A Scots spy with a talent for poetry

Published on Tuesday 21 September 2010 15:26

AMONG the most prominent Scots who worked for MI6 was Compton MacKenzie, who would go on to write Whisky Galore, and whose literary sensibilities were proudly displayed in the official reports he despatched back to Britain.

It would also lead him to become the first person from MI6 prosecuted under the Official Secrets Act.

As head of the Eastern Mediterranean Special Intelligence Bureau (EMSIB) during the First World War, he was reputed to have sent reports in blank verse.

As one reply read: "We like your poetical reports immensely. Please send more."

By 1917, MacKenzie had created a lavishly resourced Aegean Intelligence Service with a staff of 39 officers, a 200-tonne ex-royal yacht and a monthly budget of 5,000, the equivalent of more than 200,000 today.

While his colleagues at the domestic secret service, MI5, complained of his "extravagant verbiage", they also praised him and said: "However flamboyant his methods, they irritate and unsettle the local Boche."

He ran into trouble with the government in 1932 when he published the third volume of his war memories, Greek Memories, in which he alluded to the identify of 'C', the head of MI6, which was kept secret at the time.