I've read numerous accounts that Ronald Speirs, who stayed in the Army after WWII and retired in 1966 as a Lieutenant Colonel, was appointed as "Governor" of Spandau Prison in the British Sector of West Berlin.

I was assigned to the Berlin Brigade in 1983 and left in 1991 in one long assignment. I was there when Hess committed suicide in 1987 and it took the Brits about 3 nanoseconds to completely raze the prison. They took the debris and either buried it or dumped it in the North Sea, according to these accounts, all of which was done to discourage the formation of a Nazi shrine.

At any rate, I have looked high and low for evidence that Speirs was named as "Governor" of Spandau Prison. I've never been able to find anything on that at all, except for somebody writing to say that he was.

This was not how Spandau Prison operated. Each of the four Allied Powers (France, Britain, Soviet Union, USA) took turns in guarding that prison. Each month, the guard mount was held and the reins would be passed in a small ceremony in front of the prison. A junior-grade officer would command the guard and a small contingent of soldiers was stationed at the prison during the month of their tour.

As best as I can tell, there was no "Governor" of Spandau Prison, at least during my time and until 1987. Certainly, the infantry battalions within the Berlin Brigade were tasked to come up with soldiers to serve as guards, but they were temporarily commanded by junior grade officers and only during their month of service. That duty was not permanent and the guards would change as soldiers rotated in and out of Berlin and to their availability. It's possible that an experienced NCO would serve as Sergeant of the Guard and supervise the platoon or so of soldiers serving and, as I stated, a junior officer was designated as Officer of the Guard, but no "Governor".

The implication of the term "Governor" is that this officer, Speirs in this case, was cited as being overall in charge for ALL of the Four Allied Powers, and that is certainly not the case -- at least I've not been able to find evidence supporting that theory.

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U.S. Army, Retired