De LAMBRAY
Gay News (29th September 1983) carried a short article on Vikki De Lambray (formerly David Christian Lloyd-Gibbon), famous gay socialite, convicted High Society art thief, and apparent MI5 tempter/temptress. The article notes Lambray’s brief sexual relationship, in 1982, with Sir James Dunnett, former Permanent Under-Secretary of State at the Ministry of Defence, and with Captain Anatoli Zotov, former Soviet Naval attache. The affair was probed by MI5 for possible security leaks.
Sir James is interesting in that he was at the Ministry of Defence from the arrival of British troops in Northern Ireland in 1969, until 1974 when he retired. He is alleged to know a great deal about Kincoragate.
Lambray’s 900 page autobiography happened to go missing. MI5 was highly pleased – the book named names. (Guardian 28th July 1983)
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New Society (31st June 1984) Former MI5 officer Miranda Ingram, who worked with Michael Bettaney, describes working conditions and MI5 philosophy. Boring for her and for us…. Tatler (June 1984) Robert Harris reports on the spy recruitment procedures.
There was some talk of prosecutions under the Official Secrets Act for naming MI5 and MI6 premises. They are:
MI5 recruitment (positive vetting) – 140 Gower St., London WC1 and 14-17 Great Marlborough St., London WC1
MI6 recruitment – 3 Carlton Gardens, London SW1
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Head of MI6, Sir Colin Figures, KCMG, went to Cambridge before serving in Germany and Vienna. He lists his hobbies as watching sport, gardening, beachcombing, and is 59 years old…MI5 Director is Sir John Lewis Jones….
Thatcher has a new spy chief at No.10. Air Vice-Marshall Basil Lock is Cabinet Security Adviser – known in Whitehall and Pall Mall clubs by the nickname ‘Lock-up’ – and will be in charge of security data flowing between the Joint Intelligence HQ at Stormont Castle and reports from MI5’s top secret F3 section which is responsible for Irish affairs. (Sunday World 27th May 1984) ….
Number one spook in Northern Ireland is Robert John Andrew (56) who replaced Philip Whitehead, whose connections with intelligence in Ireland go back to the days of Oliver Wright and Howard Smith in the early seventies. Andrew went to Kings College public school, Oxford, and then to the War Office in 1952. After that he was attached to the Foreign Office – i.e. MI6 – and later a posting to Nato in 1971. Then back to the Ministry of Defence before he found himself on the way to Stormont Castle. (Phoenix 5th August 1983)……
Arthur Martin, ex MI5, won substantial damages against the Daily Telegraph for articles that appeared in 1983 alleging that he might know of a KGB mole (Guardian 17th February 1984) ….
Peter Hennessey (Times 30th April 1984) lists the Cabinet Office Intelligence Committees. Besides Margaret they are either chaired by Sir Robert Armstrong or Sir Anthony Duff….
Last year adverts appeared in the Northern Ireland press for ‘Security Advisers’ for an organisation called 23 Security Company at BFPO Box 800. Just as Box 500 is MI5, Box 600 is MI6, Box 800 relates to Military Intelligence. The ‘security company’ is 23 Company, Intelligence Corps which is attached to the mysterious British Service Security (BSS) – not British Security Service, which is MI5, as printed in the last issue of The Lobster.
Useful Addresses
Communications Technical Support Office, Milton Keynes, Bucks.
(Telex 82196 – Answer back code Tecbuy: ask for Mr P. Mason) – makes MI6 listening devices.
Telecom Research Centre, Special Investigations Division, Martlesham Heath. Head of Special Investigations Division (R12) is Mr E.F. Meads, ex-directory number is Ipswich 643338 – makes MI5 listening devices.
Joint Services Electronics Research Laboratory, Baldock, Herts. – makes listening devices for Defence Intelligence Directorate.
(All addresses courtesy The Phoenix, 2nd March 1984)
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Anthony Simkins, retired Deputy Director of MI5, was refused permission to publish an official history of the Security Service during the war years. Veto came from Thatcher. (Guardian 8th December 1983). Simkins spent several of his declining years preparing the massive tome drawing on time expired spy documents, backed by his old boss, Sir Howard Smith, Director General of MI5 until 1982.
The veto was a shock since the book was commissioned by the Cabinet Office. It may have had something to do with the fact that Simkins had prepared a second book which dealt with the events of the early seventies and contained snippets about Ireland and the British spy machine. (Simkins was an architect of internment in Ireland in 1971) Simkins has been ordered to take his secrets with him to the grave. (Phoenix 30th March 1984).
Thatcher also banned publication of a volume on strategic deception in WW2 by Professor Michael Howard, Regius Professor of History at Oxford University. (Guardian 25/11/83). She also attempted to put the block on the final volumes of the study of British Intelligence in WW2 by Professor Harry Hinsley of Cambridge University. Paranoia runs deep.
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“The Defence Intelligence Staff (DIS) is headed by Air Marshall Sir John Aitken, who is responsible for intelligence activities in the six counties. By far the largest single intelligence agency, it is divided into various sections in accordance with its services …. the most important is Army Intelligence…” (“British Intelligence Activities in Ireland” in Young Republican, Winter 1983). This is a useful introduction to the intelligence set up in Northern Ireland, but better are two extensive and detailed articles (The Eye of Intelligence, and Only The Danger Is Real) in the Sunday News (29th May 1983) by Frank Doherty. His information comes from a former intelligence operative in the province…”The centre of the intelligence web is on the first floor of the new building in Thiepval Barracks Lisburn. There, behind an electronically operated steel gate, information flows in to the most comprehensive British intelligence centre outside London ……”
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