In a striking revelation about the newly appointed head of MI6, Blaise Metreweli, The Times UK reports that little was known publicly about her until recent information surfaced—some from unlikely sources, such as WhatsApp messages among former classmates of Cheltenham Ladies’ College.
Metreweli, announced as Britain’s first female chief of the Secret Intelligence Service on June 15, has a decorated intelligence career with postings in Europe and the Middle East. Before her current appointment, she led MI6’s technology division. Yet the quiet professional rise of the Cambridge graduate contrasts with a newly uncovered family history that has sparked attention and unease.
According to archives in Freiburg, Germany—unearthed following Metreweli’s appointment—her paternal grandfather, Constantine Dobrowolski, was a Ukrainian Red Army defector who went on to serve as a Nazi spy chief in World War II. Known to his Wehrmacht commanders as “Agent 30,” Dobrowolski played a leading role in Nazi efforts in occupied Ukraine, organizing local police forces and collaborating in the extermination of Jews and suppression of partisans. His brutality earned him the nickname “The Butcher.”
Documents reveal that Dobrowolski personally boasted of his role in atrocities, including mass killings and looting. He signed letters to Nazi superiors with “Heil Hitler” and remained in Ukraine even as the Red Army advanced. His last known activity dates to August 1943.
Dobrowolski’s wife and infant son—Metreweli’s father Constantine—escaped to Germany and later settled in Britain. Constantine, a respected radiologist and British armed forces veteran, was raised without knowledge of his father’s identity and took the surname of his Georgian stepfather, David Metreweli.
The Foreign Office has confirmed Metreweli’s lack of personal connection to her grandfather and emphasized her “complex heritage” as a motivator behind her service. “Blaise’s ancestry is characterised by conflict and division and, as is the case for many with Eastern European heritage, only partially understood,” a spokesperson said. “It is precisely this complex heritage which has contributed to her commitment to prevent conflict and protect the British public from modern threats.”
Despite her grandfather’s dark legacy, colleagues and former peers paint a very different picture of Metreweli herself. According to Times UK, alumni of Cheltenham Ladies’ College—dubbed “Eton for girls” and once described by former MI5 chief Jonathan Evans as a targeted recruiting ground for spies—described her as “very popular and good at everything.” Alumna and author Kate Johnson recalled the school as a place where skills useful for espionage were developed in dormitories, from interrogation tactics to psychological pressure.
Metreweli was also a standout athlete, rowing for Cambridge University in 1997. Now, she makes history as the first woman to lead MI6—a role she takes on amid complex global threats and a complicated family past that she never personally lived, but may, in some measure, have shaped her resolve.
