David Spedding
Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox officeholder Sir David Rolland Spedding Template:Post-nominals (7 March 1943 – 13 June 2001) was Chief of the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) from 1994 to 1999.
Early life
David Spedding was the son of a Border Regiment lieutenant colonel,<ref name="LATimesEWoo2001-06-16A">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="West2014B">Template:Cite book</ref> and grew up in the middle class.<ref name="LATimesEWoo2001-06-16B">Template:Cite news</ref> He was initially educated at Sherborne School, then read history at Hertford College, Oxford.<ref name="guardian">Template:Cite news</ref>
Career
Spedding joined the Secret Intelligence Service in 1967,<ref name=guardian/> while a postgraduate student at Oxford.<ref name="West2014B"/> He then attended the Middle East Center for Arabic Studies in Beirut, becoming a specialist on Middle East affairs.<ref name=guardian/> He also served in Santiago and Abu Dhabi.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In 1971 Spedding was named as the local SIS station commander in Lebanon, and was later posted to Abu Dhabi in 1977.<ref name="West2014B"/> Following his Middle East Directorate appointment in 1983, he was made the Amman Jordan station head,<ref name="West2014B"/> and was subsequently commended in that position for uncovering an Abu Nidal plan to assassinate the Queen during an upcoming Jordan visit.<ref name="Thomas2010B">Template:Cite book</ref> For this he was made Commander of the Royal Victorian Order.<ref name="Thomas2010B"/>
In 1993, Spedding became Director of Requirements and Operations. In 1994 he became Chief of the Service,<ref name=guardian/> becoming the first chief to have never served in the armed forces, and the youngest to have held the position to that date.<ref name="West2009">Template:Cite book</ref> During his tenure the SIS faced some degree of negative publicity due to unauthorized disclosures in the wake of Richard Tomlinson's dismissal.<ref name="West2016MajA">Template:Cite book</ref>
Spedding died of lung cancer on 13 June 2001, aged 58.<ref name=guardian/>
References
External links
Template:S-start Template:S-gov Template:Succession box Template:S-end Template:Authority control
- 1943 births
- 2001 deaths
- Alumni of Hertford College, Oxford
- Commanders of the Royal Victorian Order
- Knights Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George
- Chiefs of the Secret Intelligence Service
- Officers of the Order of the British Empire
- People educated at Sherborne School
- Post–Cold War spies
- 20th-century spies