What did Britain do to WWII spies?

Bob001

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In "Allied," Brad Pitt portrays a Canadian WWII officer in London whose wife (Marion Cotillard) is suspected of spying for the Germans. His superiors set a trap for her and warn him that if she fails the test, he will have to kill her himself or both will be executed. Question: Could this ever have happened? It's hard to imagine the UK sanctioning casual murder, and in the particular circumstances described, it would have made more practical sense to try to feed an agent false information or try to enlist her as a double-agent. Pure fantasy, or factual foundation?
http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/allied-2016
 
theprestige said:
Why would it be murder?
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No judicial process, no eminent threat, no arrest, no charges, no lawyers, no trial, no defense. Just "You kill your wife or we'll kill you both." Sure sounds like murder by most standards.
 
Tolls said:
They would have just arrested her...and as you thought, attempted to use her.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double-Cross_System

We didn't execute them as a matter of course. Largely , I suspect, because most of them seemed happy to turn themselves in and work as double agents.
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This.
Otherwise a trial, quite possibly in secret, or by military tribunal under the Treachery Act of 1940 and hanging.
 
Bob001 said:
In "Allied," Brad Pitt portrays a Canadian WWII officer in London whose wife (Marion Cotillard) is suspected of spying for the Germans. His superiors set a trap for her and warn him that if she fails the test, he will have to kill her himself or both will be executed. Question: Could this ever have happened? It's hard to imagine the UK sanctioning casual murder, and in the particular circumstances described, it would have made more practical sense to try to feed an agent false information or try to enlist her as a double-agent. Pure fantasy, or factual foundation?
http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/allied-2016
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Movies aren't generally a good source for historical facts.

There is an actual documented murder of a double agent from the Vietnam war to look at:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_B._Rheault

I don'r believe that in the real world a suspected agent would be executed out of hand in the circumstances depicted in the movie, but if this was a question of circumstances on the ground in a war zone history might well repeat itself.
 
The proscribed process was a proper trial, although it could have been in camera for state security reasons, and then execution if that was the sentence. In Britain in WW2, that would have been hanging.
 
Norman Alexander said:
The proscribed process was a proper trial, although it could have been in camera for state security reasons, and then execution if that was the sentence. In Britain in WW2, that would have been hanging.
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Except one of the 2 that were executed was permitted a firing squad out of respect for his status as a German officer.
 
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