John Michael Ward Bingham, 7th Baron Clanmorris (3 November 1908 – 6 August 1988) was a onetime

MI5 The Security Service, also known as MI5 ( Military Intelligence, Section 5), is the United Kingdom's domestic counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), G ...

spy and an English novelist who published 17

thrillers Thriller is a genre of fiction, having numerous, often overlapping subgenres. Thrillers are characterized and defined by the moods they elicit, giving viewers heightened feelings of suspense, excitement, surprise, anticipation and anxiety. Suc ...

detective novel Detective fiction is a subgenre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator or a detective—whether professional, amateur or retired—investigates a crime, often murder. The detective genre began around the same time as s ...

s, and

spy novel Spy fiction is a genre of literature involving espionage as an important context or plot device. It emerged in the early twentieth century, inspired by rivalries and intrigues between the major powers, and the establishment of modern intelligen ...

Personal life

Bingham was the son of Arthur Bingham, 6th Baron Clanmorris, and Mowbray Leila Cloete. He was educated at

Cheltenham College ("Work Conquers All") , established = , closed = , type = Public school Independent School Day and Boarding School , religion = Church of England , president = , head_label = Head , head = Nicola Hugget ...

, and married Madeleine Mary Ebel, daughter of Clement Ebel, on 28 July 1934. His wife worked for the security services and was a playwright and biographer. Bingham fought in the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

with the Royal Engineers, and was attached to the General Staff. He succeeded as 7th

Baron Clanmorris Baron Clanmorris, of Newbrook in the County of Mayo, is a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created on 6 August 1800 for John Bingham. He was a descendant of John Bingham of Foxford in County Mayo, whose brother Sir Henry Bingham, 1st Baro ...

on 24 June 1960.

Background

During the

and for two decades after 1950, Bingham worked for

, and had long been said to be the inspiration for

John le Carré David John Moore Cornwell (19 October 193112 December 2020), better known by his pen name John le Carré ( ), was a British and Irish author, best known for his espionage novels, many of which were successfully adapted for film or television. ...

's character

George Smiley George Smiley OBE is a fictional character created by John le Carré. Smiley is a career intelligence officer with "The Circus", the British overseas intelligence agency. He is a central character in the novels ''Call for the Dead'', '' A Mu ...

. In 1999, le Carré confirmed that Bingham had been an inspiration for Smiley and went further in 2000, writing in an introduction to a reissue of one of Bingham's novels: "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, Introduction to John Bingham, ''My Name is Michael Sibley'', London: Pan Classic Crime (2000) John le Carré wrote that Bingham encouraged him to write his first novel, ''

Call for the Dead ''Call for the Dead'' is John le Carré's first novel, published in 1961. It introduces George Smiley, the most famous of le Carré's recurring characters, in a story about East German spies inside Great Britain. It also introduces a fiction ...

'' (1961), and to remain an active MI5 officer whilst doing so; and 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 him to write his first two books.

Jack King speculation

In February 2014, MI5 released files at the National Archives on the "Fifth Column" operation, which aimed to identify British Nazi sympathizers during the Second World War. Some newspapers named Bingham as the agent, known as "Jack King", at the heart of the operation, but the release of more files in October 2014 corrected this, and named the agent as

Eric Roberts Eric Anthony Roberts (born April 18, 1956) is an American actor. His career began with a leading role in '' King of the Gypsies'' (1978) for which he received his first Golden Globe Award nomination. He was nominated again at the Golden Globes ...

, a former bank clerk from Epsom. 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's first novel, '' My Name Is Michael Sibley'' (1952), was unusual for its time in suggesting that the British police might not always play fairly.

Selected publications

Crime fiction

* '' My Name Is Michael Sibley'' (1952) * '' Five Roundabouts to Heaven'' (1953) ''The Tender Poisoner'' **television version: ''The Tender Poisoner'' episode of ''

The Alfred Hitchcock Hour ''Alfred Hitchcock Presents'' is an American television anthology series created, hosted and produced by Alfred Hitchcock, aired on CBS and NBC between 1955 and 1965. It features dramas, thrillers and mysteries. Between 1962 and 1965 it was re ...

'' (1962) **film version: '' Married Life'' (2007) * '' The Third Skin'' (1954) a.k.a. ''Murder is a Witch'' * '' The Paton Street Case'' (1955) a.k.a. ''Inspector Morgan’s Dilemma'' * ''

Murder Off the Record ''Murder Off the Record'' is a 1957 thriller novel by the British writer John Bingham.Reilly p.121 It is also known by the alternative title ''Marilyn''. Adaptation In 1962 the novel was adapted for an episode of the television series ''Alfred H ...

'' (1957) a.k.a. ''Marion'' **television version: ''Captive Audience'' episode of ''

'' (1962) * '' Murder Plan Six'' (1958) * '' Night's Black Agent'' (1961) * ''

A Case of Libel ''A Case of Libel'' is a 1963 novel by the British writer John Bingham John Armor Bingham (January 21, 1815 – March 19, 1900) was an American politician who served as a Republican Party (United States), Republican representative from Ohi ...

'' (1963) * '' A Fragment of Fear'' (1965) **film version: ''

Fragment of Fear ''Fragment of Fear'' is a 1970 British thriller film directed by Richard C. Sarafian and starring David Hemmings, Gayle Hunnicutt, Wilfrid Hyde-White, Roland Culver, Flora Robson and Arthur Lowe. It was adapted from the 1965 novel '' A Fragme ...

'' (1970) * '' The Double Agent'' (1966) * '' I Love, I Kill'' (1968) a.k.a. ''Good Old Charlie'' * '' Vulture in the Sun'' (1971) * ''God's Defector'' (1976) a.k.a. ''Ministry of Death'' * ''The Marriage Bureau Murders'' (1977) * ''Deadly Picnic'' (1980) * ''Brock'' (1981) * ''Brock and the Defector'' (1982)

Non Fiction

* ''The Hunting Down of

Peter Manuel Peter Thomas Anthony Manuel (13 March 1927 – 11 July 1958) was a Scottish-American serial killer who was convicted of murdering seven people across Lanarkshire and southern Scotland between 1956 and his arrest in January 1958, and is believed ...

'' (1973) (written in association with ex-Detective Superintendent William Muncie)

References

External links

John Michael Ward Bingham, 7th Baron Clanmorris of Newbrook
at thepeerage.com * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bingham, John 1908 births 1988 deaths MI5 personnel British spy fiction writers English thriller writers Royal Engineers officers Clanmorris, John Bingham, 7th Baron Members of the Detection Club 20th-century English novelists English male novelists 20th-century English male writers