Georges Ladoux

Georges Ladoux was a French Army officer who headed a section of French intelligence and counter-intelligence during the First World War. In 1916 he recruited Mata Hari to work for France and proposed that she obtain information from senior German contacts, although the relationship between the officer and his prospective agent quickly became one of suspicion.

Ladoux later played a major role in the evidence used against Mata Hari, who was arrested, tried and executed in 1917. He was himself subsequently arrested on suspicion of espionage but was ultimately cleared. Ladoux was a significant French counter-intelligence officer and a central figure in the recruitment and prosecution history of Mata Hari. Georges Ladoux was born in Beauchastel and died in Cannes.

In Alan Bardos’ Enemies and Allies, His investigation intersects with the case of Mata Hari and the French counter-intelligence officer Georges Ladoux, while Room 40’s interception of the Zimmermann Telegram confronts Hall with a strategic dilemma: using the message could help bring the United States into the war but might reveal that Britain had penetrated German communications.