Historical Dictionary of British Intelligence

(Michael S) #1

354 • METEOROLOGICAL OFFICE


widely admired as a horseman, hunting with the Beaufort; had an eye
for a pretty pair of legs; and, aged 49, either knew or had been at
Eton with most of the Cabinet. However, almost as soon as his ap-
pointment had been confirmed, SIS was engulfed by the Venlo disas-
ter, the abduction of two SIS officersSigismund BestandRichard
Stevens.
The SIS inherited by Menzies was virtually in a state of collapse,
yet thanks to some cryptographic breakthroughs achieved on theAb-
wehr’s hand ciphers and a fewEnigmakeys, there was a chance that
‘‘C’’ would not be entirely blind. By the end of 1940 theGovern-
ment Code and Cipher Schoolhad exploited the early achievements
of the codebreakers atBletchley Park.
In November 1951 Menzies sackedKim Philby, and this may
have had a bearing on Menzies’s decision to retire in July 1952, at
the age of 62, two and a half years after the mandatory retirement for
his staff. His wife Pamela, who had been in poor health for years,
had died in March the previous year, and his relationship with the
Honourable Audrey Chaplin, the daughter of Sir Thomas Latham, the
chairman of Courtauld’s, resulted in their marriage in December
1952, a few days after the death of his older brother Keith. Two years
later Menzies attended the marriage of his only child, his daughter
Fiona, and then returned home to Bridges Court to a life of retire-
ment spent hunting and racing until his death at King Edward VII’s
Hospital for Officers of pneumonia at the end of May 1968. Two days
later, his obituary in theTimesbroke with tradition and announced
the death of the ‘‘former Head of the Secret Intelligence Service.’’

METEOROLOGICAL OFFICE.The Meteorological Office, an os-
tensibly harmless branch of the Ministry of Defence, provided civil-
ian cover from June 1958 to May 1960 forRoyal Air Force
personnel flyingU-2reconnaissance aircraft from Incirlik in Turkey
over the Soviet Union, Egypt, Syria, and Israel. The aircrew, who
were trained at Laughlin Air Force Base in Texas, participated in the
overflights until the loss of Francis Gary Powers prevented further U-
2 incursions into Soviet airspace.


METROPOLITAN POLICE.In addition to SO12, formerly known
asSpecial Branch, the Metropolitan Police (also known as Scotland

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