The Secrecy Round

The following quiz questions were devised by Spencer Spencer using Webster’s Timeline History: Secrecy, 393 BC–2007. The questions are recorded here exactly as Spencer prepared them for the quiz on 2 July 2024 at The Geese pub in Brighton. The answer sheets of participating teams are included below, followed by the correct answers at the bottom of the page.

1. Which of these following statements about the almost legendary order of Knights Templar are popularly believed to be true, and which are false?

— The Knights Templar were an outfit of English monks who trained specifically to lead the vanguard of the first crusades.

— They were poor, and their military emblem of two riders on one horse reflected that.

— Upon taking Jerusalem, they were assigned to escort Europeans on pilgrimages to the holy lands, the operation funded by charity.

— They amassed land and riches and the practices of their growing network was essentially that of banking.

— Essayists argue that the order was effectively the world’s first multinational corporation.

— At one stage they owned the island of Malta in its entirety.

— A queen of Luxembourg was denied a loan to protect her estate and accused the order of heresy.

— Many Knights Templar went to trial and were burnt at the stake.

— In recent years the Abbey National building society was revealed in to be an asset of the order’s financial legacy, hastening its transition to Santander.

— TV hosts Ant & Dec both have a small tattoo of two riders on one push-bike.

2. Translating in English as “Work of God,” what is the name of the real-life Catholic sect associated with numerous controversies around the world, including misogyny, exploitation, and the lobbying of far-right political interests. They were portrayed as a shadowy and secretive order behind many of the mysteries being explored in the bestselling book and blockbusting film The Da Vinci Code.

3. Produced under both a veil of secrecy and the pretence of being a water carrier, Winston Churchill revealed “Little Willy” to a very select gathering one cold wintery evening, subjecting it to very rough treatment in a demonstration to test its performance. (*Yes I’ve worded that as childishly as possible.*) What was Little Willy a prototype of, and in which year was it unveiled?

4. Where in the midlands might you be figuratively sent if you are kept in the dark, or ostracised, potentially at your very real peril, by those you would have previously considered your allies?

5. Subject of recent documentaries and a cinematic release, name the top-secret operation that saw fake correspondence and personal details planted on a corpse in RAF uniform. The aim being that it would wash ashore, be found, reported, scrutinised by the Germans and divert troops from an intended target to meet a phantom threat elsewhere. For a second point, what was the allied target they wanted troops diverted from? And for a third, on which country’s coast was the body beached?

6. Subject to a seventy-year cold war, and ranking last in the Press Freedom Index, which country is also regarded by ex-CIA chiefs as the most opaque and challenging intelligence target in the world? “Even its defectors are unreliable, offering extreme and emotional stories for sale to foreign journalists, that are rarely consistent with revelations from previous sources.”

Correct Answers

1. F (French) / T / T / T / T / F (Cyprus) / F (indebted French king) / T / F / nobody knows

2. Opus Dei

3. Tank; 1915

4. Sent to Coventry

5. Mincemeat; Sicily; Spain

6. North Korea