William Stephenson

Sir William Stephenson Captain
Codename	Intrepid
Operations	World War I World War II

Sir William Samuel Stephenson

As head of the BSC, Stephenson handed British scientific secrets over to Franklin D. Roosevelt and relayed American secrets back to Winston Churchill.^[3] In addition, Stephenson has been credited with changing American public opinion from an isolationist stance to a supportive tendency regarding the United States' entry into World War II.^[3]

Early life

Stephenson was born William Samuel Clouston Stanger on 23 January 1897, in

He left school at a young age and worked as a telegrapher. In January 1916, during

.

On 15 August 1917, Stephenson was officially struck off the strength of the Canadian Expeditionary Force and granted a commission in the Royal Flying Corps.[5] Posted to 73 Squadron on 9 February 1918, he flew the Sopwith Camel biplane fighter and scored 12 victories to become a flying ace before he was shot down and crashed his plane behind enemy lines on 28 July 1918. During the incident Stephenson was injured by fire from a German ace pilot, Justus Grassmann,^[6] by friendly fire (according to a French observer),^{[7][page needed]} or by both. In any event, he was subsequently captured by the Germans and held as a prisoner of war until allegedly escaping in October 1918.^{[7][page needed]} His RAF Service file indicates that he was repatriated from the Holzminden prisoner-of-war camp on 9 December 1918.^{[citation needed]}

By the end of World War I, Stephenson had achieved the rank of Captain and earned the Military Cross and the Distinguished Flying Cross. His medal citations perhaps foreshadow his later achievements, and read:

For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. When flying low and observing an open staff car on a road, he attacked it with such success that later it was seen lying in the ditch upside down. During the same flight he caused a stampede amongst some enemy transport horses on a road. Previous to this he had destroyed a hostile scout and a two-seater plane. His work has been of the highest order, and he has shown the greatest courage and energy in engaging every kind of target.

— 

London Gazette

, 21 June 1918.

This officer has shown conspicuous gallantry and skill in attacking enemy troops and transports from low altitudes, causing heavy casualties. His reports, also, have contained valuable and precise information. He has further proved himself a keen antagonist in the air, having, during recent operations, accounted for six enemy aeroplanes.

— Distinguished Flying Cross citation, Supplement to the

London Gazette

, 21 September 1918.

Interwar period

After

. Stephenson had a broad base of industrial contacts in Europe, Britain and North America, as well as a large group of contacts in the international film industry. Shepperton Studios were the largest film studios in the world outside of Hollywood.

As early as April 1936, Stephenson was voluntarily providing confidential information to British

^: p.27

World War II

BSC was housed on the 35th and 36th floors of the International Building, Rockefeller Center

, New York City

After

His deputy at BSC was the Australian-born MI6 intelligence officer

BSC was registered by the State Department as a foreign entity. It operated out of Room 3603 at

Stephenson's initial directives for BSC were to

1. investigate enemy activities;
2. institute security measures against sabotage to British property; and
3. organize American public opinion in favour of aid to Britain.

Later this was expanded to include "the assurance of American participation in secret activities throughout the world in the closest possible collaboration with the British". Stephenson's official title was British

in aid of winning the war.

Stephenson was soon a close adviser to Roosevelt, and suggested that he put Stephenson's good friend

]

Princess Hotel

in Bermuda, home to British Imperial Censorship during the war, and to Sir William Stephenson after the war.

While it was still neutral, agreement was made for all trans-Atlantic mails from the U.S. to be routed through the

With BSC working closely with the FBI, the censors were responsible for the discovery and arrest of a number of Axis spies operating in the US, including the Joe K ring.^[19]

After the war, Stephenson lived at the Princess Hotel for a time before buying his own home in Bermuda.^[19]

Under Stephenson, BSC directly influenced U.S. media (including newspaper columns by Walter Winchell and Drew Pearson), and media in other hemisphere countries, toward pro-British and anti-Axis views. Once the U.S. had entered the war in Dec. 1941, BSC went on to train U.S. propagandists from the United States Office of War Information in Canada. BSC covert intelligence and propaganda efforts directly affected wartime developments in Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Venezuela, Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay, Mexico, the Central American countries, Bermuda, Cuba and Puerto Rico.

Stephenson worked without salary.^[20]

He hired hundreds of people, mostly Canadian women, to staff his organization and covered much of the expense out of his own pocket. His employees included secretive communications genius Benjamin deForest "Pat" Bayly and future advertising wizard David Ogilvy. Stephenson employed Amy Elizabeth Thorpe, codenamed CYNTHIA, to seduce Vichy French officials into giving up Enigma ciphers and secrets from their Washington embassy.^[22] At the height of the war Bayly, a University of Toronto professor from Moose Jaw, created the Rockex, the fast secure communications system that would eventually be relied on by all the Allies.^[23]

Not least of Stephenson's contributions to the war effort was the setting up by BSC of

Reports indicate that Camp X graduates worked as "secret agents, security personnel, intelligence officers, or psychological warfare experts, serving in clandestine operations. Many were captured, tortured, and executed; survivors received no individual recognition for their efforts."^[25][26] Camp X graduates operated in Europe (Spain, Portugal, Italy and the Balkans) as well as in Africa, Australia, India and the Pacific. They may have included Ian Fleming (though there is evidence to the contrary), future author of the James Bond books. It has been said that the fictional Goldfinger's raid on Fort Knox was inspired by a Stephenson plan (never carried out) to steal $2,883,000,000 in Vichy French gold reserves from the French Caribbean colony of Martinique.^{[7][page needed]}

BSC purchased a ten-kilowatt transmitter from Philadelphia radio station WCAU and installed it at Camp X. By mid-1944, Hydra (as the Camp X transmitter was known) was transmitting 30,000 and receiving 9,000 message groups daily – much of the secret Allied intelligence traffic across the Atlantic.^[28]

Honours

For his extraordinary service to the war effort, he was made a

wrote: "This one is dear to my heart."

In November 1946 Stephenson received the

The "Quiet Canadian" was recognized by his native land late: he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada on 17 December 1979, and invested in the Order on 5 February 1980.

On 2 May 2000, CIA Executive Director David W. Carey, representing Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet and Deputy Director John A. Gordon, accepted from the Intrepid Society of Winnipeg, Manitoba, a bronze statuette of Stephenson. In his remarks, Carey said:

Sir William Stephenson played a key role in the creation of the CIA. He realized early on that America needed a strong intelligence organization and lobbied contacts close to President Roosevelt to appoint a U.S. "coordinator" to oversee FBI and military intelligence. He urged that the job be given to William J. "Wild Bill" Donovan, who had recently toured British defences and gained the confidence of Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Although Roosevelt didn't establish exactly what Sir William had in mind, the organization created represented a revolutionary step in the history of American intelligence. Donovan's Office of Strategic Services was the first "central" U.S. intelligence service. OSS worked closely with and learned from Sir William and other Canadian and British officials during the war. A little later, these OSS officers formed the core of the CIA. Intrepid may not have technically been the father of CIA, but he's certainly in our lineage someplace.

On 8 August 2008, Stephenson was recognized for his work by Major General John M. Custer, Commandant of the U.S. Army Intelligence Corps. Custer inducted him as an honorary member of the U.S. Army Intelligence Corps, an honour shared by only two other non-Americans.^[31]

Legacy

In 1997, a new public library built in Winnipeg was named for him, after a vote was held to choose the name of the new library. Leo Mol donated a miniature of his statue of Stephenson to the library.

On 24 July 1999,

On 15 November 2009, Water Avenue in downtown Winnipeg was renamed William Stephenson Way.^[33]

Whitby, Ontario has a street named for Stephenson. It connects with streets named Intrepid and Overlord. The town is also home to Sir William Stephenson Public School, which opened in 2004.

In

, Branch 637 of the Royal Canadian Legion is named for Stephenson. Intrepid Park, named after Stephenson's wartime code name, is located in southern Oshawa near the original Camp X site. A historic plaque erected at the park reads as follows:

On this site British Security Co-ordination operated Special Training School No. 103 and Hydra. S.T.S. 103 trained Allied agents in the techniques of secret warfare for the Special Operations Executive (SOE) branch of the British Intelligence Service. Hydra Network communicated vital messages between Canada, the United States and Great Britain. This commemoration is dedicated to the service of the men and women who took part in these operations.

In Memory of Sir William Stephenson 'The Man Called Intrepid'

Born at Winnipeg, Manitoba, 11 January 1896. Died at Paget, Bermuda, 31 January 1989. Director of British Security Co-ordination. 1941–1946.^[34]

Disputes

In 1976 British-born Canadian author

), a prominent Bermudian law firm (another author and frequent visitor to Bermuda was ex-naval officer Ian Fleming).

Intelligence historian David A. T. Stafford asserts that a more reliable source on Stephenson's career is H. Montgomery Hyde's The Quiet Canadian, published in 1962, before Stevenson's book.^[36] But generally acknowledged as the most accurate account of Stephenson's life is Bill Macdonald's The True Intrepid (1998), with a foreword by the late CIA staff historian Thomas Troy. The book clears up the spymaster's fictitious background in Winnipeg and contains oral histories from his ex-agents. Macdonald's book includes a chapter on the secretive communications genius Benjamin deForest "Pat" Bayly, who according to Stafford's book Camp X – refused to speak with Stafford. Bayly is not mentioned in The Quiet Canadian or A Man Called Intrepid.

1. In Counterfeit Spies, Bermuda resident
   Légion d'honneur
   . Stephenson was of course awarded Britain's Military Cross and Distinguished Flying Cross for his heroics in France. In September 2009 his medals and other effects were displayed in Manitoba's legislative building, in Winnipeg.
2. William Stevenson describes a dinner held at
   water closet)." Moreover, Stevenson reports that Lord Trenchard chatted with Stephenson about his own fighter plane; however, in 1940 Trenchard was over 65 years old and was retired from the military. In author William Stevenson's papers at the University of Regina there is a reference to the Beaverbrook dinner, noting that in later years Stephenson had cabled the author that he did not recall the exact date of the gathering. There is no mention of Stephenson having received an invitation from Churchill. In his foreword to Richard Dunlop's Donovan, Stephenson writes that he received a telephoned invitation to the dinner.^{[original research?}
   ]
3. In his 1981 book The Churchillians, Jock Colville took issue with Stevenson's description of Stephenson's wartime relations with Churchill. Colville pointed out that Stephenson was not Churchill's personal liaison with Roosevelt, that in fact (as is well known) the two leaders corresponded directly. Indeed, Colville contends that he never heard Churchill speak of Stephenson (which may say as much about Churchill's relations with Colville, an Assistant Private Secretary, as it does about his relations with the spy Stephenson). Based on this and other questions, Colville expressed the hope that Stevenson's book would not be "used for the purpose of historical reference." Meanwhile, numerous other references to a Stephenson-Churchill connection can be found; for example, in Maclean's magazine, 17 December 1952, and The Times, 21 October 1962. The relationship is also referenced in Hyde's biography of Stephenson, The Quiet Canadian (1962). In addition, British–Soviet double agent Kim Philby, in his book My Silent War, refers to Stephenson as a friend of Churchill's. Stephenson's personal secretary and personal cipher clerks mention Stephenson-Churchill communications in The True Intrepid and in the documentary film Secret Secretaries. In CIA historian Thomas Troy's book Wild Bill and Intrepid, there is a chapter on the relationship based on several direct interviews conducted by the author with Stephenson on Bermuda which discounts much of the criticism of West and Hugh Trevor-Roper.

In popular culture

In 1979 Stephenson was portrayed by

Notes

References

• Conant, Jennet (2008). The Irregulars Roald Dahl and the British Spy Ring in Wartime Washington. Simon and Schuster.
  ISBN 978-0-7432-9458-4
  .
• Colville, John Rupert (1981). The Churchillians. Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
  ISBN 978-0-297-77909-4
  .
• Fink, Jesse (2023). The Eagle in the Mirror. Black & White Publishing.
  ISBN 978-1-785-30510-8
  .
• Franks, Norman L. R.; Bailey, Frank W.; Guest, Russell (1993). Above The Lines: The Aces and Fighter Units of the German Air Service, Naval Air Service and Flanders Marine Corps 1914–1918. London: Grub Street.
  ISBN 0-948817-73-9
  .
• Hodgson, Lynn-Philip (2000). Inside-Camp X Camp X, the Top Secret World War II 'secret Agent Training School' Strategically Placed in Canada on the Shores of Lake Ontario. Port Perry, Ontario, Canada: Blake Books.
  ISBN 978-0-9687062-0-6
  .
• Hodgson, Lynn-Philip (2009). Dispatches from Camp X. Lynn Philip Hodgson.
  ISBN 978-0-9735523-5-5
  .
• Hyde, Harford Montgomery (1989). The Quiet Canadian The Secret Service Story of Sir William Stephenson. London : Constable.
  ISBN 978-0-09-468780-6
  .
• Macdonald, Bill (2001). The True Intrepid Sir William Stephenson and the Unknown Agents. Raincoast Book Dist Limited.
  ISBN 978-1-55192-418-2
  .
• Macdonald, Bill (2019). Intrepid's Last Secrets. Distributed to the trade by The Ingram Book Company.
  ISBN 978-1-52552-414-1
  .
• Naftali, T. J. (1993). "Intrepid's Last Deception: Documenting the Career of Sir William Stephenson". Intelligence and National Security. 8 (3): 72–99.
  doi:10.1080/02684529308432216
  .
• Sanders, Ian L.; Clark, Lorne (2012). A Radiophone in Every Home William Stephenson and the General Radio Company Limited, 1922–1928. Unknown Publisher.
  ISBN 978-0-9570773-0-0
  .
• Stevenson, William (2000). A Man Called Intrepid The Secret War. Globe Pequot.
  ISBN 978-1-58574-154-0
  .
• Stevenson, William (2002). Intrepid's Last Case. Globe Pequot.
  ISBN 978-1-58574-521-0
  .
• Walters, Eric (2003). Camp X. Penguin Global.
  ISBN 978-0-14-131328-3
  .
• West, Nigel (1999). Counterfeit Spies Genuine Or Bogus an Astonishing Investigation into Secret Agents of the Second World War. Warner Books.
  ISBN 978-0-7515-2670-7
  .
• Richard Woytak, prefatory note (pp. 75–76) to Marian Rejewski, "Remarks on Appendix 1 to British Intelligence in the Second World War by F.H. Hinsley", Cryptologia, vol. 6, no. 1 (January 1982), pp. 76–83.

External links

• The Maple Leaf Archived 9 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine
• "The Intrepid Society" website, based in Winnipeg, Canada, Sir William Stephenson's home city.
• Article "This One is Dear to My Heart", by Ron Cynewulf Robbins, Finest Hour Issue No. 67, Second Quarter 1990, published by The Churchill Centre
• Website of Camp X Historical Society
• True Intrepid, website devoted to information about William Stephenson
• The Royal Canadian Legion – Branch 637, website of The Royal Canadian Legion's Sir William Stephenson Branch (#637)
• "arcade-history" web site, summarizing the video game Intrepid
• , "L'impact de la roue à miroirs. 1920–1929", Site "Histoire de la télévision".