Latimer House

As the Allies made military progress in North Africa in 1942 and Italy in 1943, so too the number of enemy prisoners increased. Kendrick prepared two further sites where his staff could listen in to the conversations of the prisoners. The stately homes and estates of Latimer House and Wilton Park were chosen, both in Buckinghamshire. These two sites held lower rank prisoners for a few days in specially constructed cell blocks in the grounds of the estate, where their conversations were monitored. The house itself was used as an Officers' Mess. It was also the place where Kendrick met top Intelligence Chiefs from London to update them on material coming out of the M Room. The Latimer House site was masked as a supply depot, known by a cover name of No.1 Distribution Centre, but in reality it was the centre of secret work. It was opened in May 1942. Such was the importance attached to it that Churchill ordered an unlimited budget to be spent on converting the site for use as a bugging station. The equivalent of £21 million was spent on setting up operations here, including the construction of special buildings to house the M Room, interrogation rooms and administration block.