490 • SIMKINS, ANTHONY
controller, was decorated with the Iron Cross, and supplied large
quantities ofdeceptionmaterial to the Japanese.SIMKINS, ANTHONY.Educated at Marlborough, Anthony Simkins
gained a first-class honors degree in modern history at New College,
Oxford, and was called to the bar at Lincoln’s Inn in 1936. He served
in the Territorial Army and the Rifle Brigade from the outbreak of
World War II until the end of hostilities, part of which he spent as a
PoW after being captured by the Italians in 1941. In September 1943
he was released when the Italians left the Axis, and he walked south
for six weeks until he was recaptured by the Germans and sent to a
camp near Brunswick. Upon his liberation, he was persuaded by his
sister, who had served inSpecial Operations Executive,tojoin
MI5. In 1948 Simkins was posted to Rhodesia as MI5’ssecurity liai-
son officer, and in 1951 he returned to headquarters to run C Branch,
the personnel division. He was appointed deputy director-general in
December 1965 toSir Martin Furnival Jones, who was director-
general.
In 1971 he retired, having been commissioned to write MI5’s war-
time history. When he did so, there was no prospect of publication,
so he was able to prepare a thoroughly comprehensive account of
the organization’s success in taking control of the enemy’s espionage
apparatus in England. However, when ProfessorSir Harry Hinsley
was asked by theCabinet Officeto prepare an account ofBritish
Intelligence in the Second World War, he collaborated with Simkins
to produce an abbreviated version of his manuscript, which was pub-
lished as volume 4 of the official history in 1990, entitledSecurity
and Counterintelligence.Simkins died in December 2003, aged 91,
leaving a widow, a son, and a daughter.
SIMOES, ERNESTO.Even before his arrival at Poole from Lisbon at
the end of July 1943,MI5was aware, fromisos, that Ernesto Simoes
had been recruited by theAbwehr. A well-traveled Portuguese, he
was allowed to land partly to test the efficiency of the reception pro-
cess in England and also to see if he had any other contacts. He was
placed under surveillance and passed through the immigration con-
trols without difficulty, and then was given discreet help to obtain a
job at the Percival Aircraft factory in Luton, where he lodged with