X-Nico

3 unusual facts about Maxwell Knight


Maxwell Knight

A notable failing was his entrapment of Ben Greene, the pacifist Quaker refugee worker who was interned by the then Home Secretary, Sir John Anderson, as result of false evidence from Knight's agent provocateur Harald Kurtz.

Ian Fleming, the author of the James Bond series of books, used an amalgam of Knight and his former superior Rear Admiral John Godfrey, Director of the Naval Intelligence Division, as a model for the character 'M', Bond's boss.

His broadcast career progressed alongside his MI5 work until 1956 when he retired early, from MI5, on the grounds of ill health, suffering from angina.



see also

Withypool

In the 1930s, the inn was owned by Gwladys and Maxwell Knight, a spy-ring leader and radio broadcaster upon whom Ian Fleming based the character of James Bond's boss, M.