Richard Dearlove

For the DJ Richard Dearlove, known as "Diddy", see Diddy (DJ).

Sir Richard Dearlove
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service	Secret Intelligence Service (SIS/MI6)
Active	1966–2004
Rank	Chief of SIS/MI6
Award(s)	KCMG OBE
Birth name	Richard Billing Dearlove
Born	(1945-01-23) 23 January 1945 Gorran Haven, Cornwall
Nationality	British
Occupation	Intelligence officer
Alma mater	Queens' College, Cambridge

Sir Richard Billing Dearlove, KCMG OBE (born 23 January 1945) was head of the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) (a role fictionally known as M) from 1999 until 6 May 2004. Sir Richard was Master of Pembroke College, Cambridge from 2004 to 2015.

Early life and education

Dearlove was born at Gorran Haven in Cornwall, son of Jack Dearlove, 1948 Olympic silver medallist, and attended Monkton Combe School near Bath, the Kent School in Kent, Connecticut, and Queens' College, Cambridge.

Career

He joined MI6 in 1966 and was posted to Nairobi in 1968. After being posted to Prague, Paris and Geneva he became head of Washington station in 1991, director of personnel and administration in 1993 and director of operations in 1994. Dearlove became chief in 1999.

Sir Richard's tenure as the head of MI6 saw many events for the service:

• 2000 – MI6 Headquarters at Vauxhall Cross is attacked by an RPG-22 Netto one-shot, disposable, anti-tank rocket launcher.
• 2001 – Service criticised for failing to establish and warn that Al-Qaeda was planning anything on the scale of the 11 September attacks.
• The "War on Terror", the US invasion of Afghanistan and the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
• Tension with the Government over the evidence for war on Iraq. It has been suggested that many within the intelligence community were uneasy that their qualified judgements on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction were presented as hard facts in various dossiers (e.g. September Dossier). In July 2002, Dearlove told ministers that in the US "intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy".

KCMG Badge and Breast Star

Dearlove was elected Master of Pembroke College, Cambridge on 1 August 2004. He accepted an invitation to become the Chairman of Trustees of the Cambridge Union Society in 2006. As Master of Pembroke, Dearlove was ex officio chairman of the board of Trustees of Pembroke House, a community centre in Walworth, London via the college's patronage of the advowson of St Christopher's, Walworth (CofE).

In February 2008 Dearlove gave evidence at the inquest of Princess Diana's death, responding to Harrod's owner Mohamed al-Fayed who claimed that MI6 had murdered Diana.

Sir Richard is a signatory of the Henry Jackson Society principles. He is also a "senior advisor" to the Monitor Group – a consultancy and private equity firm which has been implicated in undertaking PR work for Libya and Muammar Gaddafi. In April 2013, it was announced that Dearlove joined the advisory board of Ergo, an intelligence and advisory firm.

On 15 February 2011 Dearlove gave a talk at the Cambridge Union Society, taking as his theme the question of how much secrecy the UK needs: "The short answer to that question is that it needs some but actually not as much as you think." He said he "would definitely draw a parallel at the moment between the wave of political unrest which is sweeping through the Middle East, in a very excited and rather extraordinary fashion, and also the Wikileaks phenomenon", but added later, in connection with the way technological advances was altering the norms of civic and private life, commenting on WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, that " ... the Assange story, as such, is ultimately a distraction. He's a very undignified flag-carrier, in my opinion, for a very important issue."

In 2012 Dearlove took a sabbatical from Cambridge University to write an account of events leading up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq from his perspective at MI6, including coverage of the production of the so-called "dodgy dossier". Publishing such an account would be unprecedented for a former Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service. He may release this after the Chilcot Inquiry findings are published.

On 7 July 2014, in a lecture at the Royal United Services Institute, Dearlove argued that the government and media had exaggerated the Islamist terrorism threat to the UK, giving extremists publicity counter-productive to UK interests.

External links

• Debrett's People of Today
• "Richard Dearlove Asked About Iraq War Intelligence at Chatham House"

Government offices
Preceded by Sir David Spedding	Chief of the SIS 1999–2004	Succeeded by Sir John Scarlett
Academic offices
Preceded by Sir Roger Tomkys	Master of Pembroke College, Cambridge 2004–2015	Succeeded by Baron Smith of Finsbury