Roger Hollis : biography
In the book Wright claimed that Hollis had been a Soviet agent. Amongst the evidence for this claim is the Igor Gouzenko defection. Hollis was sent to Canada to interview Gouzenko, a cipher clerk in the Soviet embassy in Ottawa. Wright wrote that Hollis justified his involvement in the case because it involved a communist defection in a Commonwealth nation, so it came under MI5’s jurisdiction, and he (Hollis) was MI5’s expert on communist matters. Gouzenko had provided Hollis with clear information about Alan Nunn May’s meetings with his handlers; all these meetings were immediately cancelled. Alan Nunn May was a scientist and part of the Soviet spy ring which obtained the secrets of the Manhattan Project, which built the first atomic bomb for the United States. Gouzenko also noted that the man who met him seemed to be in disguise, not interested in his revelations, and discouraged him from further disclosures. In view of this circumstantial evidence, Wright became convinced that Hollis was a traitor.
Wright alleges in Spycatcher that Gouzenko, who had worked for the GRU, himself deduced later that his interviewer might have been a Soviet double agent, and was probably afraid that he might recognize him from case photos that Gouzenko might have seen in KGB or GRU files, hence the disguise. Gouzenko also admitted that he, being a lower level clerk, had no access to such files. Peter Wright had given a televised interview during the dispute with Thatcher’s government. Following Peter Wright’s TV interview in 1984, Arthur Martin wrote a letter to the Times, and it was published July 19, 1984. Martin stated that while Wright exaggerated the certainty with which they regarded Hollis’s guilt, Peter Wright was justified in saying that Hollis was the most likely candidate, for the reasons Wright had given.
In her 2001 autobiography, Christine Keeler (Profumo’s mistress), alleged, without supporting evidence, that Hollis and Ward were part of a spy ring with Sir Anthony Blunt. Ward committed suicide as the Profumo scandal progressed.
Hollis was also accused by Chapman Pincher (investigative journalist who produced several exposés of failures in British counter-intelligence) of being a Soviet agent, though entirely separate from the famous Cambridge Five spy ring. Pincher claims Hollis was recruited by Richard Sorge in China in the early 1930s to spy for the GRU. Evidence has been advanced to support these assertions by Chapman Pincher in Treachery.Random House June 2009: revised edition, Mainstream May 2011
The book Treachery by Chapman PincherRandom House June 2009: revised edition, Mainstream May 2011 is devoted to the case against Hollis as being "Elli", the highly placed mole within MI5 identified by the defector Gouzenko, and thus operating as a Soviet agent from the 1940s until Hollis’ retirement from MI5.
In his book, The Defence of the Realm: The Authorised History of MI5, Cambridge professor Christopher Andrew used access to 400,000 MI5 files to compile an official history of the service. He claims he has proved conclusively that Hollis was not a double agent and that Wright was misguided at best. However, this view is again challenged in the revised edition of Chapman Pincher’s book Treachery published in the UK in 2011.
In the 2009 ITV programme Inside MI5: The Real Spooks Oleg Gordievsky recounted how he saw the head of the British section of the KGB, expressing surprise at the allegations that he read in a British newspaper about Roger Hollis being a KGB agent saying "Why is it they are speaking about Roger Hollis, such nonsense, can’t understand it, it must be some special English trick directed against us"Inside MI5: The Real Spooks (ITV 2009) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UClrXrb6Xy4&feature=related But Chapman Pincher in Treachery states that Hollis was believed to be a GRU agent, the GRU being a different organisation to the KGB.
Early professional career
Hollis worked in England for Barclays Bank, then as a reporter for the Shanghai Morning Post, and with British American Tobacco in China, where he remained for eight years. While in China, Hollis apparently associated frequently with the noted left-wing activist Agnes Smedley.Spycatcher: The Candid Autobiography of a Senior Intelligence Officer, by Peter Wright, Toronto 1987, Stoddart Publishers. Hollis developed tuberculosis, and returned to England in 1936 for a brief spell with the Ardath Tobacco Company, an associate of BAT.
After a pre-war career as reporter for the Shanghai Post, and with British American Tobacco in China, Hollis developed tuberculosis and returned to England in 1939. He joined MI5 shortly before World War II and rose quickly through the ranks, replacing Sir Dick White in 1956 as head of MI5.
Early years
His father was Bishop of Taunton. Hollis was educated at Clifton College, and Worcester College, Oxford. But he left Oxford after five terms, without completing his degree.Spycatcher: The Candid Autobiography of a Senior Intelligence Officer, by Peter Wright, Toronto 1987, Stoddart Publishers.
Later life
Peter Wright in Spycatcher asserts that Hollis and his secretary Val Hammond were carrying on a long-standing affair while both were at MI5. Hammond, according to Wright, was eligible for promotion at many points during her long service, including non-clerical positions related to intelligence analysis, but she consistently refused the opportunity to move to higher positions in MI5 in order to stay close to Hollis. They married after Hollis divorced his first wife, Eve, in 1968.
His son, Adrian (1940-2013), was a Grandmaster of correspondence chess, and was British Correspondence Chess Champion in 1966, 1967, and 1971. Philosopher Martin Hollis (1938–1998) was his nephew. His elder brother, (Maurice) Christopher Hollis (1902–1977), was a Conservative MP for Devizes from 1945 to 1955.
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