16
more in response to an equally courteous directive with which Churchill
had briefed Cornwallis: ‘You should make every effort to build up in Iraq
an effective body of opinion which will look to His Majesty’s Government,
not Germany, as the natural friend of the Arabs and the champion of their
legitimate aspirations.’ A direct order disguised as a polite suggestion.^43
As we shall see, whatever the precise configuration of her cover-within-
cover, Freya Stark’s social relationships were influential and transcended
interservice boundaries. They helped her greatly in her work, and they
reflect her operational status and the high esteem in which she was held by
soldiers, diplomats, and fellow intelligence personnel. In Cairo, she
worked closely with SOE’s Cudbert J.M. Thornhill (1883–1952) (an old
friend of Wavell’s) and Christopher Hugh Sykes (1907–1986), a young
author and officer in the Green Howards with whom Stark had already
been socializing in London for several years.^44 Consequently, a serious but
unsuccessful attempt was made to have her transferred permanently from
Section D of SIS to SOE. Instead, Stark went to MOI, though her rela-
tionship with SOE remained solid, as much of Thornhill’s work organiz-
ing overt and covert Italian propaganda had to be done in close cooperation
with MOI. In Baghdad, she associated frequently with the officers of SOE
under Adrian Bishop at their South Gate headquarters, and she numbered
them among her closest friends. She was also deeply, almost maternally
fond of the young SIS deputy head of station, Nigel David Clive
(1913–2001), who was her paying guest, and about whose health she
worried constantly. Clive became in turn a close friend of the SOE officers
at South Gate, which no doubt contributed significantly to local SIS–SOE
cooperation.^45 At the Baghdad embassy too there were other old friends:
Stewart Henry Perowne (1901–1989), Vyvyan Holt (1896–1960), and
Ken Cornwallis. And of course there were female friends—Hermione
Ranfurly (1913–2001), who came and went wherever her boss (Jumbo
Wilson) might lead her; Pamela Hore-Ruthven (1910–2006), Stark’s
beautiful assistant; and Margaret Stefana ‘Peggy’ Drower (1911–2012),
the eminent archaeologist, who succeeded Pamela.^46 Thus we find Freya
Stark at the very centre of a dense nexus of mingled social and occupa-
tional activity best described by the hybrid, multilevel concept of a set—
‘the Baghdad Set’—populated by some exceptionally clever, talented
individuals. Such are the clandestine circles within which Stark moved
unimpeded and admired, and which included many of the influential, even
powerful personalities to whom she had unfettered access—like Wavell
and Wilson, Cornwallis and Glubb—and with whom she cooperated