- Dick White
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Sir Dick White Allegiance United Kingdom Service MI5, MI6 Rank Director-General of MI5
Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6)Award(s) KCMG, KBE Born 20 December 1906
Tonbridge, KentDied 21 February 1993 (aged 86) Nationality British Occupation Intelligence officer Sir Dick Goldsmith White, KCMG, KBE (20 December 1906 – 21 February 1993), was a British intelligence officer. He was Director-General (DG) of MI5 from 1953 to 1956, and Head of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) from 1956 to 1968.
Career
White was born in Tonbridge, Kent and went to school at Bishop's Stortford College. He was athletic in his youth. He was described by Peter Wright as resembling David Niven: "the same perfect English manners, easy charm, and immaculate dress sense." He was, said Wright, "tall with lean, healthy features and a sharp eye".[1] Much as Wright liked White, he felt his move to MI6 was a mistake for both MI5 and MI6: "Just as his work [at MI5] was beginning, he was moved on a politician's whim to an organization he knew little about, and which was profoundly hostile to his arrival. He was never to be as successful there as he had been in MI5."[2] He was appointed Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service in 1956 in the wake of the "Crabb Affair", the exposure of which had damaged Soviet-British relations, and embarrassed MI6.[3]
References
- ^ Peter Wright, Spycatcher, Stoddart (Canada), 1987, p. 40 (paperback)
- ^ Wright, Spycatcher, p. 96
- ^ Barry Turner, Suez 1956: The Inside Story of the First Oil War, Hodder & Stoughton, 2006, p.171
Government offices Preceded by
Sir Percy SillitoeDirector-General of MI5
1953 - 1956Succeeded by
Sir Roger HollisPreceded by
Sir John SinclairChief of the SIS
1956 - 1968Succeeded by
Sir John RennieCategories:- 1906 births
- 1993 deaths
- Cold War MI5 chiefs
- Cold War MI6 chiefs
- Directors-General of MI5
- Knights Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George
- Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire
- People from Tonbridge
- Chiefs of MI6
- English military personnel stubs
- British government biography stubs
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