Kenneth Carter Benton,
CMG (4 March 1909 – 14 October 1999) was an English
MI6
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 ...
officer and diplomat from 1937–68. Following retirement, Benton began a second career as writer of
spy
Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information (intelligence) from non-disclosed sources or divulging of the same without the permission of the holder of the information for a tangib ...
and
crime thrillers.
Early life and education
Benton attended Wolverhampton School, and was first employed teaching French in an English
prep school, then teaching English in Florence and Vienna. During this time, he earned a degree in French, German and Italian as an external student at
London University
The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree- ...
.
1937–41: Recruitment to MI6 and first postings
In 1937, in Vienna, Benton was offered a job by Captain Thomas Kendrick, the British
Passport Control Officer
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 ...
for Vienna, who he had met initially through his future wife, Peggie Lambert.
He was subsequently interviewed by Maurice Jeffes and
Admiral Hugh Sinclair, then chief of MI6. Benton quickly realised that his role in the Passport Control Office was in fact a cover for intelligence work for MI6.
:"I had expected to begin dealing with visas, but instead was brought in to one of the back rooms where Bill Holmes passed me a letter addressed to somebody with a Czech name in some street in Vienna and asked me to translate it. I opened the letter, called Bill, and said, 'Look, I can't do this; it is in Czech.' She said, 'Oh, I'm sorry; how stupid; hang on for a moment.' At the back of my desk there was a little open bottle of colourless liquid, with a brush, and she dipped the brush in the liquid, passed it over the whole of the front of the letter and to my amazed eyes red writing appeared at right angles to the Czech text and it was in German. Then she turned the letter over and did the same on the rear side, so that I had two sides of what was in fact a German report."
After the
Annexation of Austria
The (, or , ), also known as the (, en, Annexation of Austria), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into the German Reich on 13 March 1938.
The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a " Greater Germany ...
in 1938, Kenneth and Peggie (married in March of that year) were posted to Riga, he as acting vice consul; after the
Soviet occupation of Latvia two years later, he returned to England and after briefing at
Bletchley Park
Bletchley Park is an English country house and estate in Bletchley, Milton Keynes ( Buckinghamshire) that became the principal centre of Allied code-breaking during the Second World War. The mansion was constructed during the years followin ...
was subsequently posted to Madrid as head of MI6's Section V, dealing with intercepted intelligence traffic and identifying German spies travelling through Spain.
1941–43: Madrid
Benton reported technically to Hamilton Stokes, Head of the Madrid SIS Station, but because of the confidential nature of his decoding work, he was not allowed to discuss ISOS traffic.
This situation created friction between the two men, and Benton was eventually appointed head of a separate station, named 'Iberia'. The cover that the Visa office provided allowed Benton and his wife to create a database of information on individuals leaving and entering Spain, which could be compiled with other intelligence reports to identify patterns.
:"The card index, in the course of nearly three years when I was in charge, grew to fourteen feet in length and really appeared to have a life of its own, because it often produced information that we did not know it had. Into that card index went the names of visa applicants, lists of ship passengers, names of known agents, Abwehr officers, guests at hotels, passengers on air flights, passengers on trains, as well as individuals about whom we had received information from Head Office or locally."
Benton's team identified 19 spies during his time in Madrid, including the
Double Cross agents
TREASURE
Treasure (from la, thesaurus from Greek language ''thēsauros'', "treasure store") is a concentration of wealth — often originating from ancient history — that is considered lost and/or forgotten until rediscovered. Some jurisdictions le ...
,
ARTIST,
TRICYCLE
A tricycle, sometimes abbreviated to trike, is a human-powered (or gasoline or electric motor powered or assisted, or gravity powered) three-wheeled vehicle.
Some tricycles, such as cycle rickshaws (for passenger transport) and freight trikes ...
and
GARBO.
:"what we wanted to do was to get them to England and turn them into double agents, not just to satisfy the Germans that they were getting a lot of spies into England, but of course for the great deception which was so effective in deceiving the Germans on D-Day
..the great advantage of the ISOS double agents was that, as soon as the false messages had been sent to the German case officers, we knew by their reactions how they had been accepted, which was an enormous advantage."
Kim Philby
In 1941,
Kim Philby
Harold Adrian Russell "Kim" Philby (1 January 191211 May 1988) was a British intelligence officer and a double agent for the Soviet Union. In 1963 he was revealed to be a member of the Cambridge Five, a spy ring which had divulged British secr ...
was appointed head of the Iberian section, which dealt with both Spain and Portugal, and became Benton's boss. He later articulated the emotional effect of Philby's outing as a Soviet agent in 1963:
:"Philby betrayed us all
..He had no loyalties, either to HMG or friends, or to the women he married. We had liked and admired him and were left feeling unclean."
His sentiments were shared by his wife:
:"Years later, when Philby made his escape to Moscow, Peggie and I were having a drink with Footman, who was looking shattered. 'I know', said Peggie. 'We could work out a plan to leak information to the NKVD showing that Philby was a triple-cross, that Nicholas Eliot's last meeting with him in Beirut had really been to brief him on how to make touch with our Embassy in Moscow. I'll bet they'd swallow the story, if we did it craftily.' 'But the NKVD would shoot him', protested David, shocked to the core. 'Yes', said Peggie happily, 'and serve him bloody right.'"
1943 onwards
Shortly after the Allied invasion of Italy in September 1943, Kenneth and Peggie were posted to Rome; Kenneth had been appointed head of the MI6 station attached to the new British Embassy, which as a result of rationing and ongoing disruption in Italy, was only opened in July 1944.
Benton's later career included a further posting to Madrid in 1953, then to London from 1956–62 as head of recruitment for SIS.
He was subsequently posted to
Lima
Lima ( ; ), originally founded as Ciudad de Los Reyes (City of The Kings) is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón, Rímac and Lurín Rivers, in the desert zone of the central coastal part of ...
,
Peru
, image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg
, image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg
, other_symbol = Great Seal of the State
, other_symbol_type = National seal
, national_motto = "Firm and Happy f ...
and
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a ...
,
Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
, as Deputy Director for Latin America (DDLA), and retired from the Service in 1968.
Post-MI6
Following retirement to
Appledore, Kent
Appledore is a village and civil parish in the Ashford District of Kent, England. The village centre is on the northern edge of the Romney Marsh, 12 miles (19 km) south-west of Ashford town. The northerly part of this village is Appledor ...
, then to
Chichester, West Sussex
Chichester () is a cathedral city and civil parish in West Sussex, England.OS Explorer map 120: Chichester, South Harting and Selsey Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – Southampton B2 edition. Publishing Date:2009. It is the only ...
, Kenneth began a second career as a writer of
spy
Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information (intelligence) from non-disclosed sources or divulging of the same without the permission of the holder of the information for a tangib ...
,
crime thrillers, and historical fiction, drawing on his experiences as intelligence officer and diplomat, and his extensive travels. He became president of the
Crime Writers Association
The Crime Writers' Association (CWA) is a specialist authors’ organisation in the United Kingdom, most notable for its Dagger awards for the best crime writing of the year, and the Diamond Dagger awarded to an author for lifetime achievement. T ...
in 1974-5, succeeding
Dick Francis
Richard Stanley Francis (31 October 1920 – 14 February 2010) was a British steeplechase jockey and crime writer whose novels centre on horse racing in England.
After wartime service in the RAF, Francis became a full-time jump-jockey, wi ...
.
Fiction
Benton published 11 novels across several genres, two of which were published under the pseudonym James Kirton. Those perhaps closest to his experiences in MI6, "though avoiding anything which could compromise or damage his former Service"
are the six titles featuring a recurring hero, the police advisor and
Counter-terrorism
Counterterrorism (also spelled counter-terrorism), also known as anti-terrorism, incorporates the practices, military tactics, techniques, and strategies that governments, law enforcement, business, and intelligence agencies use to combat or ...
expert Peter Craig.
Bibliography
References
;Notes
External links
www.craig-thrillers.comInformation about Benton's
spy
Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information (intelligence) from non-disclosed sources or divulging of the same without the permission of the holder of the information for a tangib ...
and
crime
In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in Ca ...
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 ...
featuring police advisor Peter Craig, republished in
Kindle format
The Crime Writers' Association
{{DEFAULTSORT:Benton, Kenneth
1909 births
1999 deaths
British spy fiction writers
English thriller writers
Secret Intelligence Service personnel
Writers from Wolverhampton
20th-century English novelists
Members of the Detection Club