Dick White
Dick White (spook) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Born | Dick Goldsmith White 20 December 1906 Tonbridge, Kent | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Died | 21 February 1993 (Age 86) Sussex | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Nationality | British | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
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]
Contents
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]
References
- ↑ a b The A to Z of British Intelligence, Nigel West
- ↑ Former Directors General, MI5, accessed 8 July 2009.
- ↑ Former Directors General, MI5, accessed 8 July 2009.
- ↑ http://www.bletchleyparkresearch.co.uk/post-war-diaries-of-guy-liddell-mi5/
- ↑ http://www.nytimes.com/1993/02/23/world/sir-dick-white-87-ex-british-intelligence-chief.html