Daphne Park

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Daphne Park, Baroness Park of Monmouth
)

SIS officer
Born(1921-09-01)1 September 1921
Surrey, England
Died24 March 2010(2010-03-24) (aged 88)
NationalityBritish
Park's voice
from the BBC programme MI6: A Century in the Shadows, 3 August 2009[1]

Daphne Margaret Sybil Désirée Park, Baroness Park of Monmouth, CMG, OBE, FRSA (1 September 1921 – 24 March 2010) was a British intelligence officer, diplomat and public servant. During her career as a clandestine senior controller in MI6 (1943–1993) she was stationed in Austria (1946-1948), Moscow (1954–1956), the Congo (1959–1961), Zambia (1964–1967) and Hanoi (1969–1971).[2]

Early life and education

Daphne Park was born to John Alexander and Doreen Gwynneth Park. Her father had contracted tuberculosis as a young man and was sent to Africa for rest and recuperation. He moved from South Africa to

Tanganyika (now Tanzania). When Daphne was six months old she travelled to Africa with her mother to join him there.[4]
Park had a brother, David, who died aged 14.

When Park was 11, she returned to England and was educated at Rosa Bassett School in Streatham and at Somerville College, Oxford, where she graduated with a B.A. in modern languages in 1943. She was further educated at Newnham College, Cambridge, where she received a Certificate of Competent Knowledge in Russian in 1952.

Career

On graduating in 1943, Park turned down jobs in the Treasury and the Foreign Office to make a direct contribution to the war effort.

ciphers. Park was promoted to the rank of sergeant and trained groups of operatives for Operation Jedburgh, whose task was to support the Resistance in Europe.[4] In 1945 Park went to work as a briefing and dispatching officer in North Africa. On her return in 1946 she was sent to Vienna to establish an office for the Field Intelligence Agency Technical (FIAT), a unit of the Allied Commission responsible for tracking down former Axis
scientists.

In 1948, she was attached to the

British Embassy in Moscow
between 1954 and 1956.

From 1959 to 1961 she was Consul and First Secretary to

atomic bombs dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.[6]

She rose further through the ranks of the Foreign Office to serve in the

Ulan Bator for several months. From 1973 onwards she served in the Foreign Office then retired two years early in 1979 to become Principal of Somerville College, Oxford.[4]

Despite her known intelligence service, SIS would neither confirm nor deny she was under their employment.[7]

Affiliations

  • 1971–72, Honourable Research Fellow at the University of Kent
  • 1980–89,
    Principal
    of Somerville College
  • 1982–87, Governor of the
    British Broadcasting Corporation
    (BBC)
  • 1983–89, Member, British Library Board
  • 1984–90, chairman, Lord Chancellor's Advisory Committee on Legal Aid
  • 1985–89, Pro-Vice-Chancellor, University of Oxford
  • 1989–90, director, Zoo Development Trust
  • 1989–94, chairman, Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England
  • 1991–92, Trustee, Royal Armouries Development Trust
  • 1994–96, Member, Forum UK
  • 1994–2010, President, Society for the Promotion of the Training of Women
  • 2003, Patron, Action Congo
  • Member,
    Royal Asiatic Society
  • Governor, Ditchley Foundation
  • Trustee/Patron, Great Britain-Sasakawa Foundation
  • Trustee, Jardine Educational Trust
  • Trustee, Lucy Faithfull Travel Scholarship Fund

Honours and awards

In 1960, Park was invested as an Officer of the

Somerville College, and a Fellow of Chatham House (RIIA) and of the Royal Society of Arts
(FRSA).

Personal life

Park was unmarried and had no children. She died after a long illness on 24 March 2010, aged 88.[13][14] A Service of Thanksgiving for the Life and Work of Baroness Park was held on Tuesday 26 October 2010 and the eulogy was given by fellow ex-spy Sir Mark Allen, CMG.[15]

References

  1. ^ "Heroes and Villains". MI6: A Century in the Shadows. Episode 2. 3 August 2009. BBC Radio 4. Retrieved 18 January 2014.
  2. ^ "Park Daphne Margaret Sybil Désiree". NameBase. Retrieved 20 January 2012.
  3. ^ Roth, Andrew (28 March 2010). "Lady Park of Monmouth obituary Senior MI6 officer, diplomat and Tory peer, she was known as the 'Queen of Spies'". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 January 2021.
  4. ^ a b c d "Obituary: Baroness Park of Monmouth". The Daily Telegraph. London. 25 March 2010. Retrieved 22 February 2011.
  5. ^ Letters, We did it, London Review of Books, Vol. 35 No. 7, 11 April 2013
  6. ^ Compare:McCrummen, Stephanie (4 August 2009). "Nearly Forgotten Forces of WWII". The Washington Post. Washington Post Foreign Service.
  7. ^ Warrell, Helen (8 December 2022). "The secret lives of MI6's top female spies". Financial Times. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
  8. ^ "No. 42231". The London Gazette (Supplement). 27 December 1960. p. 8908.
  9. ^ "No. 45262". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 December 1970. p. 4.
  10. ^ "No. 51981". The London Gazette (Supplement). 29 December 1989. p. 1.
  11. ^ "No. 52064". The London Gazette. 2 March 1990. p. 2841.
  12. ^ "Baroness Park of Monmouth". The Times. 8 November 2010. p. 57.
  13. ^ Evans, Michael (26 March 2010). "Daphne Park MI6 woman with a 30year secret career dies at 88". The Times. London.
  14. ^ "Obituary: Daphne Park, Baroness Park of Monmouth, MI6 Spy". The Scotsman. Edinburgh. 29 March 2010.
  15. ^ "Special Forces Club - Eulogy - Daphne Park". Archived from the original on 21 March 2012. Retrieved 11 March 2011.

Further reading

  • "DodOnline". Archived from the original on 3 October 2006. Retrieved 14 February 2007.
  • Paddy Hayes: Queen of spies, The autobiography of Daphne Park. Duckworth Publishers, 2015.
  • ISBN 9781849046381
Academic offices
Preceded by Principal
Somerville College, Oxford
1980–1989 		Succeeded by
Catherine Pestell
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