Carl Hans Lody

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Carl Hans Lody (January 20, 1877 – November 6, 1914) was executed as a German spy by Great Britain at the Tower of London soon after the outbreak of World War I.

Born in Berlin, Lody was shot at the Tower's rifle range by an eight-man firing squad drawn from the 3rd Battalion, The Scots Guards. He was the first person to be incarcerated at the Tower for almost a century, and the first executed there in over 150 years.

Baden-Powell wrote of him:

The plea put forward by the German spy, Lieut. Carl Lody, at his court-martial in London, was that " he would not cringe for mercy. He was not ashamed of anything that he had done; he was in honour bound not to give away the names of those who had employed him on this *mission; he was not paid for it, he did it for his country's good, and he knew that he carried his life in his hands in doing so. Many a Briton was probably doing the same for Britain." He was even spoken of in our House of Commons as being "a patriot who had died for his country as much as any soldier who fell in the field."

A German destroyer, the Hans Lody, was named for him.