Historical Dictionary of British Intelligence

GULBENKIAN, NUBAR• 225

denturahad been penetrated, the NKVDrezidentwas withdrawn,

leaving the GRUrezident,Simon Kremer, to operate alone. Very

little is known of the GRU’s operations in London apart from clues

offered by thevenonatraffic, which suggests more than 40 GRU

agents were active in 1940 and 1941.

GUBBINS, SIR COLIN.Educated at Cheltenham College and Sand-
hurst, Colin Gubbins fought in World War I in France, Belgium, and
North Russia, winning the Military Cross. In September 1939 he was
sent to Warsaw on behalf of MI(R), but was obliged to evade the Ger-
mans by making his escape through Romania andCairo. In Novem-
ber 1941 he was appointedSpecial Operations Executive’s AD/E
supervising operations in Europe, in succession to Harry Sporborg,
and in September 1943 he took over fromSir Charles Hambroas
‘‘CD.’’ After his death in Stornoway in February 1976, his widow
began writing his biography, a task completed bySir Peter Wilkin-
sonand Joan Bright Astley in 1993.

GULBENKIAN, NUBAR.Often described in the press as the richest
man in the world, Nubar Gulbenkian was an unlikely candidate for a
secret agent, but his strongest asset was his diplomatic status. His
father, Calouste Gulbenkian, the founder of the Anglo-Iranian Oil
Company also known as ‘‘Mr. Five Percent,’’ was the Iranian ambas-
sador in Vichy France during World War II. This allowed the diplo-
mat’s son to travel with the rank of commercial attache ́to and from
France’s unoccupied zone without restriction. AccordinglyDonald
Darling,theSecret Intelligence Service(SIS) officer responsible
for representing P15 in Lisbon, routinely used Gulbenkian as his cou-
rier, maintaining contact with the Allied escape lines.
It was because Gulbenkian was such an improbable secret agent
that he was so successful. On every mission Gulbenkian, who was
renowned for wearing an orchid in his buttonhole, was accompanied
by his English valet and became renowned for flourishing a $500
note. Educated at Harrow, Bonn University, and Trinity College,
Cambridge, Gulbenkian was called to the bar by the Middle Temple
but devoted much of his life, like that of his father, to the oil business,
in which he was hugely successful. He was later to remark that even
his recruitment into SIS, by Captain Eddie Hastings while out cub