Spooks

👤 Stephen Dorril  

See also:

Below is a list of spooks, both dead and alive, I have spotted over the last eighteen months. Full biographical details will be published in an updated Spooks Who’s Who.

(C) = controversial. Assessment based on career details.
(IRD) = Information Research Department, usually listed in diplomatic lists of the period.

  • Margaret Bradfield: MI6 Chief of Stockholm 1989 (Intelligence Newsletter 6 December 1989).
  • John Quine: MI6 40s and 50s ended as Head of Counter-Espionage Department (Sunday Telegraph 16 September 1990).
  • Ian Crichley: MI6 40s and 50s, ended as Deputy Head of Personnel Department (Sunday Telegraph 16/9/90).
  • Murray Micklejohn: MI6 involved with Crabb affair (Sunday Telegraph 6 May 1990).
  • John Everett: GCHQ important scientist 70s and 80s (HEE Proceedings, vol. 132, Pt. 1, No. 4, July 1989).
  • Viscount Ruthven: Section D (MI6) Cairo with Freya Stark (Sunday Telegraph 5 August 1990).
  • Commander Bill Emmet: MI5 Italy WW2 (Daily Telegraph 2 November 1985).
  • G.J. Deverell: MI6 station chief Budapest 1941 (Letter, The Times, 22 April 1991).
  • Douglas Gordon: British Consul-General Aden, expelled for spying (Sunday Correspondent 26 August 1990).
  • J. Johnston: Radio Security Service in WW2 (letter, Sunday Telegraph 12 August 1990). Group Captain William Cross: Expelled Algeria (Independent 15 April 1991).
  • John Peskett: “Former Intelligence Officer’ (letter, Sunday Telegraph 16 September 1990).
  • Stephen Wordsworth: MI6 Bonn (Private Eye 19 July 1991).
  • Dennis Keefe: MI6 at the Foreign Office (Private Eye 19 July 1991).
  • Muriel Spark: Novelist, worked during the war for the Foreign Office in “one of those hush-hush intelligence places’. (Independent on Sunday 23 September 1990).
  • Arthur Neat: MI6 20s and 30s, travelled through the Balkans and Central Europe (Tomes Rozec and Valentin Tsurkin, Wanted, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1988, p. 105).
  • Capt. Ronald Nutting: MI5 30s and early 40s (Baigent, Leigh and Lincoln, The Messianic Legacy, Corgi, London, 1987, pp. 323/4).
  • Stanley Adams: SOE and MI6 WW2 (Ibid. p. 480).
  • John Smith (?): MI6, HQ of Director of Operations Borneo 1970-71 (Barry Petersen, Tiger Men, Macmillan, Australia, 1988).
  • Dick Noone: MI6 commanding the special operations base in Sabah, Borneo, 1970-71, died 1973. (Ibid.).
  • Peter Langan: Used as an MI5 agent against the IRA in 60s (Langan, A Life With Food, Bloomsbury, London, 1990).
  • Mike Jeffrey: Manager of Jimi Hendrix, MI5 counter-intelligence agent 50s. (Victor Sampson, Hendrix, Proteus, London, pp. 101-2).
  • Michael Stokes: MI6 involved with Penkovsky (BBC TV 8/5/91).
  • John Collins: MI6 London 1961-62 (BBC TV 8/5/91).
  • Terrence Bennett: died 1978. Probably MI6 (personal information), taught in Malaya in the 50s and dropped out; moved from country to country — 60s Middle East, Vietnam to Cambodia; and then in the 70s Latin America.
  • Rev. David Caskie: MI6 during the war, died 1983 (personal information).
  • Barbara M. Stroud: MI6 50s and 60s (personal information).
  • Alan Charles Andrews: MI6 technical side 1965-74 (personal information).
  • Denis Jackson: MI6 under Andrews.
  • Derek Salmon: MI6 under Andrews.
  • John Fawcett: MI5 liaison officer with New Zealand 1985/6 (Information from Owen Wilkes).
  • John Hay: MI6 (C) (Diplomatic List 1990).
  • J.A. Noakes: MI6 (C) (Diplomatic List 1990).
  • R.G. Graham: MI6 (C) (Diplomatic List 1990).
  • G. D. Wynne: GCHQ Principal Establishment Officer 1990.
  • C.M. Smith: GCHQ Manager BGWS, Darwin, Australia, 1990.
  • H.P. Kos,
  • R.D.H Preston,
  • D.F. Rigden
  • Ms B.H. Dunlop and
  • K.P.Thomas: — all IRD Special Editorial unit, early 70s.

Obituaries

Richard Lowenthal the influential former German social democrat died in Berlin 10 August 1991. An anti-nazi, he came to Britain in 1938 where he attracted the attention of the intelligence services. Worked with Sefton Delmer and others on propaganda work. In 1948 worked for Reuters and then The Observer under former SOE operative David Astor. (The Independent 31 August 1991).

Christopher Holme, Radio Three producer, died 20 June 1991. Worked for Reuters in the thirties, spent the war as Public Information Officer in Palestine, joining Chatham House in 1946 and spending a year as Foreign News Editor of the The Observer (The Independent 15 August 1991).

Terence Kilmartin (The Independent and Daily Telegraph 19/8/91) worked in Section D (MI6) and SOE, as did his sister. After the war worked for a short time on Edward Hulton’s World Review (a journal which deserves investigation) and as a journalist in the Middle East, on an Arab Radio station, almost certainly one of those set up by SOE and later taken over by MI6 and IRD. In 1949 he was recruited by Foreign Editor David Astor into the Foreign department of the Observer, which we now know was subsidised by IRD. Later Literary Editor.

Lt-Col. Hugh Rose, soldier and explorer (Daily Telegraph 13 September 1991). Vice-consul at Meshed in north-east Persia where he organised the escape of White Russians across the border. He also helped to organise espionage, including the robbing of the safe in the Russian Embassy. In the Gurkhas during the Second World War. In 1950 came out of retirement to act as Deputy Director of Operations against Coptic and Muslim guerrillas in Eritrea. There he introduced the “Ferret Force’ system, later adopted by Templer in Malaya. In 1954 went to Singapore to work for the Joint Intelligence Committee, Far East.

Commander Edward Hok, Naval Intelligence, (Daily Telegraph 29 July 1991) led the section of GCHQ (GC and CS) during the war which produced the recoding tables at Mansfield College, Oxford. (The code books were printed by Oxford University Press. Are they still?)

Terence Latham, former Headmaster, died 11 September 1991. Senior member of the Ultra group at Bletchley Park during the war. Head of the army section in Hut 3, 1941 to 1945.

Dr Dennis Babbage, mathematician at Magadalene College, Cambridge, who helped crack the Enigma code at GCHQ. (Died some time 1991.)

Robin Burn: Greek scholar at Oxford, (Daily Telegraph 31 July 1991). In 1940 worked for the British Council in Athens before joining MI6. In 1944 he was made Second Secretary in Athens.

Godfrey Paulson: former senior manager in MI6 and Consul-General for Nice. (Independent 5 January 1991.)

Michael Glenny, translator of Boris Yeltsin’s autobiography, died August 1990. In the late forties he worked in intelligence in Berlin. Later business manager of the Observer colour supplement. In 1967 joined Sunday Telegraph and St. Antony’s College Oxford. (Daily Telegraph 7 August 1990.)

Sir Hamilton Whyte, diplomat, died 20/7/90. Served in MI6 from 1949 to 1954. A social democrat, he was friends with the Owen faction in the SDP.

Major Pat Reid: the famous Colditz escaper and author died 22 May 1990. Served in MI9 and in MI6 as Assistant Military Attache in Berne at the end of the war. Post-war, spent several years as an administrator at the Marshall Plan headquarters in Paris. (Independent 28 May 1990.)

Tony Simcox: in SOE in Albania during the war. After the war assisted in hunting down Nazi war criminals until 1947. (Daily Telegraph 10 June 1991)

Group Captain John Selby: joined SOE in Cairo and worked as air liaison officer to Fitzroy Maclean and then as station commander in the Middle East. After the war with the BBC with the Overseas Service as director of European programmes. (Daily Telegraph 20 February 1991)

Leslie Wood: engineer who ran dirty tricks centres for the SOE. (Daily Telegraph 23 April 1991)

Lt-Col. Richard Broad: worked for SOE in Madagascar (Daily Telegraph 21 May 1991).

Eric Gray: taught ancient history at Oxford, died 26 July 1990; served as a Liaison Officer in SOE in Greece.

Christopher Blathwayt: served with Special Forces on Operation Jedburgh in Brittany, later with SOE in the Far East. A chartered accountant, he died 3 April 1990. (Independent 25 April 1990)

F. Chalmers-Wright: worked for both the Political Warfare Executive and SOE in Bucharest, France, Poland and Spain. In the 50s and 60s a respected economic adviser in the Third World. (Daily Telegraph 27 July 1990)

Christopher Serpell: pre-war Times journalist, BBC foreign correspondent; died 3 June 1991. During the war worked in Naval Intelligence 17Z on political warfare with Ian Fleming and Donald Tyerman.

Lance Thirkell,: senior administrator in the post-war BBC. “Crucial contact between the BBC, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Treasury at a time when the Coporation’s External services were under renewed threat.’ (Daily Telegraph 24 January 1989)

Donald Wright: overseas manager of Reuters. Set up national news agencies in Africa. (Daily Telegraph 24 January 1989).

Sir Christopher Chancellor: “Mr Reuter’, died 9 September 1989. (Independent 11 September 1989)

Major-General Dick Lloyd: secretary of the Defence Intelligence Staff in the MOD and then deputy head of the Arms Control and Disarmament Unit. (Daily Telegraph 19 April 1991)

George Bolsover: known as “Mr Russia’, died 15 April 1990. During the war 1st Secretary in Moscow and post-war Director School of Slovanic and East European Studies, London University. On many similar bodies.

Sir John Richmond: died 6 July 1990. Lecturer on the Middle East in the School of Oriental Studies at Durham University (the poor man’s equivalent of St. Antony’s). Intelligence officer in early part of the war in Syria later political officer Iraq and post-war senior diplomat. (Independent 11 July 1990)

Col. Terence Maxwell: died 1991
Cyril Mills (Daily Telegraph 22 July 1991)
Charles Stuart (Daily Telegraph 1 August 1991)
Xan Fielding (Independent and Daily Telegraph 20 August 1991)
David Howarth (Independent 4 July 1991 and Telegraph 5 July 1991)
Sir Ashton Roskill, died 23 June 1991
Wilfred Dunderdale (Times 16 November 1990)
H. Montgomery Hyde (Independent 14 August ’89)
David Stirling (Independent 6 November 1990)
John Codrington (Daily Telegraph 30 April 1991)
Sir Herbert Marchant (Daily Telegraph 9 August 1990)
Martin Lloyd (Guardian 13 September ’89)
Sir David Stephens (Independent 6 April 1990)
Sir James Blair-Cunyghame (Times 8 January 1990)
Cedric Belfrage, died 21 June 1990
Jasper Rootham (Sunday Telegraph 3 June 1990)
Duke of Portland (Daily Telegraph 31 July 1990)

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