Occupation Novelist | Name John 7th | |
Full Name John Michael Ward Bingham Born 3 November 1908 ( 1908-11-03 ) Haywards Heath, Sussex, England Died 6 August 1988(1988-08-06) (aged 79) Spouse(s) Madeleine Mary Ebel (1934–died 1988) Children Simon Bingham, 8th Baron Clanmorris (b. 1937)
Charlotte Bingham (b. 1942) Parent(s) Arthur Bingham, 6th Baron Clanmorris and Mowbray Leila Cloete | ||
John Michael Ward Bingham, 7th Baron Clanmorris (3 November 1908 – 6 August 1988) was a former MI5 spy and an English novelist who published 17 thrillers, detective novels and spy novels.
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Background
During the Second World War and for two decades after 1950, Bingham worked for MI5 and was reportedly the inspiration for John le Carré's character George Smiley. In 1999 le Carré confirmed that Bingham had been an inspiration for Smiley and in 2000 went further, writing in an introduction to a reissue of one of Bingham's novels that "He had been one of two men who had gone into the making of George Smiley. Nobody who knew John and the work he was doing could have missed the description of Smiley in my first novel". John le Carré in a BBC Radio "Front Row" interview in 2009 said that Bingham's successful thriller novels, published when the two men worked together at MI5 in the 1950s, inspired le Carré to write his first two books.
Jack King speculation
There had been previously speculation that the spy known as Jack King was John Bingham but the release of files by MI5 in October 2014 clarifies this was not the case, and the spy was in fact Eric Roberts.
Although Bingham had been named by some newspapers as the agent running the double cross, and mentioned in the diary of Guy Liddell, MI5’s then head of counter-intelligence, Prof Christopher Andrew, the former official historian of the Security Service, is quoted as saying that he could not comment on "Jack King’s" true identity, as it will never be officially revealed.
Bingham was recruited into MI5 by Maxwell Knight to work in the counter-intelligence and political infiltration based M Section. He had volunteered to serve in the army but a sight defect prevented him from serving in the field. Prior to his service in MI5, Bingham had been the Art Editor of the Sunday Dispatch.
Bingham was the son of Arthur Bingham, 6th Baron Clanmorris and Mowbray Leila Cloete. He was educated at Cheltenham College, and married Madeleine Mary Ebel, daughter of Clement Ebel, on 28 July 1934. He fought in the Second World War, with the Royal Engineers and attached to the General Staff. He succeeded to the title of 7th Baron Clanmorris on 24 June 1960.
Bingham's first novel, My Name is Michael Sibley (1952), was unusual for its time in suggesting that the British police might not always play fair.