John Debenham Taylor (25 April 1920 - 30 January 2016), was a British intelligence officer. Taylor was born on 25 April 1920 in Wallington, Surrey (now London), and educated at

Aldenham School Aldenham School is a co-educational independent school for pupils aged eleven to eighteen, located between Elstree and the village of Aldenham in Hertfordshire, England. There is also a preparatory school for pupils from the ages of five to ele ...

. In February 1939, he joined the Territorial Army, and at the start of the war in September, was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the

Royal Artillery The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery (RA) and colloquially known as "The Gunners", is one of two regiments that make up the artillery arm of the British Army. The Royal Regiment of Artillery comprises t ...

. In 1942, he moved into intelligence work, and became an instructor to Beaulieu, in the New Forest, the

Special Operations Executive The Special Operations Executive (SOE) was a secret British World War II organisation. It was officially formed on 22 July 1940 under Minister of Economic Warfare Hugh Dalton, from the amalgamation of three existing secret organisations. Its pu ...

(SOE) "finishing school" for agents. In 1944, Taylor was promoted to major, and posted to Ceylon, and then Indonesia. When SOE was dissolved in January 1946, he joined the

Secret Intelligence Service The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6 ( Military Intelligence, Section 6), is the foreign intelligence service of the United Kingdom, tasked mainly with the covert overseas collection and analysis of human intelligenc ...

(SIS) and worked there for the next 30 years, but his official status was that of a diplomat. He was appointed OBE in 1959, and CMG in 1967. In 1966, Taylor married Gillian May James, a BBC make-up artist, having met her in 1965, and they had a daughter Cate Debenham-Taylor, an actress.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Taylor, John Debenham 1920 births 2016 deaths Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George Secret Intelligence Service personnel Officers of the Order of the British Empire People educated at Aldenham School Royal Artillery officers British Special Operations Executive personnel British Army personnel of World War II People from Wallington, London