John Sinclair
 John Sinclair    (spook) | ||||||||||||||
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Official Narrative
Following his retirement from the military in 1952, as a Major-General, he was appointed head of the British Secret Intelligence Service, taking up the post in 1953.[1] He led the Service through the translation from its wartime operations, directing operations in the emerging Cold War environment in a "practical and responsible fashion",[2] "instead of accommodating the risk takers".[3] He also introduced reforms to recruitment and conditions of service designed to introduce a professional career structure within SIS suited to post-war conditions.[2][4] His personal integrity was recognised not just by colleagues, but also by opponents.[5]
Dismissal
Sir John's retirement coincided with the failed frogman mission (April 1956) to investigate the Soviet cruiser Ordzhonikidze that had brought the leader of the Soviet Union Nikita Khrushchev and Prime Minister Nikolai Bulganin on a diplomatic mission to Britain, resulting in the death of frogman Lionel Crabb. The UK Prime Minister, Anthony Eden had not approved this mission and some accounts have claimed that Sir John had been forced to resign.[6] The Authorized History of MI5 contends however that the decision that the head of that service should succeed Sir John at his planned retirement date in 1956 had already been taken by the Prime Minister in 1954.[7]
References
- ↑ Stephen Dorril, MI6: Inside the Covert World of Her Majesty's Secret Intelligence Service, Touchstone, 2002, p.494.
- ↑ a b Dick White, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2006
- ↑ Page 66, Nigel West, At Her Majesty's Secret Service: The Chiefs of Britain's Intelligence Agency, MI6; 2006, Greenhill Books, ISBN 978-1-85367-702-1
- ↑ Page 80, Nigel West, At Her Majesty's Secret Service: The Chiefs of Britain's Intelligence Agency, MI6; 2006, Greenhill Books, ISBN 978-1-85367-702-1
- ↑ Page 113, Kim Philpy, My Silent War; 2002, Modern Library Paperback Edition, ISBN 0-375-75982-2
- ↑ Page 79, Nigel West, At Her Majesty's Secret Service: The Chiefs of Britain's Intelligence Agency, MI6; 2006, Greenhill Books, ISBN 978-1-85367-702-1
- ↑ Page 328, Christopher Andrew, The Defence of the Realm - the Authorized History of MI5; 2009, Penguin Books, ISBN 978-0-7139-9885-6
