Roy Kendall (9 June 1899 – 9 March 1972) was an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

-born

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

n politician and intelligence officer for the British Secret Intelligence Service. Born in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, he was educated at Bristol Cathedral School before becoming a merchant seaman. After serving in the

Royal Naval Reserve The Royal Naval Reserve (RNR) is one of the two volunteer reserve forces of the Royal Navy in the United Kingdom. Together with the Royal Marines Reserve, they form the Maritime Reserve. The present RNR was formed by merging the original ...

from 1914 to 1918, he was recruited by Britain's Secret Intelligence Service (

MI6 The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6 ( Military Intelligence, Section 6), is the foreign intelligence service of the United Kingdom, tasked mainly with the covert overseas collection and analysis of human intelligenc ...

) in December 1941 for the purpose of "penetrating the Japanese Mandated Islands or other areas in the Pacific". He was "vouched for" by the Australian director of naval intelligence, and in 1942 was appointed head of

Secret Intelligence Australia {{Use British English, date=December 2014 Secret Intelligence Australia (SIA) was a British World War II intelligence unit commanded by Captain Roy Kendall who reported directly to MI6 in London. SIA was known as Section B of the Allied Intellig ...

, a branch of MI6 in Australia, reporting directly to

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, ...

. After the war, he became a newsagent in

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, Australia. In 1949, he was elected to the

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as a

Liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * Generally, a supporter of the political philosophy liberalism. Liberals may be politically left or right but tend to be centrist. * An adherent of a Liberal Party (See also Liberal parties by country ...

senator. He remained in the Senate until retiring in 1964. Kendall died in 1972.

References

1899 births 1972 deaths British emigrants to Australia Liberal Party of Australia members of the Parliament of Australia Members of the Australian Senate for Queensland Royal Navy officers of World War II MI6 personnel Australian spies 20th-century Australian politicians Royal Naval Reserve personnel {{Australia-Liberal-politician-stub