Dick Franks
Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox spy Sir Arthur Temple "Dick" Franks Template:Post-nominals (13 July 1920 – 12 October 2008) was Head of the British Secret Intelligence Service from 1979 to 1982.
CareerEdit
Educated at Rugby School and Queen's College, Oxford, Franks was commissioned into the Royal Corps of Signals in 1940.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite news</ref> He became an Intelligence officer in the Western Desert and then joined the Special Operations Executive.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name=":2">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
He started his career by "earning a reputation for daring military exploits against Nazi Germany before pursuing a fruitful career on Her Majesty’s secret service."<ref name=":2" />
After the War he briefly worked for the Daily Mirror before joining the Secret Intelligence Service in 1946.<ref name=":0" /> He became involved in Operation Boot, a plan to overthrow Mohammad Mosaddegh, the nationalistic Iranian Prime Minister in 1953.<ref name=":0" /> He was posted to Bonn in 1962 and was promoted to Deputy Chief in 1977.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /> He was appointed Chief of the Service in 1978, in place of Brian Stewart, the Director of Support Services.<ref name="Scotsman">Obituary: Brian Stewart The Scotsman, 10 September 2015</ref><ref name=":0" />
As Chief, Franks was forced to contend with budget cuts, which he accepted for fear that SIS would otherwise be merged with the Security Service.<ref name="gthomas">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name=":1" /> One of the consequences of these cuts was the virtual closure of the MI6 station in Tehran – and the sole remaining officer was forbidden from operating out of the British Embassy by Ambassador Anthony Parsons – forcing him to instead rent a flat and depend on briefs delivered by SAVAK.<ref name=gthomas />
PersonalEdit
He lived at Aldeburgh in Suffolk.<ref name=inde>Obituary: Sir Dick Franks The Independent, 30 October 2008</ref> Franks was a member of the Travellers Club and still made regular visits into the last years of his life, often reminiscing with old colleagues from the intelligence world.<ref name=gthomas />
He was nicknamed "Dick" and "Dickie".<ref name=":2" />
Sir Colin McColl, former head of MI6, said: “He [Franks] was extremely effective yet also sensitive, intelligent and a most delightful man.”<ref name=":2" />
ReferencesEdit
External linksEdit
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