John Bingham (Lord Clanmorris)
John Bingham, Lord Clanmorris, (1908-1988) also known as Michael Ward, was a British novelist and intelligence officer, reputed to be the inspiration for the character George Smiley, created by his former colleague David Cornwell (John Le Carré).[1]
Bingham was the son of Maurice Bingham, Sixth Lord Clanmorris and Leila Cloete, a descendant of one of the earliest Dutch settlers in South Africa.[2] He was educated at Cheltenham College.[3]
Through a family contact with Lord Rothermere, Bingham found a job on the Hull Daily Mail in 1930.[4] He moved to the Sunday Dispatch in 1933.[5]
He was briefly a member of the British Democratic Party in the 1930s, a move which led to criticism from his uncle, the MP for Belfast East, Herbert Dixon.[6]
MI5 B Division
It was through Dixon's contacts that Bingham gained an entrée to MI5, using suspicions about what he later decided was an innocent German acquaintance.[7] He was subsequently interviewed by Maxwell Knight, who introduced himself as Captain King.[8]
After Knight was authorised to recruit five new officers by the head of MI5 B Division, Guy Liddell, on 18 June 1940, Bingham was one of the first approached.[9] For much of World War Two, he worked as Maxwell Knight's deputy in B5(b) section at 308 Hood House, Dolphin Square.[10]
However, among his first tasks, carried out directly for Liddell, was the creation of an MI5 press section, which would eventually be run by Derek Tangye.[11] He subsequently became heavily involved in MI5's Double Cross deception operations against German intelligence.[12] He interrogated potential agents among aliens being processed at the Royal Patriotic Schools.[13] He also posed as an Abwehr officer to trap British nationals attempting spy for the Germans, notably Irma Stapleton, arrested on 19 November 1941.[14]
In 1942, he conducted security investigations on General Charles De Gaulle, along with Bill Younger, and on Lady Diana Cooper.[15] Using the name 'John Bentley', he also investigated the Portuguese diplomat Rogeiro Menezes.[16]
In the summer of 1944, Bingham was ordered to continue associating with right-wing pro-German groups, despite the imminence of German defeat.[17] With B Division work winding down, Bingham was seconded to the Allied Control Council in Germany in 1945, on the initiative of Guy Liddell.[18] Based in Gehrden, Hanover, Bingham spent much of his time interviewing refugees and attempting to weed out Soviet agents.[19]
Return to Fleet Street
He returned to London in June 1948.[20] He rejoined the staff of the Sunday Dispatch under editor Charles Eade, a former PR advisor to Lord Mountbatten.[21] One of his first article was a detailed attack on the career of Aneurin Bevan, prompted by Bevan's attack on conservative voters as 'lower than vermin'.[22]
MI5 F4
In the summer of 1950, Bingam was invited by Maxwell Knight to rejoin his MI5 section, now known as F4.[23]
According to Mike Hughes, Bingham became head of MI5's F4 agent-running section after Knight's retirement in the mid-1950s.[24]
Bingham inherited the title of Lord Clanmorris in 1960.[25]
He retired from MI5 in 1979.[25]
Notes
- ↑ Smiley's model, LA Times, 23 December 2007.
- ↑ Michael Jago, The Man Who Was George Smiley: The Life of John Bingham, Biteback Publishing, 2013, p.15.
- ↑ Michael Jago, The Man Who Was George Smiley: The Life of John Bingham, Biteback Publishing, 2013, p.22.
- ↑ Michael Jago, The Man Who Was George Smiley: The Life of John Bingham, Biteback Publishing, 2013, p.58.
- ↑ Michael Jago, The Man Who Was George Smiley: The Life of John Bingham, Biteback Publishing, 2013, p.62.
- ↑ Michael Jago, The Man Who Was George Smiley: The Life of John Bingham, Biteback Publishing, 2013, p.81.
- ↑ Michael Jago, The Man Who Was George Smiley: The Life of John Bingham, Biteback Publishing, 2013, p.81.
- ↑ Michael Jago, The Man Who Was George Smiley: The Life of John Bingham, Biteback Publishing, 2013, p.83.
- ↑ Michael Jago, The Man Who Was George Smiley: The Life of John Bingham, Biteback Publishing, 2013, p.87.
- ↑ Anthony Masters, The Man who was M: The Life of Maxwell Knight, The real-like spymaster who inspired Ian Fleming, Grafton Books, p.101.
- ↑ Michael Jago, The Man Who Was George Smiley: The Life of John Bingham, Biteback Publishing, 2013, p.89.
- ↑ Michael Jago, The Man Who Was George Smiley: The Life of John Bingham, Biteback Publishing, 2013, p.91.
- ↑ Michael Jago, The Man Who Was George Smiley: The Life of John Bingham, Biteback Publishing, 2013, p.92.
- ↑ Michael Jago, The Man Who Was George Smiley: The Life of John Bingham, Biteback Publishing, 2013, p.95.
- ↑ Michael Jago, The Man Who Was George Smiley: The Life of John Bingham, Biteback Publishing, 2013, p.99.
- ↑ Michael Jago, The Man Who Was George Smiley: The Life of John Bingham, Biteback Publishing, 2013, pp.99-100.
- ↑ Michael Jago, The Man Who Was George Smiley: The Life of John Bingham, Biteback Publishing, 2013, p.110.
- ↑ Michael Jago, The Man Who Was George Smiley: The Life of John Bingham, Biteback Publishing, 2013, pp.111.
- ↑ Michael Jago, The Man Who Was George Smiley: The Life of John Bingham, Biteback Publishing, 2013, p.139.
- ↑ Michael Jago, The Man Who Was George Smiley: The Life of John Bingham, Biteback Publishing, 2013, p.133.
- ↑ Michael Jago, The Man Who Was George Smiley: The Life of John Bingham, Biteback Publishing, 2013, p.139.
- ↑ Michael Jago, The Man Who Was George Smiley: The Life of John Bingham, Biteback Publishing, 2013, p.141.
- ↑ Michael Jago, The Man Who Was George Smiley: The Life of John Bingham, Biteback Publishing, 2013, p.147.
- ↑ Mike Hughes, Spies at Work, Chapter Nine.
- ↑ 25.0 25.1 The Man Who Was George Smiley: The Life of John Bingham, Andrew Lownie Literary Agency, accessed 5 June 2015.
