The Dennis Wheatley 'Museum' - Dennis Wheatley in World War II: a supplement

The London Controlling Section becomes a stand-alone entity and 'Johnny' Bevan succeeds Oliver Stanley as London Controlling Officer

'Johnny' Bevan

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Bevan sets about reorganising and expanding his department

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A typical memo from Johnny Bevan in the National Archives' originally Top Secret files; this one to J.C. Masterman, Chairman of the important 'XX Committee'

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In June 1942 Lieutenant-Colonel 'Johnny' Bevan replaced the departing Lumby, and in August he succeeded Stanley as 'London Controlling Officer', the chief of the deception section. A prominent stockbroker between the wars, before joining the family business, Bevan had had an interesting First World War. He had been awarded the Military Cross, and as a junior intelligence officer he had briefed Churchill; who had found him so interesting that he had gone on invite the young Bevan to dine with him and they then had a long private meeting which extended into the early hours of the Parisian morning. An old Etonian, Bevan was married to a daughter of the then Lord Lucan, General Alexander was his brother-in-law, and he counted the Chief of the Imperial General Staff, Lord Alanbrooke, among his friends.

For Bevan's first few months, he and Wheatley were the only members of the London Controlling Section.

Correspondence and papers by Bevan can be seen in a variety of places in the official archives. The last one illustrated here is between Bevan and (later Sir) John Masterman, the Chairman of the 'Twenty Committee' which decided what information should be fed to the enemy through its array of double agents. The way it was written, 'XX' was a pun on 'double cross'; a potential give-away of the purpose of the Committee of which DW would almost certainly have disapproved.

References : 'The Deception Planners' Chapter 5.

Provenance : Bottom two photographs courtesy of the National Archives [WO 193/443 & KV4/247]