Allegiance United Kingdom Name Richard Dearlove Award(s) KCMG OBE | Active 1966–2004 | |
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Service Secret Intelligence Service (SIS/MI6) Birth name Richard Billing Dearlove Similar People Anne - Princess Royal, Adrian Smith, Jeremy Bentham | ||
Sir richard dearlove on re appraising the counter terrorist threat
Sir Richard Billing Dearlove, (born 23 January 1945) was head of the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), a role fictionally known as "M" and actually, though informally, as "C", from 1999 until 6 May 2004. Sir Richard was Master of Pembroke College, Cambridge, from 2004 to 2015.
Contents
- Sir richard dearlove on re appraising the counter terrorist threat
- We are change uk sir richard dearlove again
- Early life and education
- Career
- Styles of address
- References
We are change uk sir richard dearlove again
Early life and education
Dearlove was born at Gorran Haven in Cornwall, son of Jack Dearlove, 1948 Olympic silver medallist, and attended Monkton Combe School near Bath, the Kent School in Kent, Connecticut, and Queens' College, Cambridge.
Career
He joined MI6 in 1966 and was posted to Nairobi in 1968. In 1984, he was appointed an OBE. After being posted to Prague, Paris and Geneva, he became head of Washington station in 1991, director of personnel and administration in 1993 and director of operations in 1994. Dearlove became Chief in 1999. In 2001, he was appointed a KCMG.
Sir Richard's tenure as the head of MI6 saw many events for the Service:
Dearlove was elected Master of Pembroke College, Cambridge, on 1 August 2004. He accepted an invitation to become the Chairman of Trustees of the Cambridge Union Society in 2006. As Master of Pembroke, Dearlove was ex officio chairman of the board of Trustees of Pembroke House, a community centre in Walworth, London, via the college's patronage of the advowson of St Christopher's, Walworth (CofE).
In February 2008 Dearlove gave evidence at the inquest of Princess Diana's death, responding to Harrods owner Mohamed al-Fayed who claimed that MI6 had murdered Diana.
Sir Richard is a signatory of the Henry Jackson Society principles. He is also a "senior advisor" to the Monitor Group – a consultancy and private equity firm which has been implicated in undertaking PR work for Libya and Muammar Gaddafi. In April 2013, it was announced that Dearlove joined the advisory board of Ergo, an intelligence and advisory firm.
On 15 February 2011 Dearlove gave a talk at the Cambridge Union Society, taking as his theme the question of how much secrecy the UK needs: "The short answer to that question is that it needs some but actually not as much as you think." He said he "would definitely draw a parallel at the moment between the wave of political unrest which is sweeping through the Middle East, in a very excited and rather extraordinary fashion, and also the Wikileaks phenomenon", but added later, in connection with the way technological advances was altering the norms of civic and private life, commenting on WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, that " ... the Assange story, as such, is ultimately a distraction. He's a very undignified flag-carrier, in my opinion, for a very important issue."
In 2012 Dearlove took a sabbatical from Cambridge University to write an account of events leading up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq from his perspective at MI6, including coverage of the production of the so-called "dodgy dossier". Publishing such an account would be unprecedented for a former Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service. He may release this now that the Chilcot Inquiry findings have been published.
On 7 July 2014, in a lecture at the Royal United Services Institute, Dearlove argued that the government and media had exaggerated the Islamist terrorism threat to the UK, giving extremists publicity counter-productive to UK interests.
In 2015 Dearlove retired as Master of Pembroke College.
On 8 June 2017, Dearlove intervened on the day of the 2017 UK general election in The Daily Telegraph claiming "how profoundly dangerous it would be for the nation if Jeremy Corbyn becomes Prime Minister."