James Rusbridger (26 February 1928 – 16 February 1994) was a British author and historian on international espionage during and after World War II.

Biography

He was born in Jamaica, son of Gordon Rusbridger an Army colonel, and died in Tremorebridge,

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

. His career started in the naval design office of Vickers Armstrong. Then he was salesman and managing director of a commodities firm specialising in sugar, and claimed to have been paid by the CIA to weaken the international market for Cuban sugar. He was an Eastern Europe courier for MI6 (or the British Secret Intelligence Service) from 1962, retiring in 1974. His books mainly relate to World War II, but his letters and articles after retirement were critical of British and American agencies. In his books he asserted that: *''Betrayal at Pearl Harbor:''

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 Winston Churchill in the Second World War, dur ...

concealed warnings about

Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the Naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the Re ...

from

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...

in order to get America in the war. But In a 1991 interview on Japanese television his co-author

Eric Nave Captain Eric Nave (18 March 1899 – 23 June 1993) was an Australian cryptographer and intelligence officer in the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) and Royal Navy, noted for his work with joint Allied intelligence units during World War II. He serve ...

"repudiated a large slice of what Rusbridger had written, calling it speculation." * ''Who Sank Surcouf'': The French submarine Surcouf sank as the result of an accident; and had a confused, treacherous, incompetent and disloyal crew. In May 1989 Rusbridger made an extended appearance on the

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

discussion programme '' After Dark'', alongside

Tony Benn Anthony Neil Wedgwood Benn (3 April 1925 – 14 March 2014), known between 1960 and 1963 as Viscount Stansgate, was a British politician, writer and diarist who served as a Cabinet of the United Kingdom, Cabinet minister in the 1960s and 1970s. ...

Lord Dacre Baron Dacre is a title that has been created three times in the Peerage of England, every time by Hereditary peer#Writs of summons, writ. History The first creation came in 1321 when Ralph Dacre, 1st Baron Dacre, Ralph Dacre was Hereditary peer# ...

, Miles Copeland and others.Production company website
accessed 3 May 2022. In February 1994 Rusbridger, aged 65, was found dead of asphyxiation at a rented cottage in

Bodmin Moor Bodmin Moor ( kw, Goon Brenn) is a granite moorland in north-eastern Cornwall, England. It is in size, and dates from the Carboniferous period of geological history. It includes Brown Willy, the highest point in Cornwall, and Rough Tor, a s ...

, Cornwall. His body was found hanged from a beam, wearing a black

oilskin Oilskin is a waterproof cloth used for making garments typically worn by sailors and by others in wet areas. The modern oilskin garment was developed by a New Zealander, Edward Le Roy, in 1898. Le Roy used worn-out sailcloth painted with a mixt ...

coat and a

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. His neck and ankles were connected via a series of pulleys to a rope. At the time he had recently suffered a heart attack, and was heavily in debt.

References

*Elphick, Peter: ''Far Eastern File: The Intelligence War in the Far East 1930-1945'' (1997 & 1998, Hodder & Stoughton, London) *Rusbridger, James: ''The Intelligence Game: The Illusions and Delusions of International Esponiage'' (1989, The Bodley Head, London; also 1992, New Amsterdam) *Rusbridger, James: ''Death of a Corsair'' (1991, Random House) *Rusbridger, James and Nave, Eric ''Betrayal at Pearl Harbor: how Churchill lured Roosevelt into War'' (1991, O’Mara, London) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Rusbridger, James 1928 births 1994 deaths Historians of World War II British historians of espionage 20th-century British historians British male writers Male non-fiction writers