'Trent. Swimming Pool and Orangery', no date

Photograph postcard by Reginald A Malby and Company, no date.

Trent Park, near Cockfosters, north London, was a country house formerly owned by Sir Phillip Sassoon. Sir Phillip died in 1939 and the house was requisitioned by the British Government during World War Two (1939-1945). It was used to house prisoner of wars, initially captured German Air Force personnel, but later, senior German officers. British Military Intelligence installed listening devices in the house to eavesdrop on the German commanders. Intelligence was gathered about the Holocaust and other war crimes, resistance to Hitler's regime within the German military and secret weapons like the V2 rocket.

Reginald A Malby (1882-1924) was a renowned horticultural photographer and acted as an official photographer of the Royal Horticultural Society in the early 1900s. After his death his wife, Eleanor, continued to run the company bearing his name.

From an album of photographs compiled by Captain A E Hamley, Hampshire Regiment, who was on the staff of the prisoner of war camp for senior German officers at Trent Park during World War Two, 1943-1945.