494 • SINCLAIR, SIR JOHN
landings in the Dardanelles, helping to land the Lancashire Fusiliers
on the west beach, his health collapsed and he returned to England to
recuperate and, after just six years, to leave the Royal Navy.
In 1918, having taught briefly at the Downs School in Winchester,
Sinclair attended the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich as a
cadet, uniquely winning both the Sword of Honour and the Pollock
Medal (for academic achievement), before being commissioned into
the Royal Field Artillery in 1919. He served in the North Russia cam-
paign in Murmansk and then was posted to India before returning to
Aldershot. Between 1929 and 1931 he was adjutant of the Honour-
able Artillery Company, and he attended the Staff College at Cam-
berley from 1932 to 1933.
At the outbreak of World War II, Sinclair was an instructor at the
Senior Staff College at Minley and then served as a planner for the
British Expeditionary Force. In 1941 he was appointed deputy direc-
tor of military operations at the War Office and then went on the staff
of South-East Command before being promoted deputy chief of the
General Staff, Home Forces. In 1944, having worked on the plans
for the invasion of Normandy, he was nameddirector of military
intelligence(DMI), and in June the following year was appointed
vice chief of SIS upon the retirement ofClaude Dansey.
Sinclair was a straightforward military man, ‘‘a tall lean Scot with
the angular, austere features of a Presbyterian minister,’’ according
toGeorge Blake, ‘‘with no pretensions to intellectual prowess’’—a
view he would probably have agreed with. Despite his severe exte-
rior, Sinclair also had a highly developed sense of humor and kept a
toy missile on his desk, a gift from a subordinate who had ‘‘received
a severe rocket from his Chief.’’ In 1927 he married Esme Sopwith,
the daughter of the archdeacon of Canterbury, who bore him two
sons and two daughters. Sinclair always had beenStewart Menzies’s
candidate as his successor. He possessed an inquisitive, analytical
mind with a talent for analyzing and solving difficult problems and
was never impressed by the Soviets, convinced that the Communists’
inability to produce consumer goods would eventually lead to the
economy imploding. Sinclair had inherited his father’s commitment
to Anglicanism and remained involved in church affairs throughout
his life.Kim Philbyadmired him and in his autobiography expressed
his regret at having lied to Sinclair when, at his final interrogation,