The Double-cross System in the War of 1939 to 1945

Born on 12 January 1891, John Cecil Masterman was educated at the Royal Naval Colleges of Osborne and Dartmouth and at Worcester College, Oxford, where he read Modern History. He later studied at the University of Freiburg where he was also an exchange lecturer in 1914, whicht was where he was when World War I broke out. Consequently he was interned as an enemy alien for four years in a prisoner-of-war camp in Ruhleben, where he spent much of his time polishing his German. After his return from captivity, he became tutor of Modern History at Christ Church, Oxford, where he was also censor from 1920 to 1926.