"That same month the new British Prime Minister, Sir Winston Churchill, dispatched a shadowy figure, Sir William Stephenson—later most famous as the original of Ian Fleming’s James Bond, Agent 007—to set up a spy shop for Britain’s MI6 in Midtown Manhattan."
http://www.thedailybeast.com/did-br...et-us-into-wwii?via=newsletter&source=Weekend
Oh really?
Inspiration for the character
See also: Inspirations for James Bond
Fleming based his creation on a number of individuals he came across during his time in the Naval Intelligence Division during the Second World War, admitting that Bond "was a compound of all the secret agents and commando types I met during the war".[11] Among those types were his brother, Peter, whom Fleming worshipped[11] and who had been involved in behind the lines operations in Norway and Greece during the war.[12]
Aside from Fleming's brother, a number of others also provided some aspects of Bond's make up, including Conrad O'Brien-ffrench, a skiing spy whom Fleming had met in Kitzbühel in the 1930s, Patrick Dalzel-Job, who served with distinction in 30 AU during the war, and Bill "Biffy" Dunderdale, station head of MI6 in Paris, who wore cufflinks and handmade suits and was chauffeured around Paris in a Rolls-Royce.[11][13] Sir Fitzroy Maclean was another figure mentioned as a possibility, based on his wartime work behind enemy lines in the Balkans, as was the MI6 double agent Dušan Popov.[14]
In 2016, a BBC Radio 4 documentary explored the possibility that the character of James Bond was created by 20th Century author and mentor to Fleming, Phyllis Bottome in her 1946 novel, The Life Line. Distinct similarities between the protagonist in The Life Line, Mark Chalmers and James Bond have been highlighted by spy writer, Nigel West.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Bond_(literary_character)#Inspiration_for_the_character
Many people consider him to be one of the real-life
inspirations for James Bond.
[2] Ian Fleming himself once wrote, "James Bond is a highly romanticized version of a true spy. The real thing is ... William Stephenson."
Disputes
In 1976 British-born Canadian author
William Stevenson published a biography of Stephenson,
A Man Called Intrepid. Some of the book's statements have been called into question; in a review the same year,
Hugh Trevor-Roper wrote that "This book... is, from start to finish, utterly worthless," while other former intelligence personnel and historians criticized the book for inaccuracies.
Nigel West's 1998 book
Counterfeit Spies asserts that "Intrepid" was probably not Stephenson's codename, but BSC's
telegraphic address in New York.
[38] Stevenson was a frequent visitor to Bermuda, where Stephenson had taken up residence during after the war. He was an ex-naval officer, having served in the
Fleet Air Arm during the war with prominent Bermudian lawyer
William Kempe (a founding partner of
Appleby, Spurling & Kempe), a prominent Bermudian law firm (another author and frequent visitor to Bermuda was ex-naval officer Ian Fleming).
Intelligence historian
David A. T. Stafford asserts that a more reliable source on Stephenson's career is
H. Montgomery Hyde's
The Quiet Canadian, published in 1962, before Stevenson's book.
[39] But generally acknowledged as the most accurate account of Stephenson's life is Bill Macdonald's
The True Intrepid (1998), with a foreword by the late CIA staff historian Thomas Troy. The book clears up the spymaster's fictitious background in Winnipeg and contains oral histories from his ex-agents. Macdonald's book includes a chapter on the secretive communications genius
Benjamin deForest "Pat" Bayly , who according to Stafford's book Camp X - refused to speak with Stafford. Bayly is not mentioned in
The Quiet Canadian or
A Man Called Intrepid.
- In Counterfeit Spies, Bermuda resident Rupert Allason (Nigel West) reports that no record exists of Stephenson having received the French Croix de guerre avec Palmes or the Légion d'honneur. Stephenson was of course awarded Britain's Military Cross and Distinguished Flying Cross for his heroics in France. In September 2009 his medals and other effects were displayed in Manitoba's legislative building, in Winnipeg.
- William Stevenson describes a dinner held at Lord Beaverbrook's house in May or June 1940 which Stephenson purportedly attended. Churchill's private secretary Jock Colville casts doubt on Stevenson's account, pointing out that the invitation that Churchill supposedly sent Stephenson was clearly a forgery. The highly punctilious Churchill would never have called Beaverbrook "the beaver", and he would never have signed himself "W.C." (the abbreviation for "water closet)." Moreover, Stevenson reports that Lord Trenchard chatted with Stephenson about his own fighter plane; however, in 1940 Trenchard was over 65 years old and was retired from the military. In author William Stevenson's papers at the University of Regina there is a reference to the Beaverbrook dinner, noting that in later years Stephenson had cabled the author that he did not recall the exact date of the gathering. There is no mention of Stephenson having received an invitation from Churchill. In his foreword to Richard Dunlop's Donovan, Stephenson writes that he received a telephoned invitation to the dinner.[original research?]
- In his 1981 book The Churchillians, Jock Colville took issue with Stevenson's description of Stephenson's wartime relations with Churchill. Colville pointed out that Stephenson was not Churchill's personal liaison with Roosevelt, that in fact (as is well known) the two leaders corresponded directly. Indeed, Colville contends that he never heard Churchill speak of Stephenson (which may say as much about Churchill's relations with Colville, an Assistant Private Secretary, as it does about his relations with the spy Stephenson). Based on this and other questions, Colville expressed the hope that Stevenson's book would not be "used for the purpose of historical reference." Meanwhile, numerous other references to a Stephenson-Churchill connection can be found; for example, in Maclean’s magazine, 17 December 1952, and The Times, 21 October 1962. The relationship is also referenced in Hyde’s biography of Stephenson, The Quiet Canadian (1962). In addition, British–Soviet double agent Kim Philby, in his book My Silent War, refers to Stephenson as a friend of Churchill's. Stephenson’s personal secretary and personal cipher clerks mention Stephenson-Churchill communications in The True Intrepid and in the documentary film Secret Secretaries. In CIA historian Thomas Troy's book Wild Bill and Intrepid, there is a chapter on the relationship based on several direct interviews conducted by the author with Stephenson on Bermuda which discounts much of the criticism of West and Hugh Trevor-Roper.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Stephenson
Fleming know of Stephenson, that is clear. However, no real indication by Fleming that he used Stephenson as inspiration (at least not any more than a dozen others).
MARC WORTMAN
