[A-List] Victor Cannon Brookes secret-service meida connections

["Salaam Blackmore" <salaamblackmore@xxxxxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Salaam Blackmore" <salaamblackmore@xxxxxxxxxx>
Newsgroups: alt.obituaries
Sent: Thursday, May 13, 2004 1:25 PM
Subject: Re: Victor Cannon Brookesl secret-service worker


If "Cannon Brookes was the front man for several news agencies and
 publishing firms, ostensibly quite independent, which spread round
 the Near and Middle East notions of how the free world should run",
does anyone know exactly which agencies and publishers he fronted?


 Salaam

> > From The Independent:
> > Solicitor who acted as secretary to SOE's Council and
> > continued secret work into the Cold War
> > 13 May 2004
> >
> >
> >       Victor Montgomery Cannon Brookes, solicitor,
> > secret-service officer and publisher: born London 24 May
> > 1911; married 1935 Nancy Markham Carter (died 1994; two
> > sons); died Oxford 18 April 2004.
> >
> >
> > Victor Cannon Brookes, a solicitor, was the last survivor of
> > those who attended the Council of the Special Operations
> > Executive, the formidable body that directed the subversive
> > secret service's work. He did not belong to Council - all
> > those who did are now dead; but he was its secretary and
> > kept its minutes, once deadly secret, now in the National
> > Archives at Kew.
> >
> > His father was a London solicitor; his mother died, in the
> > Spanish flu epidemic that killed more people than died in
> > the First World War, in 1919 when he was a small boy. He was
> > brought up in East Anglia in what were then regarded as
> > Bohemian circles. From Bilton Grange preparatory school,
> > young Victor - he had an elder brother - went to Sherborne,
> > where he was a friend and contemporary of Alan Turing, the
> > cryptographic genius who helped break Enigma ciphers during
> > the next world war.
> >
> > From Sherborne in turn he moved on, by family tradition, to
> > Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where he read Modern Languages and
> > Economics. In 1933 he went to stay in south Germany, to
> > improve his knowledge of the language, and was thus able to
> > observe at first hand the early stages of the Nazi
> > revolution at work in German society; as well as making
> > several friends in the German aristocratic opposition,
> > several of whom came to horrible ends in the last winter of
> > the war. He also met there several notable musicians,
> > including Arturo Toscanini, Bruno Walther and Benjamin
> > Britten.
> >
> > Returning to England, he took up his lifelong career as a
> > family solicitor, working at first in Slaughter & May. In
> > 1935 he married Nancy Markham Carter, the cousin of a
> > Cambridge friend, his devoted wife for almost 60 years (she
> > died in 1994). As soon as he qualified, he joined the family
> > firm of Cannon Brookes & Odgers; but he received an
> > invitation, early in the Second World War, to join the
> > Ministry of Economic Warfare, where he did much for the
> > Finns during their winter war against the Soviet Union in
> > 1939-40. At MEW he again met Harry Sporborg, whom he had
> > known at Slaughter & May; and in late summer 1940 Sporborg
> > invited him to join the ministry's secret appendix, the
> > Special Operations Executive.
> >
> > In those early days, SOE had to recruit on the old-boy net;
> > its members invited those they knew and trusted already to
> > join them - there was no other safe way of staffing a new
> > secret service. Sporborg's choice of Cannon Brookes was
> > fully justified: as a solicitor, he understood already the
> > need to keep his mouth shut, he had a clear, trained head,
> > he knew something about the enemy, he was prepared to work
> > irregular hours, his personality was stable. He never rose
> > to high rank, but he never made an indiscretion, and nothing
> > surprised him - not even having to work briefly with Kim
> > Philby, whom he found disagreeable. Philby was soon removed
> > into a post with a rival secret service more interesting to
> > his Soviet masters.
> >
> > Cannon Brookes held a series of medium-ranking posts in SOE,
> > with a galaxy of cover initials, mainly as assistant to
> > Sporborg, who rose to be one of the two deputies on whom
> > General Colin Gubbins, SOE's last executive head, chiefly
> > depended. They dealt mainly with the always delicate problem
> > of relations with the governments in exile in London. All
> > these bodies were longing to see their countries liberated
> > from Nazi or Fascist occupation, but few of them (the Poles
> > were here an honourable exception) were prepared to risk the
> > casualties that were likely to be involved.
> >
> > In the winter of 1943-44, after Gubbins had taken overall
> > charge, Cannon Brookes succeeded Sporborg as principal
> > private secretary for SOE affairs for the Earl of Selborne,
> > whose cover was that he was Minister of Economic Warfare
> > (Selborne said that SOE took up about four-fifths of his
> > time; Parliament, Cabinet, MEW and his family estate
> > absorbed the rest).
> >
> > As such, it was Cannon Brookes's duty to attend SOE's
> > Council meetings - every Wednesday without fail, more often
> > (daily if necessary) when a crisis was running, as it often
> > was. It was his business to summon the members, keep and
> > circulate the minutes, and ensure that Council's decisions
> > were carried through: no light task, but one calmly and
> > efficiently performed.
> >
> > On SOE's abrupt winding-up in January 1946 Cannon Brookes
> > went back to Cannon Brookes & Odgers, and picked up as best
> > he could the threads of the business and family affairs he
> > had been running before the war. He was a trustee, and for
> > 26 years a governor, of Bilton Grange, his preparatory
> > school. As a devout Christian, he worked hard for the SPCK,
> > reorganising its finances; and when he retired to
> > Sunningdale he was for years Vicar's Warden at his local
> > church.
> >
> > The Foreign Office kept in touch with those few of SOE's
> > members whom it regarded as entirely reliable; he was one of
> > them. His Christian faith made him sternly anti-Stalinist;
> > and the researches at Company House of Peter Lashmar and
> > James Oliver have revealed in their 1998 book, Britain's
> > Secret Propaganda War, that Cannon Brookes was the front man
> > for several news agencies and publishing firms, ostensibly
> > quite independent, which spread round the Near and Middle
> > East notions of how the free world should run.
> >
> > He soldiered on, in fact, for nearly 30 years more, well
> > into the Cold War; while preserving his public face as a
> > genial, safe, reliable family man.
> >
> > M. R. D. Foot