434 • PROFUMO, JOHN
- P7, Belgium, led by Major F. J. Jempson
- P8, Holland, led byEuan Rabagliati
- P9, Norway, led byEric Welsh
- P13, Baltic, led byLeslie Mitchell
- P15, PoW/MI9, led byJ. M. Langley
- P19, Photographic, led by Dr. Carl Winter
- Y/S, led by Yugoslavia: John Ennals
Immediately after World War IIDick Elliswas appointed controller
of production (CPR), assisted by Charles Dundas and two staff offi-
cers, Godfrey Paulson and Rodney Dennys.See alsoREQUIRE-
MENTS SECTIONS.PROFUMO, JOHN.The secretary of state for war in Harold Macmil-
lan’s government, but not a member of his Cabinet, Jack Profumo
was introduced toChristine Keelerat a weekend party held at Clive-
den byLord Astorearly in July 1961. Attracted to this ravishingly
beautiful 19-year-old dancer, Profumo conducted a brief affair with
her until a month later when he was invited by theCabinet secre-
tary,Sir Norman Brook, to assistMI5in an operation to entrap the
Soviet naval attache ́Eugene Ivanov. Profumo declined to do so and
incorrectly interpreted the conversation as a warning that MI5 disap-
proved of his relationship with Keeler. He immediately wrote her a
note calling off their next assignation and did not see her again.
In January 1963 rumors began to circulate that Keeler had sold her
story to a Sunday newspaper and had included the assertion that she
had conducted an affair with Profumo. When the matter was raised
in the House of Commons byGeorge Wiggand Richard Crossman
in March 1963, alleging it was a security issue, Profumo made a per-
sonal statement, insisting there had been ‘‘no impropriety whatever’’
in his relationship with Keeler and successfully sued two continental
journals for libel. However, the Labour Opposition pressed for an in-
quiry and when in June the lord chancellor, Lord Dilhorne, asked to
see Profumo, he confessed to his wife and sent a letter of resignation
to the prime minister. An inquiry conducted byLord Denninginves-
tigated the allegations that Profumo had encountered Ivanov at the
mews home of their mutual friend Stephen Ward, and that Keeler had
acted as an intermediary to seek information from the war minister,
but concluded that there were no security implications.