Norman Baillie-Stewart (15 January 1909 – 7 June 1966) was a British army officer who was arrested in 1933 for espionage, and subsequently convicted and imprisoned.

Baillie-Stewart's father was Lieutenant Colonel Cron Hope Baillie Wright (1875-1937)[1][2] an officer in the British Indian Army who served in the 62nd Punjabis during the First World War.

His older brother, Eric Codrington Stewart Wright (1905-1987)[4] also joined the army, and became a 2nd Lieutenant in the Loyal Regiment (North Lancashire) in 1925.

[6] There, he served as an orderly to Prince Henry, a younger son of King George V.[7] In January 1929, just before he graduated, he changed his surname from Wright to Baillie-Stewart,[7][8] perhaps under the belief that he was looked down upon by more senior officers.

He graduated tenth in the order of merit and in February 1929 received a commission as a subaltern in the Seaforth Highlanders[9] although he soon grew to dislike army life.

In 1930, he saw active service on the North West Frontier, where he was reprimanded by his company commander for removing a native banner from an Afridi tribal graveyard, which aggravated tensions with local tribesmen.

During the autumn of 1932, Baillie-Stewart made three weekend trips to the Netherlands, briefly meeting a German contact in Rotterdam each time, although MI5 was initially unaware of this as they confined their investigation to intercepting his mail.

[14] In January 1933, it was decided to confront Baillie-Stuart with the gathered evidence, and offer him the chance to quietly resign from the army in exchange for information about his contact in Germany.

The story of Baillie-Stewart's arrest was revealed in the press by the well-known romance novelist Barbara Cartland (then working as a gossip columnist) who got the details from an acquaintance.

[16] The story of an officer from a prestigious regiment, facing the unprecedented charges of espionage and held in the famous Tower of London quickly became a press sensation.

Receiving no answer, he travelled to Berlin without permission to take leave, where he telephoned the German Foreign Ministry and demanded to talk to an English-speaker.

[21] In August 1937, eight months after his release from prison, Baillie-Stewart moved to Vienna, where he applied for Austrian citizenship, however, it was refused since he did not meet the residency qualification.

In February 1938, the Austrian government, led by Kurt Schuschnigg, suspected him of being a Nazi agent and gave him three weeks to leave Austria.

It has been speculated that it was Baillie-Stewart who made the broadcast that led the pseudonymous Daily Express radio critic Jonah Barrington to coin the term "Haw-Haw".

[27] In 1944, Baillie-Stewart had himself sent to Vienna for medical treatment, where he was arrested in 1945 in Altaussee, while he was wearing "chamois leather shorts, embroidered braces and a forester's jacket", and was sent back to Britain to face charges of high treason.

[18] In January 1946, Baillie-Stewart was charged under the 1939 Defence Regulations with aiding the enemy; he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to five years in prison.