HN335 Mike Tyrrell joined the Metropolitan Police in 1965, aged 19, and Special Branch in 1967. He then was recruited to the SDS in August 1968, soon after its formation, and infiltrated groups including the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign, British Vietnam Solidarity Front, Revolutionary Socialist Students Federation, and West London Palestine Solidarity Campaign.
His deployment spanned from September 1968 to February 1970, during which time he closely monitored and reported on these groups' activities, particularly focusing on Maoist factions and their plans for demonstrations such as the October 27 1968 anti-Vietnam War protest. Throughout his deployment, Tyrrell attended numerous meetings and demonstrations, providing reports on the internal workings and plans of the groups he infiltrated. His reports included monitoring the activities of Abhimanyu Manchanda, a prominent Maoist. Tyrrell's time with the SDS was relatively short, as he retired from the SDS and the Metropolitan Police in early 1970.
HN335 Mike Tyrrell joined the Metropolitan Police on 22 February 1965, when aged just 19. Two years later on 11 September 1967 he became a Special Branch officer. At the time of his deployment in the SDS in 1968 he was still a young man and single.
Beyond reports attributed to him, little is known about his time in the SDS or how he came to join. From the dates on the reports released by the Inquiry, it appears he was not in the very first wave deployed in August 1968, but joined on 18 September 1968. His first report is of a street meeting of Earl’s Court VSC on 19 September. As was typical of the SDS in this very early period, Tyrrell’s initial focus was on groups mobilising for the large scale anti-Vietnam War demonstration to be held on 27 October 1968.
He was deployed specifically to replace HN218 Barry Moss who was ending his deployment. Moss introduced Tyrrell as his ‘best pal’ to the Maoist dominated Earl’s Court branch of the VSC. This corresponds with the dates of his first reports, some of which record the presence of both him and Moss.
Conrad Dixon’s November 1968 plan for the SDS, titled ‘Penetration of Extremist Groups’ , lists Tyrrell as focusing on Maoists and the Earl’s Court VSC. The remainder of his time in the field was spent reporting on the Maoists grouped around Abhimanyu Manchanda, a leading target of the SDS in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
According to Dixon’s paper, Tyrrell should have been deployed for just a year, but he was kept in the field for a further six months. The Counsel to the Inquiry has speculated that the reason he might have been kept on several months due to his intention to leave the MPS after five years’ service. In an annual qualification report, dated 27 January 1970, his SDS manager PN1748/HN3990 Riby Wilson wrote positively about Tyrrell. The same report has a comment from then Chief Superintendent HN585 Matt Rodger that Tyrrell was a ‘fine asset’ to Special Branch, but was about to get married and after which intended to emigrate to Australia in April 1970.
Tyrrell rapidly entered the Maoist grouping around Abhimanyu Manchanda and was able to report on many of its plans and activities ahead of the 27 October 1968 demonstration. Throughout October 1968 Tyrrell attended events on an almost daily basis. A noticeable site of many of the meetings he spied on in the Earl’s Court/West London area was the Troubadour Cafe, 265 Old Brompton Road, SW5.
Earl’s Court VSC and October 27th Committee for Solidarity with Vietnam
In particular, he regularly attended and reported back on the October 27th Committee for Solidarity with Vietnam. This committee was formed by Manchanda and the Britain Vietnam Solidarity Front (BVSF) on 19 September 1968 to present an alternative organisation to the main VSC organising committee for the 27 October demonstration, due to a difference in tactics. As such, it was most likely Tyrrell who provided significant insight into the evolving plans of the Maoist groups aligned around Manchanda, though he was not the only undercover who infiltrated them.
The first event Tyrrell attended was a public meeting of the Earl’s Court branch of the VSC on 19 September. The meeting was held on the street with speakers talking about US policy towards Vietnam. Tyrrell would have been able to stand in the crowd (noted as 30-50 people) and observe - standard Special Branch work at the time. In his report, Tyrrell notes that all were invited to a meeting of Earl’s Court VSC on 23 September at the Prince of Wales Pub, Old Brompton Road.
Earl’s Court was an established and active VSC branch that was dominated by Maoists. Already infiltrated by HN218 Barry Moss , the SDS considered the Maoist-controlled Earl’s Court and Notting Hill VSC branches as among the ‘best attended and most active branches’ in the organisation, though by 23 September 1968 they had been ‘officially disowned’ by the VSC executive. One of the leading lights of Earl’s Court VSC was Adolfo Oleachea who was named in the SDS’ 9 October weekly report as a key figure in the organising for the 27 October demonstration.
Tyrrell’s next report is from several days later, when he and Moss went to a private meeting of the October 27th Committee for Solidarity with Vietnam, held on 22 September 1968 at the Union Tavern, Kings Cross Road. By attending this meeting, Tyrrell and Moss were able to report on the internal organisation and work of the October 27th Committee and the discussions on what it should do on the day of the protest.
The next day, the pair of officers were at a Earl’s Court VSC meeting attended by 15 people including Manchanda, who summarised the previous day’s meeting. The group decided there were not enough facts available to enable them to decide on the route they would take on 27 October.
Tyrrell attended the next of the weekly private meetings (albeit as one of 36 attendees) of the October 27th Committee for Solidarity with Vietnam on 29 September 1968, this time by himself. This positioned him well for reporting back about its activities and internal issues in other branches. In his report he also notes upcoming meetings of Friends of China and the Revolutionary Socialist Students Federation , both linked to the network around Manchanda.
As the RSSF London Region were holding their meeting the following day, 30 September 1968, Earl’s Court VSC switched to having their weekly meeting to 1 October. There is no report disclosed relating to it, but Tyrrell sent a late-night telegram to Special Branch writing that the Earl’s Court VSC was planning to break from the official route of the 27 October march and try to enter Grosvenor Square.
On 11 October 1968, Tyrrell and another undercover, HN322 , were present at a public meeting and film showing of the South East London VSC Ad Hoc Committee in Catford. Speakers included Manchanda and another prominent member of his circle, Mike Earle. This was quite far outside Tyrrell’s geographical area so it is likely he attended as part of a group of fellow activists offering support to the event. HN322 is the report’s author. HN322 was intended to become an SDS UCO and sent to target the South East London VSC, so another option is that Tyrrell was there to facilitate HN322’s infiltration. However, it appears that HN322 was never formally deployed.
On 13 October 1968 Tyrrell was back at the weekly meeting of the October 27th Committee where he reported back that the group had met with Commander John Lawlor of the Metropolitan Police. It is made clear that the organisation’s tactics for the 27 October demonstration had still to be decided but would be reported back on at the next meeting on 20 October. The report was prepared by HN328 Joan Hillier on Tyrrell’s behalf.
Tyrrell remained busy attending events throughout October 1968. For instance, on 16 October, he attended a public meeting and film showing organised by the North West London section of the October 27th Committee. The main speaker was LSE lecturer Nick Bateson, who noted that it had been decided by the October 27th Committee that they would accompany the main march on 27 October in order to recruit people for the diversion to the US Embassy. Tyrrell reported Bateson’s exact words in his report:
On the question of violence and ‘police brutality’ [Bateson] said ‘we will not instigate hostilities but no doubt we will be the subject of such hostilities and we will then resist.” He advised demonstrators to wear protective clothing and goggles should tear gas be used, ‘though it has not been used to date and probably will not be.’ The necessity for an ‘organised march was stressed though no definitive plans were made.
Following a debate, the Committee adopted their route for the 27 October demonstration; from Victoria Embankment to conclude at Grosvenor Square, where the US Embassy was situated. This was publicly announced, as the Inquiry noted. It would also appear that Tyrrell was the main source on the Maoists’ intentions for the 27 October demonstration, his intelligence making it into the SDS’ weekly intelligence report on preparations for 22 October.
On 26 October, Earl’s Court VSC planned a local march to drum up support for the demo the following day. Tyrrell used the opportunity to report on forthcoming RSSF meetings, with HN322 preparing and signing his submission.
Presumably, Tyrrell attended the march of 27 October 1968, but no report on it has been provided. The following day he attended a private meeting of the Britain Vietnam Solidarity Front at the Union Tavern pub in Islington, North London, where 40 people took part in a discussion of the demonstration. He noted there would be a forthcoming demonstration in support of the Vietnamese and a resolution to make plans to demonstrate at prisons where four Maoist comrades were being held after being arrested at Grosvenor Square. The report was prepared by HN3095 Bill Furner who was SDS back office staff.
Following the 27 October demonstration, it is clear there was an intention to keep Tyrrell in the field and focused on Maoists. He joined Manchanda, Inquiry core participant Diane Langford and others at a meeting of the newly formed West London branch of the Palestine Solidarity Committee on the 29 October. Several days later he was at a meeting of the Anti-Imperialist Solidarity Movement, though its outlook would have differed from the politics of the Revolutionary Marxist-Leninist League , led by Manchanda.
Though his disclosed reports are scarce, they show him continuing to attend meetings and report on the activities of the Britain Vietnam Solidarity Front, Earl’s Court VSC and the Revolutionary Socialists Students Federation. Such activities included planning marches and later organising for the next VSC mass demonstration on 9 March 1969. The Inquiry noted there was evidence Tyrrell attended an RSSF conference in November 1968 In December 1968 Tyrrell reported on the RSSF’s plans to hold a demonstration at New Scotland Yard to protest police brutality.
December 1968 also saw Tyrrell and HN3093 Roy Creamer put together a report into the internal divisions in the Maoists, focusing on the dispute between Manchanda and Nick Bateson. The background to this was a meeting of the Joint Communist Committee (JCC), a loose, London-focused organisation which sought to bring together the various Marxist-Leninist (Maoist) groups and encourage them to work with each other. Manchanda was part of this, as were Nick Bateson and others from the Camden Communist Movement (CCM). Bateson had been prominent in the anti-Vietnam War movement and was noted for being expelled from the London School of Economics over his political activism.
On 17 November 1968 a JCC meeting was held at the home of Ed Davoren, the Secretary of the London RSSF branch. At this meeting there was a split between Bateson and Manchanda. An impasse was reached, and it was agreed that Manchanda would form the Revolutionary Marxist Leninist League, while Bateson and others would form the London Marxist-Leninists. Davoren later aligned himself with Manchanda before going on to found the Irish National Liberation Solidarity Front. For more information on this read the profile of HN347 Alex Sloan. One of the important aspects of this report is the extent to which the SDS monitored the politics of even relatively small Maoist groups in London, something which informed tasking decisions for later undercovers.
The Inquiry released only a few reports by Tyrrell for 1969. There is nothing related to the BVSF’s anti-Vietnam War demonstration of 9 March even though Manchanda was prominent in Special Branch reporting ahead of it.
Several reports from June 1969 show that Tyrell continued his infiltration of the RSSF and the RMLL and his relatively close association with the circle around Manchanda. For instance, he was at a private meeting of London RSSF on 11 June, at which another undercover HN135 Mike Ferguson was present , and attended a social event on 20 June . Several days later, Tyrrell was with the RMLL contingent at the RSSF National Seminar at Leicester University.
Core participant and Manchanda’s partner, Diane Langford recalls being at the conference as it was the first time she spoke in public, giving a paper on Women’s Liberation to a largely male audience. She commented:
Despite this being a detailed report, Tyrrell often chooses to focus in on the divisions between us, and there is reporting for its own sake rather than anything that meets a clear policing objective.
After June 1969, there is another gap in disclosed reports until October. On 15 October Tyrrell was one of thirteen people, including Manchanda and Langford, at a meeting to form the West London branch of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC). An number of subsequent reports also focus on the West London PSC. It is of note that on the PSC National Executive is Adolfo Oleachea who would have been known to Tyrrell from his time in Earl’s Court VSC.
The last of Tyrrell’s reports that have been disclosed are from February 1970. On 5 February he sent a telegram that the BVSF had purchased a van and recorded its details. This is followed up in a report that notes the vehicle was held in the name of Diane Langford, and that she had moved in with Manchanda following their marriage.
The very last report from Tyrrell, is an account of the inaugural meeting of the Paddington and Kensington branch of the PSC held on 25 March. Among those present were Nick Bateson, Chair of the PSC, and Norman Temple. This report is unusual in that there is no mention of Manchanda or Langford and the group was also situated a little to the north of Tyrrell’s usual patch. His presence at a meeting led by Bateson may point to the start of an exit strategy where he initially switched sides away from the RMLL before disappearing. In reality Tyrrell voluntarily retired from the Metropolitan Police after five years, which indicates he must have departed soon after his time in the SDS.
HN335 was included in a tranche of officers for which applications for anonymity had to be submitted by 1 July 2017. As no cover name could be discovered and Tyrrell was dead, the Metropolitan Police made no application for anonymity on his behalf.
The Inquiry decided that his name would not be redacted in any documents and witness statements it published. You can read the documents relating to this in the documents tab.