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Jump to navigationJump to searchThe Man Who Was George Smiley: The Life of John Bingham by Michael Jago (view source)
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John Bingham, 7th Baron Clanmorris, volunteered to serve in the army at the outbreak of the Second World War, but his sight prevented front-line service and he joined MI5. Prior to this he’d been a journalist, working on the '’Hull 'Hull Daily Mail’’ Mail'' before moving to Fleet Street. He found a natural home in MI5 and a considerable talent for interrogation. At a time when spies are thought of as being flamboyant, he was the opposite - a small, bespectacled man who could easily blend into the background. His greatest skill was that he was a patient listener. [[:Category:John Le le Carre|John Le Carre]] has said that nobody who knew John and the work he was doing could have missed the description of Smiley in his [[Call for the Dead by John le Carre|first novel]]. Le Carre was a junior colleague in MI5.
He was involved in many of the major wartime operations, such as Operation Double Cross which ensured the success of the D-Day landings. In the post-war period tracking Soviet spies took precedence, but there was unease in MI5 when Harold Wilson became Prime Minister as they suspected him of being dangerously close to the Soviet Union and there were plans for right-wing coups in the late sixties and early seventies. Bingham was involved in monitoring Lord Lucan and others at the time. Bingham (a distant relative and namesake of Lucan) was involved in penetrating the group.
