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IAN FLEMING TRIVIA
Again not a complete biography, but only the "trivia worthy" aspects of his life.
EARLY YEARS
Born in 1908, the son of Valentine Fleming, and the grandson of the wealthy Scottish banker Robert Fleming, Winston Churchill wrote the obituary for The Times, when Valentine Fleming died in the Great War. Actor Christopher Lee is a cousin of his.
He was awarded 'Victor Ludorum' (champion of athletics) at Eton in 1925 and 1926.Won the 2nd place in 120 yard hurdles at Sandhurst.
After the failure to join the Foreign Service, Fleming became a journalist, joining Reuters and worked in its Moscow bureau. In 1933 he covered the trial of six British engineers from the Metropolitan-Vickers Company charged with spying and plotting against the Soviets.
In 1933, Fleming left journalism and joined a London banking firm. (Rowe&Pitman)
He formed a group "Le Cercle gastronomique et des jeux de hasard" which as the name suggests busied itself with lavish dinner parties and card games.
FLEMING AT WAR
In May of 1939, Fleming started working with Naval Intelligence (he called it "some hush-hush work at the Admiralty"). Soon, he was full-time assistant to the director, one of Britain's top spymasters, Admiral John H Godfrey, taking the rank of Lieutenant, and later Commander. He worked from the famous Room 39 in the Admiralty building in London's Whitehall and was codenamed "17F".
He was part of "Operation Mincemeat", later known as The Man who Never Was. The plan was to convince the German top brass that the allies intended to strike elsewhere and the target was not Sicily. Fleming devised a scheme to disguise a body as a naval officer "Major Martin" and secrete on him "secret" papers showing a different plan of attack. The body, was to be a casualty from a shot-down plane, and was to be where the Germans would find it. The operation was overwhelmingly successful.
Supervised the escape of British troops from Dieppe, and coordinated the evacuation of King Zog of Albania.
Was in charge of Operation Goldeneye – a contingency plan for the Nazi invasion of Spain, so that Gibraltor would remain a source of info for the British. His house in Jamaica was named after this operation.
Wrote memos to William "Wild Bill" Donovan on how to set up the OSS, forerunner to the CIA. For that bit of work, he received a revolver from him engraved with the thanks: "For Special Services." As Admiral Godfrey's right hand, he met J. Edgar Hoover in Washington and William Stephenson (The Man Known as Intrepid) in New York. He was to work closely with the latter who would provide inspiration for Bond. He also underwent training at the famous Camp X training facility in Canada.
Fleming took charge of 30 Assault Unit, a group of specially trained commandos who were sent on specific intelligence missions. James Bond was apparently conceived in Fleming's mind shortly after the 1944 D-Day landings. He told a friend he was going "to write the spy story to end all spy stories".
Once at the posh Portuguese resort of Estorilm, he had recognized a number of German secret agents, and decided to give them a trashing at the card table. He left the casino broke! He later recreated a similar scene in Casino Royale where Bond succeeds.
Devised Operation Ruthless. The plan was to obtain a German codebook by crashing a captured aero plane into the Channel, where the crew would be rescued by a German minesweeper. The 'survivors' would then kill the German crew and hijack the ship. The operation was shelved
Awarded the Commander's Cross of the Order of the Dannebrog from the Danish Government for services during the war.
POST WAR LIFE AND NOVELS
Became friends with Lord Kemsley, who made him foreign manager of his newspapers, The Times and Sunday Times, and starts building up the 'Mercury Service'. His contract enabled him to take eight weeks off each year to spend at his house "Goldeneye" in Jamaica he had bought .He wrote the Atticus column for the Sunday Times, proving a wonderful conduit for inside intelligence information, and clever rebukes.
During the war he had started a relationship with Ann O'Neill nee Charteris who was married and also had another lover, the newspaper magnate Esmond Rothermere. After her husband was killed in action, Ann married Lord Rothermere but went on seeing Fleming. In 1948 Ann had a baby( a girl who died after 8 hours) which Rothermere realized was Fleming's and demanded that they end the affair. In 1951, Ann was granted a divorce from Rothermere. She married Fleming in March 1952 in the Magistrates Office of the Town Hall, Port Maria, Jamaica. Noel Coward and Cole Leslie (Coward's secretary) are witnesses. (Coward was his neighbour in Jamaica and would later introduce him to golf)
Offered the role of Dr.No in the movie to Noel Coward who sent him a telegram saying "Dr.No? No!No!!"
Only son Caspar Robert Fleming . Noël Coward and Anthony Eden's wife, Clarissa were the godparents at his christening.
Fleming appropriated the name "James Bond" from the author of Birds Of The West Indies because he felt the name suitably "dull" and "anonymous." Wrote the first novel Casino Royale in eight weeks flat and was published in 1953 by Jonathan Cape.
His wife referred to his books as 'Ian's pornography'. She had a relationship with Hugh Gaitskell, leader of the Labour Party, and he with Blanche Blackwell, a Jamaican neighbour. {He would later recommend her son Chris Blackwell as location manager (who was uncredited) for Dr.No. He was later the founder of Island Records}
Wrote 3 articles for the Sunday Times covering
Jacques Cousteau's salvage of the wreck of a Graeco-Roman galley from around 250
B.C. off the French coast near Marseilles in 1953.Wrote the serial 'The
Diamond Smugglers' for the Sunday Times in 1957 based on his travels to
Tangier to meet with John Collard, who had documented the success of the
International Diamond Security Organization, which had been set up to look into
the disappearance of diamonds, thereby trying to protect the world diamond
market. Of course Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, a children's novel about a flying
car.
SMERSH was to kill Bond off at the end of 'From Russia, With Love' (as Fleming
said "I have a fifth book more or less in mind, but after that the vacuum is
complete")
Accompanied Sir Ronald Howe, Assistant Commissioner of Scotland Yard, head of CID, to the Interpol Conference in 1955. Became a governor of the Royal College of Art.
In 1956, the British Prime Minister Anthony Eden, and wife Clarissa, spend 3 weeks at Goldeneye, after Eden's personal physician ordered him to rest.
In 1959, Daily Express turned the Bond novels into comic strip.
Plays a cameo role in From Russia With Love when he appears, wearing grey trousers and a white sweater, standing on the right of the train in the famous train scene.
On 11 August 1964 he collapsed and died (he was recovering from a heart attack). He was 56.Reported last words, were to the ambulance attendants: "Awfully sorry to trouble you chaps."