Sir Dick White
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Sir Dick Goldsmith White, (20 December 1906 – 21 February 1993) was a British
intelligence officer An intelligence officer is a member of the intelligence field employed by an organization to collect, compile or analyze information (known as intelligence) which is of use to that organization. The word of ''officer'' is a working title, not a r ...
. He was
Director General A director general, general director or director-general (plural: ''directors general'', ''general directors'', ''directors-general'', ''director generals'' or ''director-generals'') is a senior executive officer, often the chief executive officer ...
(DG) of
MI5 MI5 ( Military Intelligence, Section 5), officially the Security Service, is the United Kingdom's domestic counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), Gov ...
from 1953 to 1956, and Head of the 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 ...
) from 1956 to 1968.


Early life

White was born in
Tonbridge Tonbridge ( ) (historic spelling ''Tunbridge'') is a market town in Kent, England, on the River Medway, north of Royal Tunbridge Wells, south west of Maidstone and south east of London. In the administrative borough of Tonbridge and Mall ...
, Kent, the son of an ironmonger Percy Hall White and Gertrude Farthing and went to school at
Bishop's Stortford College Bishop's Stortford College is a private boarding and day school in the English public school tradition for more than 1,200 pupils aged 4–18, situated in a campus on the edge of the market town of Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, England ...
. He took a First Class Degree in History at
Christ Church, Oxford Christ Church (, the temple or house, ''wikt:aedes, ædes'', of Christ, and thus sometimes known as "The House") is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1546 by Henry V ...
in 1927, and learnt to speak German. He was athletic in his youth and obtained a
blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB color model, RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB color model, RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between Violet (color), violet and cyan on the optical spe ...
in running at Oxford. He was described by Peter Wright as resembling
David Niven James David Graham Niven (; 1 March 1910 – 29 July 1983) was an English actor, soldier, raconteur, memoirist and novelist. Niven was known as a handsome and debonair leading man in Classic Hollywood films. His accolades include an Academ ...
: "the same perfect English manners, easy charm, and immaculate dress sense." He was, said Wright, "tall with lean, healthy features and a sharp eye". He would qualify for a Commonwealth Fellowship in 1928 which saw him seek further education in the United States at the Universities of Michigan and California. After returning to the UK, he failed to obtain a position at Christ Church, Oxford and after being rejected by the navy, he obtained work in Croydon as a teacher. He was spotted by a recruiter in 1935 while on Mediterranean cruise with his students and invited to an interview with
Guy Liddell Guy Maynard Liddell, CB, CBE, MC (8 November 1892 – 3 December 1958) was a British intelligence officer. Biography Early life and career Liddell was born on 8 November 1892 at 64 Victoria Street, London, the son of Capt. Augustus Frederic ...
at MI5.


Career

He was employed at MI5 in 1936 to monitor the rise of
Nazism Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During Hitler's rise to power, it was fre ...
in Germany and spent a year in Munich attempting to recruit Germans. When back from Germany, he worked with Jona Ustinov to identify potential recruits. He was a co-creator of the Double-Cross system in 1940, to turn
Abwehr The (German language, German for ''resistance'' or ''defence'', though the word usually means ''counterintelligence'' in a military context) ) was the German military intelligence , military-intelligence service for the ''Reichswehr'' and the ...
agents in the UK and elsewhere. He would eventually become Liddell's assistant director in B Division. By 1943, he was seconded to
SHAEF Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF; ) was the headquarters of the Commander of Allies of World War II, Allied forces in northwest Europe, from late 1943 until the end of World War II. US General Dwight D. Eisenhower was the ...
as a special advisor on counter-intelligence ending the war as a brigadier. He was sent to Berlin at the end of the war to investigate
Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...
's fate. He returned to MI5 in 1947 as head of its counter-intelligence division. In 1949, he was warned by the
FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...
of a Soviet spy at Harwell, the UK's
Atomic Energy Research Establishment The Atomic Energy Research Establishment (AERE), also known as Harwell Laboratory, was the main Headquarters, centre for nuclear power, atomic energy research and development in the United Kingdom from 1946 to the 1990s. It was created, owned ...
. Investigation identified
Klaus Fuchs Klaus Emil Julius Fuchs (29 December 1911 â€“ 28 January 1988) was a German theoretical physicist and atomic spy who supplied information from the American, British, and Canadian Manhattan Project to the Soviet Union during and shortly a ...
who was later interrogated and confessed to being a spy for the Soviets. White and MI5 were still in denial of the state of the Soviet penetration until the FBI discovered a spy via the
Venona project The Venona project was a United States counterintelligence program initiated during World War II by the United States Army's Signal Intelligence Service and later absorbed by the National Security Agency (NSA), that ran from February 1, 1943, u ...
called "Homer" working in British government.
Kim Philby Harold Adrian Russell "Kim" Philby (1 January 191211 May 1988) was a British intelligence officer and a double agent for the Soviet Union. In 1963, he was revealed to be a member of the Cambridge Five, a spy ring that had divulged British secr ...
would warn the KGB in 1951, that Donald Maclean, now in the UK, had been identified as "Homer" and
Guy Burgess Guy Francis de Moncy Burgess (16 April 1911 – 30 August 1963) was a British diplomat and Soviet double agent, and a member of the Cambridge Five spy ring that operated from the mid-1930s to the early years of the Cold War era. His defection ...
was sent to warn him. White attempted to track the latter two to France but they had escaped. Their arrival in Moscow compromised Philby's position. Under a cloud of suspicion raised by his highly visible and intimate association with Burgess, Philby returned to London. There, he underwent MI5 interrogation by White aimed at ascertaining whether he had acted as a "third man" in Burgess and Maclean's spy ring. In July 1951, Philby resigned from MI6, preempting his all-but-inevitable dismissal.S.J. Hamrick (2004) ''Deceiving the Deceivers: Kim Philby, Donald Maclean and Guy Burgess''. New Haven: Yale University Press. p. 137. Philby was cleared a few years later by
Harold Macmillan Maurice Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton (10 February 1894 â€“ 29 December 1986), was a British statesman and Conservative Party (UK), Conservative politician who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1957 to 1963. Nickn ...
. By 1953, White was appointed as director-general of MI5 and in 1956 was appointed Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service in 1956 in the wake of the " Crabb Affair", the exposure of which had damaged Soviet-British relations and embarrassed MI6 and clashed with
Anthony Eden Robert Anthony Eden, 1st Earl of Avon (12 June 1897 â€“ 14 January 1977) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1955 until his resignation in 1957. Achi ...
and Macmillan over their handling of the
Suez Crisis The Suez Crisis, also known as the Second Arab–Israeli War, the Tripartite Aggression in the Arab world and the Sinai War in Israel, was a British–French–Israeli invasion of Egypt in 1956. Israel invaded on 29 October, having done so w ...
. Much as Peter Wright liked White, he felt his move to MI6 was a mistake for both MI5 and MI6: "Just as his work t MI5was beginning, he was moved on a politician's whim to an organisation he knew little about, and which was profoundly hostile to his arrival. He was never to be as successful there as he had been in MI5." During his tenure at MI6, he rebuilt the organisation's relationship with
Whitehall Whitehall is a road and area in the City of Westminster, Central London, England. The road forms the first part of the A roads in Zone 3 of the Great Britain numbering scheme, A3212 road from Trafalgar Square to Chelsea, London, Chelsea. It ...
and the
CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...
. This was especially true when MI6 recruited
Oleg Penkovsky Oleg Vladimirovich Penkovsky (; 23 April 1919 – 16 May 1963), codenamed Hero (by the CIA) and Yoga (by MI6) was a Soviet military intelligence (GRU) colonel during the late 1950s and early 1960s. Penkovsky informed the United States and the U ...
, a
GRU Gru is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the ''Despicable Me'' film series. Gru or GRU may also refer to: Arts and entertainment * Gru (rapper), Serbian rapper * Gru, an antagonist in '' The Kine Saga'' Organizations Georgia (c ...
Colonel that led to the identification of MI6 officer
George Blake George Blake ( Behar; 11 November 1922 â€“ 26 December 2020) was a Espionage, spy with Britain's Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) and worked as a double agent for the Soviet Union. He became a communist and decided to work for the Minist ...
in 1963 as Soviet spy. White had always suspected Kim Philby of being the "third man". When he found out that Philby had been employed as freelance MI6 agent in
Beirut Beirut ( ; ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, just under half of Lebanon's population, which makes it the List of largest cities in the Levant region by populatio ...
, he sent
Nicholas Elliott John Nicholas Rede Elliott (15 November 1916 – 13 April 1994) was an MI6 intelligence officer. His MI6 career was notable for his involvement with the Lionel Crabb affair in the 1950s and the flight of double agent Kim Philby to Moscow in ...
to interrogate Philby and encourage him to return to London. Philby fled to Moscow. By 1964, he was aware of the "Fourth Man" when
Anthony Blunt Anthony Frederick Blunt (26 September 1907 – 26 March 1983), (formerly styled Sir Anthony Blunt from 1956 until November 1979), was a leading British art historian and a Soviet spy. Blunt was a professor of art history at the University ...
confessed his knowledge of the other three spies for immunity. At the time, the identity of all MI5 and MI6 personnel was kept secret; officially, the government did not even admit to their existence. White's role as head of MI6 came out in 1967, when he was identified by the ''
Saturday Evening Post ''The Saturday Evening Post'' is an American magazine published six times a year. It was published weekly from 1897 until 1963, and then every other week until 1969. From the 1920s to the 1960s, it was one of the most widely circulated and influ ...
'' magazine. White would retire in 1968 and became the Cabinet Office's first
Intelligence Co-ordinator The Intelligence Co-ordinator, later Security and Intelligence Co-ordinator, was a senior post in the Cabinet Office of the British Civil Service that oversaw the intelligence services and their relationship to the government. Post holders *1968†...
before retiring for good in 1972.


Marriage

In 1945, he married Kathleen Bellamy and they had four children, Adrian, Frances, Jenny and Stephen.


Honours

Honoured many times throughout his career, he was given an OBE in 1942, a CBE in 1950, a KBE in 1955, and finally a KCMG in 1960. Other honours include a
Legion of Merit The Legion of Merit (LOM) is a Awards and decorations of the United States military, military award of the United States Armed Forces that is given for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services and achievemen ...
and a
Croix de Guerre The (, ''Cross of War'') is a military decoration of France. It was first created in 1915 and consists of a square-cross medal on two crossed swords, hanging from a ribbon with various degree pins. The decoration was first awarded during World ...
.


Death

After a long illness he died from intestinal cancer at his home, "The Leat" in
Burpham Burpham () is a rural village and civil parish in the Arun District of West Sussex, England. The village is on an arm of the River Arun slightly less than northeast of Arundel. A slight minority of the population qualifies as within the w ...
, near
Arundel Arundel ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the Arun District of the South Downs, West Sussex, England. The much-conserved town has a medieval castle and Roman Catholic cathedral. Arundel has a museum and comes second behind much la ...
in Sussex, on 21 February 1993; his wife, Kathleen, survived him.


References


Further reading

* Bower, Tom. ''The Perfect English Spy: Sir Dick White and the Secret War 1935–90'', William Heinemann, 1995.


External links


British Army Officers 1939−1945
{{DEFAULTSORT:White, Dick 1906 births 1993 deaths Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford British Army brigadiers British Army personnel of World War II Cold War MI6 chiefs Directors General of MI5 Intelligence Corps officers Knights Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire Military personnel from Kent People educated at Bishop's Stortford College People from Tonbridge