David Spedding

Sir David Rolland Spedding KCMG, CVO, OBE (* March 7, 1943, † 13 June 2001) was a British intelligence officer and most recently between 1994 and 1999 Head of the Foreign Intelligence Service Secret Intelligence Service ( SIS).

Life

Spedding 1967 staff also MI6 or the Secret Service called the Secret Intelligence Service and was held in the following years use as intelligence officer in Lebanon and then from 1972 to 1974 in Chile, where he was officially Second Secretary of the British Embassy. It was a position which later led to the speculation that he was in advance of a possible conspiracy of the United States against the elected socialist president Salvador Allende known, which was finally overthrown by General Augusto Pinochet on 11 September 1973.

Upon completion of this activity, he worked in the United Arab Emirates and Jordan, thereby became a news service specialist for terrorism in the Middle East.

1994 Spedding has been up to this point not been officially confirmed as the successor to Sir Colin McColl Head of SIS, its actual existence of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Spedding was not only the youngest conductor since its founding in 1909, but also the first head of MI6, who was not a specialist in the Soviet Union, which was founded with the previous focus of the work of foreign intelligence with the Cold War. He was knighted ( Knight) in 1996 and led henceforth the title Sir.

Within the SIS and the government, he was like his predecessor as "C" as chief known and thus also the inspiration for "M", the head of the secret in the books and film adaptations of Ian Fleming's James Bond. In 1998 he invited the actress Dame Judi Dench, the actress of "M" in numerous James Bond films, at a Christmas dinner, after they showed more interest to know the true head of the SIS. The head of the SIS is the only member of the secret, who writes his notes in green ink and also the only employee whose identity is publicly known, Spedding also allowed the publication of his photography.

In 1999, he resigned as head of the SIS and was replaced by Richard Dearlove.