Robert Chartham was the pseudonym of Ronald Sydney Seth (5 June 1911,[1]England – 1 February 1985[2]), a British writer who used the name Chartham for his activity as a sexologist and the name Seth for travel books and books about espionage.
Appointed Professor of Literature at the University of Tallinn, Seth returned to London at the start of World War II, joining the BBC and helping to start the Monitoring Intelligence Bureau.[4] In 1941 he was commissioned into the RAF and in 1942 joined SOE.[4] Parachuted into Estonia, he was captured by and later defected to the Germans. He was trained by the Sicherheitsdienst as an agent for a mission to Britain.[5] Seth spent most of the rest of the war as a "stool pigeon" in Oflag 79, but in April 1945 was entrusted with a message of peace by Himmler, which he carried to London via Switzerland.[4]
Chartham's career included teaching and counselling in European universities, lecturing to British university students on "How to Enjoy Sex" and serving as a counsellor in his own London clinic.
He was an editorial consultant to Forum: The International Journal of Human Relations.
In the 1970s Seth lived in Malta with his second wife, Barbara McAdam Seth.[6]
Works
as Ronald Seth:
Baltic Corner: Travel in Estonia, 1939
A Spy Has No Friends, 1952. Republished 2008 by Barbara Seth, Seth's second wife.[7]
Secret Servants, a History of Japanese Espionage, 1957
Operation Retriever, Before 1958
Operation Lama, Before 1958
The True Book about the Secret Service, Before 1958
Operation Ormer, Before 1958
How Spies Work, Before 1958
The Spy and the Atom Gun: Introducing Captain Geoffrey Martel of the British Secret Service, 1958