Eye Spy - May 2018

24 EYE SPY INTELLIGENCE MAGAZINE 115 2018

hen the US Government began
buying up property in the late
1940s to construct what
would eventually support the
main CIA compound, they
Wencountered two women,
Florence Thorne and Margaret Scattergood,
who owned the Calvert Estate within the
Langley area. A deal was struck with the
intelligence service that would see the pair
continue to live in their house until their
deaths. Thereafter, ownership would transfer
to the government. Both women lived there for

decades, surrounded by the headquarters of

the CIA and its numerous annexes and training

grounds, until they passed away in their 90s.

Whilst apparently polite, they were a persistent

thorn in the CIA’s side.

Margaret was a Quaker and pacifist and felt

the CIA’s mission violated her beliefs. She

used her trust fund money to support anti-war

causes and lobbied Congress to cut the US

Intelligence and military budgets. In the

1980s, when the CIA suppor ted the Nicara-

guan Contras, the two women opened their

home to the Sandinistas - who on more than

one occasion turned up at CIA’s main

entrance, only to be directed to the Calvert

Estate.

Florence passed away in 1973 aged 95,

leaving Margaret on her own. CIA DDA at the

time, Harry Fitzwater, instructed CIA security

officers, as par t of their routine patrols, to

check on her and make sure she was

comfor table and secure. Over the years,

several Agency officers befriended Margaret,

and would regularly stop by her house to help

with chores like gardening and grocery

shopping.

On 29 October 1984, aged 90, she was the

guest of honour at a lunch Fitzwater and CIA

Director William Casey held in the Director’s

dining room. Her niece Sylvia joined her and