Sir Stewart Menzies (1890-1968)

He was Chief of MI6 (the British Secret Intelligence Service) from 1939 to 1952, during and after World War II. Educated at Eton, from 1912 he grew up in the household of his stepfather, Sir George Holford, former equerry to Edward VII (and one of his closest friends) and by then equerry-in-waiting to Queen Alexandra and extra-equerry to George V. Menzies enjoyed a life with all the trappings of aristocracy but without any of the lineage and being described as, “a person who knew how to spot an opportunity and turn it to his advantage,” he allowed a false rumour to circulate that he was an illegitimate son of Edward VII, which he was not, but refused to deny.

According to his biography by Anthony Cave Brown, Menzies is said to have been the model for the character of "M" in the James Bond stories, and his first wife (Lady Avice Sackville) is supposed to be the inspiration for Lady Anne, the unfaithful wife of George Smiley in the novels of John le Carré. He lived between Bridges Court in Luckington, Wiltshire, and 21 Queen Anne's Gate in Westminster, London, that was connected at the rear to the MI6 headquarters at 54 Broadway so that to get to his office he never had to step out on to the street. In Joseph Persico's book Roosevelt's Secret War he said Menzies, "was a man of charm but not warmth. The wife of one of his subordinates described him as, 'hard as granite under a smooth exterior'". He married three times (an Earl's daughter, a Baron's granddaughter, and a Baronet's daughter, all wealthy) and had one daughter.