a tale to rival any Bond plot, it can be revealed that the actor’s paternal grandfather was a multilingual British spy, blessed with a photographic memory, who was planted inside the German army during the Second World War.
Photo: Ben Whishaw’s grandfather, Jean Stellmacher,
spied for the British while serving in the German army
The story of why Whishaw’s grandfather, Jean Stellmacher, agreed to act as an undercover British agent, and how he came to adopt a new identity, were only revealed to the family by his wife, Olga, 50 years later, as her husband lay on his deathbed.
The couple’s exploits have been collected in a book, Piercing the Waves, by Stellmacher’s daughter, Ingrid, which will be published next year. In it, she also reveals her parents’ desperate efforts to enter Britain with no papers after the war ended, which culminated in an almost fatal attempt to row the 19 miles between France and Jersey in a stolen boat.
“Every step of my grandparents’ story is remarkable,” Whishaw told The Daily Telegraph. “Including how they tried to get into this country
Faced with the opportunity to acquire a mole within the German army, the British urged Stellmacher to obey the order to enlist, and instead to spy for them.
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Stellmacher was born in 1922 in Istanbul to a Russian mother and a German father. He was called up by the German army while at university in the city. With no emotional connection to Germany, and after telling a tutor of his horror at the prospect of fighting for Hitler, he was introduced to a contact at the British Embassy who, it transpired, was attached to the intelligence services. Faced with the opportunity to acquire a mole within the German army, the British urged Stellmacher to obey the order to enlist, and instead to spy for them.
It is not clear where, or with which regiment, Stellmacher served, but the fact that he spoke seven languages suggests that he may have worked in some form of staff liaison role. He is thought to have been blessed with an eidetic memory – the ability to recall sights and sounds effortlessly – and it is said that he passed information to the British about plans for the German invasion of North Africa.
In 1942, he escapes the German lines and turned himself over to the British in Cairo. He was subsequently assigned to the Intelligence Corps, but was then faced with the prospect of trying to assimilate while bearing an obviously German name.
Jean Stellmacher’s wife, Olga
“His real name, and obviously mine, would be Stellmacher,” said Whishaw. “But he was no more going to be in the British Army with a German name at that time, than he was going to come to England with one after the war.”
Why he chose with the name Whishaw is still a mystery – the family believes it may have been the surname of a senior officer – but Jean Vladimir Stellmacher became John Victor Whishaw. After the war ended, he returned to Britain and was demobilised in 1947. The notes on his British war record state that his military service was “exemplary”.
While the fighting may have come to an end, Stellmacher’s appetite for adventure did not. Having fallen in love with Olga while based in France during the war, he left for the Continent in 1948 without waiting for his British identity documents to arrive.
After being reunited with his sweetheart, but without possessing the papers to re-enter Britain, the pair hatched a plan to row from the French mainland to the British soil of Jersey. Faced with 10-foot waves and a howling gale, the journey turned into a 15-hour ordeal in which Olga burned her love letters as makeshift flares, trying to attract the attention of passing ships.
Upon reaching Jersey, the pair were arrested and deported back to France, and only managed to re-enter Britain later in the year. Stellmacher went on to hold down a number of jobs, including as a teacher and a writer, before his death in 1994, aged 72. His wife died earlier this year, aged 90.
Despite having learnt about his family history, Whishaw said he was not tempted to cast off his adopted surname, unlike Ingrid Stellmacher, who decided to change her name back to her father’s.
“It’s not something I have considered,” he said. “I like the name Whishaw and I feel inspired by my grandfather and the events that led him to have a new name.”
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