Dick White

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Person.png Dick White   SpartacusRdf-entity.pngRdf-icon.png
(spook)
Dick white.jpg
BornDick Goldsmith White
20 December 1906
Tonbridge, Kent
Died21 February 1993 (Age 86)
Sussex
NationalityBritish

Employment.png Coordinator for Intelligence and Security

In office
1968 - 1973
Succeeded byLeonard Hooper
The first holder of this position.

Employment.png Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service

In office
May 1956 - 1968
DeputyJohn Macgregor Bruce Lockhart, Maurice Oldfield, George Kennedy Young
Appointed byAnthony Eden
Preceded byJohn Sinclair
Succeeded byJohn Rennie
Appointed as something of a snub to SIS

Employment.png Director General of MI5

In office
November 1953 - May 1956
DeputyRoger Hollis, Graham Russell Mitchell
Preceded byPercy Sillitoe
Succeeded byRoger Hollis

Employment.png Deputy Director General of MI5

In office
15 May 1953 - November 1953
Preceded byGuy Liddell
Succeeded byRoger Hollis
Exact start date is tentative - may have been a few days earlier.

Sir Dick White was head of the Security Service from 1953 to May 1956[1], and head of the Secret Intelligence Service from May 1956 until the end of 1968, the only person to have headed both organisations successively.[2]

MI5

White joined the Security Service in 1936, and was closely involved in operating the successful "Double Cross" system against Nazi Germany during the Second World War.[3]

Leadership

White replaced Guy Liddell as Deputy Director General on (or maybe a few days before)[4] 15 May, 1953 and became Director General that November.

MI6

In May 1956, infuriated by the Buster Crabb affair, UK Prime Minister Anthony Eden, partly as a snub to MI6 (since MI5 was perceived as lower in status) transferred Dick White from Director General of MI5 to Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service.[1] He reportedly "tightened up the ground rules and specifically forbade assassination".[5]

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References