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mander of the Arab Legion, Glubb seems to have been functioning essen-
tially as a British intelligence officer under cover-within-cover, and it is
anyone’s guess who his London (or Cairo) control might have been.
Glubb certainly ran his own intelligence networks from Amman with
agents as far afield as the Arabian Peninsula, and he closely monitored
Nazi activities in the Middle East, especially in Iraq, Palestine, and Saudi
Arabia.^10 His legendary leadership of the Bedouin, culminating in a posi-
tion of extraordinary power and influence in Transjordan, was achieved at
an individual level with the restraint and professionalism of a regular career
soldier. Yet Glubb also fixed his steady gaze on Middle Eastern affairs with
dependable political instinct, as evidenced, for instance, in his penetrating
analysis of the Iraqi political scene in 1941.^11 The pursuit of his impeccable
career-path—always in the right place at the right time—bears the ambiva-
lent hallmarks of a long-term clandestine mission. Above all, Glubb’s offi-
cially sanctioned, total assumption of the role of SOE in Transjordan must
surely have been a Whitehall decision made at the highest level and beyond
the authority of the CO—unthinkable without the involvement of ‘C’
himself.^12 Clearly, and not to detract from his competence and capabilities,
it must have taken the unacknowledged resources of many more than
Glubb to orchestrate his key role as Britain’s strategic policeman in the
Middle East. It would be naïve to think that Glubb Pasha was the sole
consumer of his own intelligence, or that his masterly appreciations were
for the sole delight of the CO and Emir Abdullah. At some point, they
must have landed on someone’s desk at Broadway Buildings.^13
While there may be inconclusiveness about the true nature of Glubb’s
activities, we know with absolute certainty that between December 1941
and July 1943 the SIS deputy head of station in Baghdad was a young man
just down from Christ Church, Oxford (where he read History), named
Nigel Clive. He is one of the few MI6 operatives of the Second World War
to have left us with a published memoir that testifies to his recruitment by
Six (in the Middle East) and his subsequent service.^14 The problem with
Clive’s book is that it has created a great deal of uncertainty about the
identity of the Baghdad heads of station before, during, and after Clive’s
period of service in Baghdad, which ended when he was transferred to
Greece. Describing his first head of station as ‘a middle-aged figure of
military bearing’ is not very helpful. All that we can say for sure is that for
a year, between 23 January 1943 and 25 February 1944, the Baghdad
head of station was definitely Chester Kenneth Otto Brian Giffey
(1887–1967), though he and his wife did not make the return journey
SIX: HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY’S SECRET INTELLIGENCE SERVICE