Ralph William Burdick Izzard, OBE (27 August 1910 – 2 December 1992) was an English journalist, author, adventurer and, during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, a British Naval Intelligence

officer An officer is a person who has a position of authority in a hierarchical organization. The term derives from Old French ''oficier'' "officer, official" (early 14c., Modern French ''officier''), from Medieval Latin ''officiarius'' "an officer," fro ...

.''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

''
Obituary – Ralph Izzard, 14 December 1992
Jan Morris, retrieved on 25 August 2009. As a journalist, Izzard spent virtually his entire career with one newspaper, the ''

Daily Mail The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily Middle-market newspaper, middle-market Tabloid journalism, tabloid conservative newspaper founded in 1896 and published in London. , it has the List of newspapers in the United Kingdom by circulation, h ...

''. After rising to the position of

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

bureau chief, he remained a star of the paper for 31 years. The stories he covered took him from Egypt to Algeria,

Lebanon Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...

to Kenya, Korea and beyond.''

Time Magazine ''Time'' (stylized in all caps as ''TIME'') is an American news magazine based in New York City. It was published weekly for nearly a century. Starting in March 2020, it transitioned to every other week. It was first published in New York Cit ...

''
Upward in Sneakers, Issue: 26 July 1954
retrieved 24 August 2009. In addition to his duties with the ''Daily Mail'', he wrote four books chronicling his experiences in India,

Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...

and the

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

. He is best known for the most famous of his exploits, when, as portrayed in his book ''The Innocent on Everest'', he set out on his own, without a compass or map, to pursue John Hunt's 1953 Everest expedition to its base camp at 18,000 ft. During World War II, Izzard served with distinction as an officer with British Naval Intelligence and 30 Assault Unit.''Attain by Surprise: Capturing Top Secret Intelligence WW II'', David Nutting, p. 234, (D Colver, 2003) . He received several awards and was appointed an OBE.''

London Gazette London is the capital and largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Western Europe, with a population of 14.9 million. London stands on the River Tha ...

'
(Supplement), no. 36958, p. 1131, 23 February 1945
Retrieved 24 August 2009. His tour of duty took place under the command of

Ian Fleming Ian Lancaster Fleming (28 May 1908 – 12 August 1964) was a British writer, best known for his postwar ''James Bond'' series of spy novels. Fleming came from a wealthy family connected to the merchant bank Robert Fleming & Co., and his ...

, who based elements of his first novel ''Casino Royale'' and its protagonist

James Bond The ''James Bond'' franchise focuses on James Bond (literary character), the titular character, a fictional Secret Intelligence Service, British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels ...

on Lieutenant Commander Izzard and a card game in which he found himself playing poker against covert

Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

intelligence agents at a casino in

Pernambuco Pernambuco ( , , ) is a States of Brazil, state of Brazil located in the Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeast region of the country. With an estimated population of 9.5 million people as of 2024, it is the List of Brazilian states by population, ...

, Brazil.The Life of Ian Fleming, John Pearson, p. 194-195, (

Jonathan Cape Jonathan Cape is a British publishing firm headquartered in London and founded in 1921 by Herbert Jonathan Cape, who was head of the firm until his death. Cape and his business partner Wren Howard (1893–1968) set up the publishing house in ...

, London, 1966)

Early life

Born in

Billericay Billericay ( ) is a town and civil parish in the Borough of Basildon in Essex, England. It lies within the London Basin, east of the City of London. The town was founded in the 13th century by the Stratford Langthorne Abbey, Abbot of West Ham, ...

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

on 27 August 1910 to Percy and Florence Burdick Izzard, Ralph Izzard was the youngest of the couple's two children. His sister, Floris, was born in 1907. His father, Percy Izzard, was the ''Daily Mail's'' highly respected gardening correspondent (claimed by Ralph to have been the inspiration of William Boot in the

Evelyn Waugh Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh (; 28 October 1903 – 10 April 1966) was an English writer of novels, biographies, and travel books; he was also a prolific journalist and book reviewer. His most famous works include the early satires ''Decli ...

novel '' Scoop''). In 1919, Izzard entered Caldicott School, a preparatory school for boys near London, where he remained enrolled until 1924. Then, aged 13, he entered The Leys School, where, in addition to his studies, he played water-polo. In 1928, his term at The Leys School being complete, he went on to

Queens' College, Cambridge Queens' College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Queens' is one of the 16 "old colleges" of the university, and was founded in 1448 by Margaret of Anjou. Its buildings span the R ...

and graduated in 1931. That same year he joined the staff at the ''Daily Mail''.The Innocent on Everest, Ralph Izzard, int., ( Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1954)

Foreign correspondent in Berlin

After graduation from Cambridge, Izzard was appointed as foreign correspondent for the ''

''. His first post was Berlin where he was appointed and remained bureau chief for a number of years during the cold war. Afterwards Izzard stayed on as a foreign correspondent for 31 years. It has been speculated that in addition to performing his actual duties with the ''Daily Mail'', Izzard used the position as a cover while engaged in intelligence operations for MI6.

World War II

Royal Navy Volunteer Reserves

At the onset of World War II, Izzard joined the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserves as an Ordinary Seaman, and qualified as a gunner but was soon commissioned a Sub-Lieutenant, eventually ascending to the rank of Lieutenant Commander in a position with British Naval Intelligence. He served with distinction, being

Mentioned in Despatches To be mentioned in dispatches (or despatches) describes a member of the armed forces whose name appears in an official report written by a superior officer and sent to the high command, in which their gallant or meritorious action in the face of t ...

and appointed OBE.

British Intelligence, 30 AU, MI9, MI19

Ralph Izzard was recruited to the Naval Intelligence Division and 30 Assault Unit by Ian Fleming due, in some measure, to his ability to speak fluent German, as well as his expert knowledge of

and its society. His duties included the interrogation of captured German combatants,Battleship Bismarck, Müllenheim-Rechberg, p. 315-16, (

Naval Institute Press The United States Naval Institute (USNI) is a private non-profit military association that offers independent, nonpartisan forums for debate of national security issues. In addition to publishing magazines and books, the Naval Institute holds se ...

, Annapolis, 1990)

intelligence Intelligence has been defined in many ways: the capacity for abstraction, logic, understanding, self-awareness, learning, emotional knowledge, reasoning, planning, creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving. It can be described as t ...

collection in the battlespace, and

espionage Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering, as a subfield of the intelligence field, is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information ( intelligence). A person who commits espionage on a mission-specific contract is called an ...

.Nutting, Attain by Surprise, p. 235 The

British Admiralty The Admiralty was a Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom, department of the Government of the United Kingdom that was responsible for the command of the Royal Navy. Historically, its titular head was the Lord High Admiral of the ...

operated an interrogation centre known as the " CSDIC" ( Combined Services Detailed Interrogation Centre) at Cockfosters Camp for the joint use of the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

, the R.A.F., and the

British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...

. Izzard regularly participated in the questioning of PoWs and provided detailed reports to his superiors regarding intelligence obtained as a result of interrogation.Müllenheim-Rechberg, Battleship Bismarck, p. 319 A number of his reports and letters were forwarded to and read by

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British statesman, military officer, and writer who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 (Winston Churchill in the Second World War, ...

.''Interrogation Reports'', N.I.D. ( Admiralty), (08409/43)
The National Archives
(UK) Retrieved on 5 September 2009 Prior to its entry into World War II, the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

sent an intelligence officer to Great Britain to observe the interrogation of German PoWs, for which the Royal Navy provided a liaison officer: (then) LT Ralph Izzard, ( RNVR). Izzard trained the initial cadre of U.S. Navy PoW interrogators and was further tasked with travelling to the United States in order to instruct operatives in the disciplines of

cryptanalysis Cryptanalysis (from the Greek ''kryptós'', "hidden", and ''analýein'', "to analyze") refers to the process of analyzing information systems in order to understand hidden aspects of the systems. Cryptanalysis is used to breach cryptographic se ...

, interrogation, and intelligence dissemination.Room 39: Naval Intelligence in action 1939–45, Donald McLachlan, p. 178, (

Weidenfeld & Nicolson Weidenfeld & Nicolson Ltd (established 1949), often shortened to W&N or Weidenfeld, is a British publisher of fiction and reference books. It has been a division of the French-owned Orion Publishing Group since 1991. History George Weidenfeld ...

, London, 1968) He was instrumental in establishing Op-16-Z, a section of the U.S.

Office of Naval Intelligence The Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) is the military intelligence agency of the United States Navy. Established in 1882 primarily to advance the Navy's modernization efforts, it is the oldest member of the U.S. Intelligence Community and serv ...

, which dealt with the processing of enemy prisoners. Subsequently, British protocol for prisoner debriefing was adopted by the U.S. Armed Forces, and the Joint Interrogation Center for Prisoners of War was established in 1941. Izzard also participated in the creation of a plan (codenamed Operation Ruthless), the objective of which was to obtain German Naval Enigma documentation to aid British Intelligence in the

decryption In cryptography, encryption (more specifically, encoding) is the process of transforming information in a way that, ideally, only authorized parties can decode. This process converts the original representation of the information, known as plai ...

of secret German communications. The plan consisted of crashing a captured German aeroplane into the

English Channel The English Channel, also known as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates Southern England from northern France. It links to the southern part of the North Sea by the Strait of Dover at its northeastern end. It is the busi ...

where the British crew, dressed in

Luftwaffe The Luftwaffe () was the aerial warfare, aerial-warfare branch of the before and during World War II. German Empire, Germany's military air arms during World War I, the of the Imperial German Army, Imperial Army and the of the Imperial Ge ...

uniforms, would be rescued by a German patrol boat. The "survivors" would then kill the German crew, hijack the ship, and confiscate the secret Enigma documents. Much to the annoyance of codebreakers at

Bletchley Park Bletchley Park is an English country house and Bletchley Park estate, estate in Bletchley, Milton Keynes (Buckinghamshire), that became the principal centre of Allies of World War II, Allied World War II cryptography, code-breaking during the S ...

, the operation was scrapped. In a

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

program called ''The Bond Correspondence'' broadcast on 24 May 2008, Lucy Fleming, the niece of Ian Fleming, stated that the plan was cancelled because the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

concluded that a downed Heinkel bomber dropped into the

would sink rather than float, posing too great a danger to the lives of British operatives.

Awards

* OBE * 1939-1945 Star * Atlantic Star * Pacific Star * France and Germany Star * Defence Medal * War Medal 1939–1945 ( Oak leaf) * Mentioned in Dispatches

Cryptozoology

Izzard took an interest in

cryptozoology Cryptozoology is a pseudoscience and subculture that searches for and studies unknown, legendary, or extinct animals whose present existence is disputed or unsubstantiated, particularly those popular in folklore, such as Bigfoot, the Loch Ness ...

, a pseudoscience. In 1945, Izzard accompanied by naturalist C. R. Stonor took a pseudo-scientific expedition to the Silo (Ziro) Valley of

Arunachal Pradesh Arunachal Pradesh (; ) is a States and union territories of India, state in northeast India. It was formed from the North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA) region, and India declared it as a state on 20 February 1987. Itanagar is its capital and la ...

to search for evidence for the ''

Buru Buru (formerly spelled Boeroe, Boro, or Bouru) is the third largest island within the Maluku Islands of Indonesia. It lies between the Banda Sea to the south and Seram Sea to the north, west of Ambon Island, Ambon and Seram Island, Seram island ...

'', a legendary lizard creature. Izzard published a book, ''The Hunt for the Buru'' which presented the results of the expedition. Izzard concluded that extant saurians, seemingly dinosaurs (four metres in length) had existed in the valley until as recently as 1940.Torrens, Hugh S; Palmer, Douglas (1993). ''Modern Geology''. Special Issue: Halstead Memorial Volume Part III. ''Dinosaurs: Concepts, Histology and Stratigraphy''. Gordon and Breach Science Publishers. pp. 302–303. This view was rejected by scientists as dinosaurs became extinct approximately 66 million years ago.

Personal life

Izzard was married to Ellen Schmidt-Klewitz from 1931 to 1946 with whom he had a daughter, Christina. Izzard had a son with the German actress Marianne Hoppe, Benedikt Hoppe being born in 1946. He was married to Molly Crutchleigh-FitzPatrick from 1947 to 1992 with whom he had two daughters and two sons, Miles, Anthea, Sabrina and Sebastian.Obituary: Ralph Izzard

, 14 December 1992

Bibliography

* ''The Hunt for the Buru'', (1951) * ''The Innocent on Everest'', (1954), * ''The Abominable Snowman Adventure'', (1955) * ''Smelling the Breezes'', (Co-Author with Molly) (1959)

References

External links

BBC Audio Archives: Reporting the War – Ralph Izzard remembers how the Russo-German Pact left the German people bewildered

{{DEFAULTSORT:Izzard, Ralph 1910 births 1992 deaths 20th-century English male writers 20th-century English novelists Admiralty personnel of World War II Alumni of Queens' College, Cambridge English male novelists Cryptozoologists Daily Mail journalists English explorers English male journalists Officers of the Order of the British Empire People educated at The Leys School Royal Navy Commando officers Royal Navy officers of World War II Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve personnel of World War II World War II spies for the United Kingdom Military personnel from Essex