Who was the real Bond?
by Weekend Desk
James Bond has a licence to thrill once more in new film Spectre, which premiered on October 26 at a glitzy event in London, attended by Britains Prince William, his wife Kate and brother Prince Harry.
Daniel Craig returns as the suave MI6 spy 007 in the 24th Bond film, directed by Sam Mendes.
Therere different sides of his character that we explore in this, Craig said on the red carpet at the Royal Albert Hall, where he was joined by co-stars Monica Bellucci and Lea Seydoux.
Ralph Fiennes, who plays new Bond handler and MI6 chief M, said it was a very well-crafted film.
The film begins with a final mission set by the previous M, and sees a haggard-looking Bond shaken, not stirred by his past.
Along the way he faces his chilling nemesis, who has a data-driven domination mission. The films title stands for Special Executive for Counter-Intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion. Its members include historic Bond villains Dr No and Ernst Stavro Blofeld.
It is estimated between a quarter and half of the worlds population has seen a James Bond film. That number will likely rise even higher when Spectre is released globally on November 6.
But who was the real Bond?
Of the 15 real secret agents that allegedly provided the basis for Ian Flemings super suave spy few know about Sir William Samuel Stephenson, whose hand-to-hand combat skills, save-the-world heroics, magnetic personality and predilection for martinis remarkably mirror those of 007. In fact, Stephenson isnt even recognised in his hometown, Winnipeg, Canada.
A WWI fighter pilot and lightweight boxing champion in the forces, Stephenson relocated to the UK after the war ended in 1918. There, he married an American tobacco heiress and used her connections to reinvent himself as the ultimate spymaster during WWII, becoming a close confidant to both Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt and playing a key role in the establishment of the CIA as well as the BBC. He also founded Camp X, a commando-training base near Toronto where Fleming and hundreds of other Allied operatives learned their craft during the war.
His story is incredible. Its almost too good to be true.
Stephenson was raised in the neighbourhood of Point Douglas in a humble two-story wooden house. He lived there and attended the Argyle Alternative High School until he enlisted in the army at the age of 16. A mural on the schools wall incorporates the spys likeness but other than that, theres little evidence that Stephenson grew up there. Either the neighbourhood forgot, or like any good spy, Stephenson wanted to be forgotten.
A large bronze statue of the pilot stands in front of the Manitoba Legislative Building. An identical statue is at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia.
A more descriptive mural in Winnipegs West End paints a better picture of Stephensons achievements. Most notably, it includes an image of the Wehrmacht Enigma, the seemingly unbreakable Nazi code machine that Stephenson helped break.
Stephenson is also credited with providing intel for the 1943 sabotage of the Vemork Hydroelectric Plant in Nazi-occupied Norway. Known as Operation Gunnerside, the mission prevented Nazi scientists from getting their hands on the heavy water needed to produce a hydrogen bomb. The operation is recognised as the Allies most successful act of sabotage during the war.
Stephenson later joined the 101st Battalion of the Winnipeg Light Infantry in 1914. His regimental number? 700758. No evidence exists to show Fleming made the connection when he concocted Bonds iconic 007 designation, yet the similarity is intriguing.
As an individual, Stephenson ranks next to Churchill and Roosevelt in his persistent efforts to defeat the Germans, said Gary Solar, secretary of The Intrepid Society, a group dedicated to maintaining his memory. There are so many things he did to reduce the length of the war and loss of human life.
Solar and society president Kristin Stefansson worked to rename Winnipegs Water Avenue as William Stephenson Way in 2009. They are both descendants of the man whose code name was Intrepid, yet neither of them, Solar joked, was mentioned in his will.
The Billy Bishop Building at Winnipegs 17 Wing air base has a permanent exhibition of more than 300 Stephenson artefacts, including an oil painting of the man called Intrepid, and medals awarded by the US, UK, French and Canadian governments.
The Sir William Stephenson Library in North Winnipeg has a smaller number of Intrepid artefacts, including a model of a Sopwith Camel biplane, which Stephenson used to down 12 WWI enemy aircraft (including that of Lothar von Richthofen, the brother of the Red Baron), and half a dozen biographies.
Solar removed one of the books, Room 3603 by H Montgomery Hyde, and pointed to the preface, written by Fleming himself. In it, are two very telling statements.
The first: Fleming describes how Stephenson used to make the most powerful martinis in America and serve them in quart glasses, providing insight into how the author came up with the idea for Bonds iconic tipple.
The second, at the end of the preface, is the clincher proof that Stephenson, who died in Bermuda in 1989, was integral to the creation of the fictional secret agent at the centre of the most enduring movie franchise in history.
James Bond is a highly romanticised version of a true spy, Fleming wrote. The real thing ... is William Stephenson.
Source: AFP, BBC
