Wilfred Dunderdale

Commander Wilfred Albert "Biffy" Dunderdale, (24 December 1899 – 13 November 1990) was a British spy and intelligence officer. It has been suggested that Dunderdale was used by Ian Fleming as a basis for the character of James Bond.

Life
Wilfred Dunderdale was born in Odessa, son of Richard Albert Dunderdale, a shipping magnate.

Dunderdale served in the Royal Navy (RNVR) during the First World War, despite his thick accent. he had grown up speaking Russian and English. During the Russian Civil War he was an interpreter with White Russian naval commanders in the Black Sea, once having to sit discreetly outside for a White Russian general "chatting up" the general's mistress until he was no longer required! (neither spoke the other's language). He went to Yekaterinburg to investigate the murder of the Imperial family. He was nicknamed Biffy for his pugilistic skills.

He worked for the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) between 1921 and 1959, moving to Paris "a hotbed of White Russian intrigue", and becoming Head of Station by 1937 with the cover name Dolinoff. His work involved liaison with French intelligence (1926–40) and Polish intelligence (1940–45) in connection with the decrypting of German Enigma-enciphered messages; and to Constantinople, where he said that his first job for MI6 was to pay off with gold sovereigns foreign members of the Sultans' harem and arrange for them to be repatriated by the Royal Navy.

Later moving to New York, he died there in November 1990. According to notes compiled by Stephen Dorril for his 1989 book, A Who's Who of the British State, Dunderdale was a member of Boodle's.

The first biography of his life A Suspicion of Spies: Risk, Secrets and Shadows – the Biography of Wilfred ‘Biffy’ Dunderdale by Tim Spicer will be released on 12 September 2024.