John Rennie (MI6 officer)
Secret Intelligence Service (SIS/MI6) | |
|---|---|
| Service years | 1968–1973 |
| Rank | Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service |
Sir John Ogilvy Rennie, Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) from 1968 to 1973. He was once the head of the Information Research Department (IRD), a secret branch of the UK Foreign Office dedicated to pro-colonial and anti-communist propaganda during the Cold War.
Career
Educated at
Wellington College and Balliol College, Oxford, Rennie joined an advertising agency in New York City in 1935.[2][3] During World War II he worked at an organisation in Baltimore combating German propaganda.[2]
In 1946 he joined the
Civil Service Commission in 1966;[2] in 1968 he was appointed Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service.[3][2]
On 15 January 1973, Rennie's son Charles Tatham Ogilvy Rennie, and his daughter-in-law were arrested for an alleged involvement in the importation of large quantities of heroin from Hong Kong.[2] Rennie resigned not long afterwards.[2]
He was made a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George in 1967.[2][3]