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Everyone knows that the man behind Bond lived a life of luxury in Jamaica and had a bit of a background in spying himself - but do you really know much about him? Do you know, for example, which well-known playwright acted as his best man? Or the name of his house and why that's significant? Well we do, and we're prepared to share, so read on...
His middle name was Lancaster.
Educated at Eton, he excelled in athletics. Interestingly, he became involved in an incident over a girl, and left early - a precursor to the womanising traits of his famous super spy?
He was the winner of the Victor Ludorum (latin for 'the winner of the games') two years running at Eton, a feat which had only been achieved once before him.
After leaving the Royal Military Academy at Sandford, which he did not enjoy, Fleming studied French and German on the continent in order to enter the Foreign Office, but was unsuccessful in his application.
In the '30s, Fleming worked as a journalist for the news service Reuters in Moscow, gaining fame for his coverage of a spy trial - see a theme here?
Fleming tried his hand at banking (his grandfather was the founder of Scottish American Investment Trust and merchant bank Robert Fleming & Co.) and was very successful, but did not enjoy being confined to an office.
He moved back to London and began working as a journalist for The Times, who sent him back to Russia to cover news. This was rumoured to be a cover for work as a spy for the Foreign Office.
During World War II, Fleming worked as personal assistant to Rear Admiral John Godfrey, Director of Naval Intelligence for the Royal Navy. Although it was a desk-bound job, it gave him insight into the spy business.
He formulated a plan to lure Rudolph Hess (Hitler's Deputy) to Britain to contact a group of Anti-Churchill Englishmen, but the plan was never used as Hess independently flew to Scotland in an attempt to broker peace with the United Kingdom and was arrested. There are sources that attribute this plan to Fleming too, but they remain unsubstantiated.
Fleming was involved in formulating a plan codenamed Operation Goldeneye - a plan to defend Gibraltar against the Nazis should Spain decide to join the Axis powers and invade.
In 1944, Fleming was given control of a specialist unit of commandos, known as 30 Assault Unit (30AU). As an intelligence officer in the Naval Intelligence Division, Fleming had a good idea of what equipment the enemy had which would be of use to the Allies, therefore he was able to instruct his 'Red Indians' (His nickname for 30AU) which 'scalps' (enemy intelligence) they must collect.
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