192 • FORBES DENNIS, ERNAN
telligence officer. Footman himself was unembarrassed by what some
of his more critical colleagues regarded as injudicious friendships, as
was demonstrated in 1967 when he publishedIn Memoriam Archie,
following the death three years earlier ofArchie Lyall.
Footman was a prolific author while studying at St. Antony’s, al-
most all of his work concentrating on aspects of the Russian civil
wars, beginning withThe Last Days of Kolchak. In 1956 he wrote a
biography of Boris Savinkov, the Menshevik leader (supported by
SIS throughSomerset Maugham) who had been the assassin of the
Grand Duke Serge and the czar’s police chief, Dmitri Drepov. Foot-
man retired as emeritus fellow of St. Antony’s in 1963 and, at the
time of his death in October 1983, was still active contributing arti-
cles to journals. He had dominated SIS for nearly 20 years and had
been a significant influence over his colleagues, most of whom were
of rather lesser intellects.FORBES DENNIS, ERNAN.Of Scottish origin, Ernan Forbes Dennis
was wounded in World War I and in 1918 was posted first to Mar-
seilles and then by theSecret Intelligence Service(SIS) to Vienna
under the semitransparent cover ofpassport control officer. The SIS
station was closed temporarily in an economy drive in 1927, leaving
Forbes Dennis and his American Quaker wife, who wrote numerous
novels and plays under her improbable maiden name Phyllis Bot-
tome, to take in up to 20 young guests at their mountain retreat,
among themIan FlemingandPeter Fleming. Bottome’s 1946 novel
The Life Line, about a British Intelligence agent who is fluent in Ger-
man and ‘‘climbs like a mountain goat’’ may have been the basis of
James Bond. Her autobiography,The Goal, gives a detailed account
of her husband’s work for SIS.
FORCE 133.Cover name for theSpecial Operations Executivein the
Middle East, based at Rustum Buildings inCairo. The organization
also masqueraded under other convenient covers in the region,
among them MO1(SP) and MO4.
FORCE 136.Cover name from March 1944 forSpecial Operations
Executivein the Far East during World War II, Force 136 was headed
by Colin Mackenzie and was divided into five sections covering