James Rusbridger (26 February 1928 – 16 February 1994) was a British author and historian on international espionage during and after World War II.

Biography

He was born in Jamaica, son of Gordon Rusbridger an Army colonel, and died in Tremorebridge,

Cornwall Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...

. His career started in the naval design office of Vickers Armstrong. Then he was salesman and managing director of a commodities firm specialising in sugar, and claimed to have been paid by the CIA to weaken the international market for Cuban sugar. He was an Eastern Europe courier for MI6 (or the British Secret Intelligence Service) from 1962, retiring in 1974. His books mainly relate to World War II, but his letters and articles after retirement were critical of British and American agencies. In his books he asserted that: *''Betrayal at Pearl Harbor:''

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British statesman, military officer, and writer who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 (Winston Churchill in the Second World War, ...

concealed warnings about

Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the Reci ...

from

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...

in order to get America in the war. But In a 1991 interview on Japanese television his co-author

Eric Nave Captain Eric Nave (18 March 1899 – 23 June 1993) was an Australian cryptographer and intelligence officer in the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) and Royal Navy, noted for his work with joint Allied intelligence units during World War II. He serv ...

"repudiated a large slice of what Rusbridger had written, calling it speculation." * ''Who Sank Surcouf'': The French submarine Surcouf sank as the result of an accident; and had a confused, treacherous, incompetent and disloyal crew. In May 1989 Rusbridger made an extended appearance on the

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

discussion programme '' After Dark'', alongside

Tony Benn Anthony Neil Wedgwood Benn (3 April 1925 – 14 March 2014), known between 1960 and 1963 as Viscount Stansgate, was a British Labour Party (UK), Labour Party politician and political activist who served as a Cabinet of the United Kingdom, Cabine ...

Lord Dacre Baron Dacre is a title that has been created three times in the Peerage of England, each time by writ. History The first creation came in 1321, when Ralph Dacre was summoned to Parliament as Lord Dacre. He married Margaret, 2nd Baroness Multo ...

, Miles Copeland and others.Production company website
accessed 3 May 2022. In February 1994 Rusbridger, aged 65, was found dead of asphyxiation at a rented cottage in

Bodmin Moor Bodmin Moor () is a granite moorland in north-eastern Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is in size, and dates from the Carboniferous period of geology, geological history. It includes Brown Willy, the highest point in Cornwall, and Rough To ...

, Cornwall. His body was found hanged from a beam, wearing a black

oilskin Oilskin is a waterproof cloth used for making garments typically worn by sailors and by others in wet areas. The modern oilskin garment was developed by a New Zealander, Edward Le Roy, in 1898. Le Roy used worn-out sailcloth painted with a mixtu ...

coat and a

gas mask A gas mask is a piece of personal protective equipment used to protect the wearer from inhaling airborne pollutants and toxic gases. The mask forms a sealed cover over the nose and mouth, but may also cover the eyes and other vulnerable soft ...

. His neck and ankles were connected via a series of pulleys to a rope. At the time he had recently suffered a heart attack, and was heavily in debt.

References

*Elphick, Peter: ''Far Eastern File: The Intelligence War in the Far East 1930-1945'' (1997 & 1998, Hodder & Stoughton, London) *Rusbridger, James: ''The Intelligence Game: The Illusions and Delusions of International Esponiage'' (1989, The Bodley Head, London; also 1992, New Amsterdam) *Rusbridger, James: ''Death of a Corsair'' (1991, Random House) *Rusbridger, James and Nave, Eric ''Betrayal at Pearl Harbor: how Churchill lured Roosevelt into War'' (1991, O’Mara, London) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Rusbridger, James 1928 births 1994 deaths British historians of World War II British historians of espionage 20th-century British historians British male writers British male non-fiction writers