18
CITIZEN FIRST Tuesday, October 21, 2008
First for FEATURES
IT’S a mystery worthy of James Bond
himself.
But who’d have guessed the creator of
Britain’s best-loved secret agent would
set this unknown adventure in the quiet
streets of Newport Pagnell?
Fact is, Miss Moneypenny, Ian
Fleming – author of the 007 books that
launched the world’s most-watched film
series – spent the best part of three
months visiting the town … but where he
went, no one seems to know.
Or maybe they just aren’t saying.
Well OK, it happened early one
summer between the wars and that’s a
long time ago.
But you still might think legend would
tell us how he drained a couple of Dry
Martinis in the town’s top hotel or left
the stub of one of his hand-made Mor-
land Specials in an ashtray on the bar.
The mystery goes back to 1926 when
the young Ian Fleming, whose family des-
perately wanted him to join the Army,
was sent to a “Colonel Trevor” in New-
port Pagnell for some concentrated train-
ing to get him through the entrance tests
for officer training at Sandhurst’s military
academy.
The reason I know is because John
Pearson, a fellow author, spilled the
beans in his Life of Ian Fleming, the first
biography of James Bond’s creator who
turned spymaster himself in WWII.
Well briefed by Fleming’s family and
as his assistant at the Sunday Times for
a number of years, few will have been
better able to sort out the facts from fic-
tion.
What happened, said Pearson in his
book, was that Fleming was taken out of
Eton early by his mother because, and
no surprises here, she thought he was
spending too much time partying and
chasing girls and not enough on lining up
a good career.
With a military streak in the family,
Mrs Val, as Fleming and his brother
Peter called her, took some advice and
learned that this “Colonel Trevor” at
Newport Pagnell came highly
recommended for the kind of crash
course in Army discipline and officer
training which the 18-year-old needed.
And so we hear that Fleming motored
up and down to the north Bucks town in
his first car, a battered brown Standard
tourer, to be put through his paces by
the rigorous
military man.
And it worked, with the young cadet
winning a top-level pass, he came sixth
of the whole country’s intake into Sand-
hurst that year, and an entry scholarship.
Inevitably, being the character he was,
Cadet Fleming resigned before not very
long; being confined to
>> News: MK 372279 >> Adverts: MK 371133 >> www.miltonkeynes.co.uk
In this four part series,
exclusive to Citizen First, author
Richard Meredith unravels the
remarkable local connections of
Ian Fleming, creator of Britain’s
best loved secret agent James
Bond.
Containing much previously
unpublished material, Meredith
reveals how the ace thriller writer
knew the patch like the back of
his hand and was a frequent visi-
tor – not always officially –
throughout most of his life.
barracks after, shall we say, some
unofficial night-time manoeuvres.
The story of those will have to wait
for another day, but the point is: Who
was this “Colonel Trevor”, I
wondered? Was it an alias? Where
exactly was his practice parade ground
in Newport Pagnell? Was the officer’s
family still around to tell me?
In this year of 2008, with many
events being staged to mark the
centenary of Ian Fleming’s birth, and
with Quantum of Solace, another
James Bond blockbuster about to burst
onto our cinema screens, it seemed
the perfect time to find out.
I tried John Pearson first. Now in his
late 70s and in retirement in East Sus-
sex, he went off to look up his notes.
Colonel Trevor was the name he had
been given as Fleming’s Army trainer,
he confirmed, but alas, there was noth-
ing to add.
“No luck I’m afraid,” he said. “I’d
like to help, but it’s all a long time ago
now.”
I tried Fleming’s family. Lucy
Fleming, actress daughter of Ian’s
brother Peter, is heading up the
anniversary celebrations. But she could-
n’t help either.
I tried the Imperial War Museum, cur-
rently hosting For Your Eyes Only, an
exhibition of Ian Fleming’s role in the
Naval Intelligence Division – the White-
hall spy-centre of MI6 during WWII
which provided him with so much of the
background for his later novels.
They passed me on to Colman Getty,
agents for the author’s
publishing estate.
“Colonel Trevor,” queried the posh-
sounding girl from their London office,
“sorry, I’ll have to phone you back on
that one.”
But she never did.
And I tried Newport Pagnell, of
course – the local historians and those
in-the-know people with long memories
and a nose for nostalgia. Oh dear,
Fleming’s
hero,
2008 style:
Quantum
of Solace
premieres
opens next
week
Bond in Bucks
THE NAME’S FLEMING: The
Bond creator on the front cover
of a book about the Park, left,
and an exhibition at Bletchley
Park celebrating the ‘life’ of
secret agent 007, below.
An exhibition From Bletchley With These men, commanded by
FLEMING facts Love, now on at the Park and raising Fleming and nick-named his “Red
appeal funds to restore this national Indians”, requisitioned a farm in
>> 2008 is the centenary of treasure to the place in history it Buckinghamshire as their practice
Ian Fleming’s birth (May 28, deserves, tells how Fleming would visit ground – another little-known fact
1908) Frank Birch and his team of which, like the full story of Bletchley
German Naval signal specialists in Hut Park, has only come out in recent years
>> An exhibition From 4, beginning the reporting chain back after the ending of restrictions under
Bletchley With Love is currently up to Churchill and the Allied High Com- the Official Secrets Act.
running at Bletchley Park, the mand. With Fleming known to have based
wartime code-breaking centre He made regular visits too, to stately many of his locations, plots and
Woburn Abbey where a covert operation characters on real-life places and
>> Quantum of Solace, was being run from a studio in the sta- people, it could be argued that this
Dond’s latest movie, releases bles by Sefton Delmer, former Daily mysterious Colonel Trevor and
Express and BBC broadcaster, who Newport Pagnell itself are disguised
in the UK on October 31.
boomed out “black propaganda” bul- among his Bond books somewhere.
letins of hoax information and morale- On the other hand, those who know
more blank looks and sapping messages to the the town well might be
shaking heads.
Germans, often scripted by Fleming hardpushed to visualise the Royal
Fact is, if anyone reading this can tell himself. British Legion Club as a glittering
me more about cadet Fleming and his
At Newport Pagnell, scene of that Casino Royale, the infamous Dr No in
visits to the town, I would be very glad earlier training with Colonel Trevor, residence at the health centre, or Octo-
to hear (see end panel). there was also Salmons, the car pussy swimming in the River Ousel.
Mind you, with or without this body-building business now busily Surely too, the local traffic warden
mysterious Colonel Trevor, Fleming engaged in various activities for the war bears only a passing resemblance to
already had a bulging dossier of effort and later destined to become Rosa Klebb?
memories about this part of Aston Martin’s historic Still, local Bond book buffs and film
Buckinghamshire before he jetted off to home. audiences might conceivably take a lit-
an exotic island in the Caribbean to And then there was his pride and joy tle closer look in future to see if there’s
write his novels in the 1950s. – the 30 Assault Unit, an eclectic anything they recognise.
Wearing his spymaster overcoat as bunch of tough marine commandos and
personal assistant to Admiral John God- men with “unorthodox” skills like safe- © Richard Meredith, 2008
frey, Director of NID and the breaking, forgery and explosives who
subsequent model for ‘M’ in his Bond were dispatched on secret >> Can you throw any light on
books, he used to travel from Whitehall missions, usually in advance of the Colonel Trevor or recall any
every fortnight to check out Bletchley main military, to capture enemy other anecdotes about Ian
Park’s super-human efforts to crack the codebooks and equipment and other
German codes. Fleming’s visits locally?
assignments. Richard Meredith is compiling
>> Author Richard Meredith is a nephew of the late Air a booklet about Bond in Bucks
Marshal Sir Bryan Reynolds, a former C-in-C Coastal Command, who in support of the effort to save
received vital intelligence from Bletchley Park during an Bletchley Park and would
operation in 1943/44 which was assisted by Commander welcome your stories.
Fleming’s ‘Red Indians’. E:mail them to him at
mercurybooks@btconnect.com
>> The former national newspaper journalist and business
magazine publisher is now an author of adventure travel books and lives in
Newport Pagnell. NEXT TIME: Ian Fleming’s cars and
how James Bond made Aston Martin
>> His latest book DRIVEN TOGETHER: Historic first crossing of Asia's one of the most famous names in
new Highway to the West is published next month by MercuryBooks at motoring history.
£19.99. Citizen readers can order copies for £18, including postage, at
www.MercuryBooks.co.uk or tel 01908 618439.