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Wilfred Dunderdale

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Commander Wilfred Albert "Biffy" Dunderdale, CMG, MBE (24 December 1899 – 13 November 1990) was a British spy and intelligence officer.[1][2] It has been suggested that Dunderdale was used by Ian Fleming as a basis for the character of James Bond.[3]

Life

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Wilfred Dunderdale was born in Odessa, son of Richard Albert Dunderdale, a shipping magnate.[1]

Dunderdale served in the Royal Navy (RNVR) during the First World War, despite his thick accent[4] he had grown up speaking Russian and English. During the Russian Civil War he was an interpreter with White Russian naval commanders in the Black Sea, once having to sit discreetly outside for a White Russian general "chatting up" the general's mistress until he was no longer required! (neither spoke the other's language). He went to Yekaterinburg to investigate the murder of the Imperial family. He was nicknamed Biffy for his pugilistic skills.[5]

He worked for the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) between 1921 and 1959,[1] and moved to Paris, "a hotbed of White Russian intrigue" [citation needed], and becoming Head of Station by 1937 with the cover name Dolinoff[citation needed]. His work involved liaison with French intelligence (1926–40) and Polish intelligence (1940–45 in connection with the decrypting of German Enigma-enciphered messages [citation needed]; and to Constantinople, where he said that his first job for MI6 was to buy foreign members of the Sultan's harem and arrange for them to be repatriated by the Royal Navy.

Later moving to New York, he died there in November 1990.[4] According to notes compiled by Stephen Dorril for his 1989 book, A Who's Who of the British State, Dunderdale was a member of Boodle's.[6]

The first biography of his life A Suspicion of Spies: Risk, Secrets and Shadows – the Biography of Wilfred ‘Biffy’ Dunderdale by Tim Spicer will be released on 12 September 2024.[7]

Notes

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  1. ^ a b c "Dunderdale, Wilfred Albert (1899–1990), intelligence officer". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. 2004. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/40173. ISBN 978-0-19-861412-8. Retrieved 23 May 2021. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  2. ^ John Bruce Lockhart, "Dunderdale, Wilfred Albert (1899-1990)", rev., Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004
  3. ^ "The James Bond Story". ABC TV Documentaries. ABC TV. 13 December 2000.
  4. ^ a b West, Nigel (2005). Historical Dictionary of British Intelligence. Scarecrow Press. p. 162.
  5. ^ Turing, Dermot (2018). X Y & Z: The real story of how Enigma was broken. Stroud, Gloucestershire, England: The History Press. pp. 160–162. ISBN 978-0-7509-8782-0.
  6. ^ Stephen Dorril (1989). A Who's Who of the British State. p. 29.
  7. ^ Spicer, Tim (12 September 2024). A Suspicion of Spies.

Further reading

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  • Matthew M. Aid, "'Stella Polaris' and the Secret Code Battle in Postwar Europe", Intelligence and National Security 17(3), Autumn 2002, pp 17–86.
  • Gustave Bertrand, Enigma ou la plus grande énigme de la guerre 1939–1945 (Enigma: the Greatest Enigma of the War of 1939–1945), Paris, Librairie Plon, 1973.
  • Brian Cathcart, "The name's Dunderdale, Biffy Dunderdale", The Independent (London), June 23, 1996
  • Kozaczuk, Władysław, Enigma: How the German Machine Cipher Was Broken, and How It Was Read by the Allies in World War Two, edited and translated by Christopher Kasparek, Frederick, MD, University Publications of America, 1984, ISBN 0-89093-547-5.
  • Hugh Sebag-Montefiore, Enigma: The Battle for the Code, 2000, ISBN 0-7538-1130-8.
  • Jacek Tebinka, "Account of the former Chief of Polish intelligence on cracking the Enigma code of 31 V 1974", p. 214 (footnote 34) in Jan Stanislaw Ciechanowski, ed. Marian Rejewski 1905–1980, Living with the Enigma secret, 1st ed, Bydgoszcz City Council, 2005, ISBN 83-7208-117-4
  • Winterbotham, F.W., The Ultra Secret, New York, Dell, 1975.
  • Tim Spicer, A Suspicion of Spies: Risk, Secrets and Shadows – the Biography of Wilfred ‘Biffy’ Dunderdale, 2024.[1]
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  1. ^ Spicer, Tim (12 September 2024). A Suspicion of Spies.
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