CHILDERS, ERSKINE• 93CHESHAM HOUSE.The office of theSoviet Trade Delegationand
the Soviet charge ́d’affaires in Chesham Place, London, before the
Bolsheviks received diplomatic recognition, Chesham House was the
subject of technical surveillance by the Security Service between
1919 and 1927.
CHICKSANDS PRIORY.The family seat of the Osborne family, the
entire Chicksands Priory estate was taken over by theRoyal Air
Force(RAF) and operated as a signals intelligence intercept site dur-
ing World War II by the Royal Navy’s Y Service. Chicksands also
provided a communications center in England for the Heavy Mobile
Units that accompanied the RAF’s advance squadrons established in
Europe afterD-Day. In November 1950 the U.S.National Security
Agencytook over the estate and the U.S. Air Force’s Security Ser-
vice, which collected signals intelligence, was established perma-
nently as the headquarters of the 6940th Radio Squadron (Mobile).
In 1996, following the American withdrawal from Chicksands, the
site was selected as the newly createdDefence Intelligence and Se-
curity Centre.
CHIDSON, MONTY.In May 1940 Major Monty Chidson headed the
Section Dmission to Amsterdam to recover stocks of industrial dia-
monds before they were seized by the approaching Germans. Chid-
son later suffered a breakdown and was sent to Ankara, Turkey,
where he acted as security officer at the British embassy during the
periodcicero,Elyesa Bazna, was copying the contents of the am-
bassador’s safe. Chidson’s 1940 assignment was described byDavid
WalkerinAdventure in Diamondsand made into a movie calledOp-
eration Amsterdam.
CHILDERS, ERSKINE.After Haileybury and Trinity College, Cam-
bridge, Robert Erskine Childers worked in the House of Commons
as a clerk, but in 1899, aged 29, he was one of the first to respond to
the call for volunteers to go to South Africa. He fought in theBoer
Warwith the Honourable Artillery Company and wrote an account
of his experiences, entitledIn the Ranks of the City Imperial Volun-
teers. Childers and his wife were keen sailors and in 1903 he
achieved tremendous success with his novel of espionage along the