Christopher Curwen

{{Short description|British Intelligence officer}} {{For|the politician|Christopher Curwen (MP)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = Sir | honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|KCMG}} | name = Christopher Curwen | image = File:Christopher Curwen.jpg | caption = | allegiance = United Kingdom | branch = {{ubl |British Army |Secret Intelligence Service (SIS/MI6) }} | service_years = | awards = KCMG | birth_date = {{birth date|1929|4|9|df=y}} | birth_place = | death_date = {{death date and age|2013|12|18|1929|4|9|df=y}} | death_place = | occupation = Intelligence officer | alma_mater = Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge | office = Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service | order = 10th | predecessor = Colin Figures | term_start = 1985 | term_end = 1989 | successor = Colin McColl | battles = {{tree list/start}} *World War II *Cold War **Indochina wars **Berlin Wall {{tree list/end}} | unit = 4th Queen's Own Hussars | office1 = Deputy Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service | term_end1 = 1985 | term_start1 = 1980 }} '''Sir Christopher Keith Curwen,''' {{post-nominals|size=100%|KCMG}} (9 April 1929 – 18 December 2013) was a British Intelligence officer specialising in South East Asia who was Head of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) from 1985 to 1989.

==Career== Curwen was educated at Sherborne School and Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge after which he was commissioned into the 4th Queen's Own Hussars in 1948, serving in Malaya.<ref>[http://www.burkespeerage.com/familyhomepage.aspx?FID=0&FN=CURWEN Burke's Peerage and Gentry]</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite news|date=27 December 2013|title=Sir Christopher Curwen obituary|work=The Times|issue=71078|url=https://www.thetimes.com/article/sir-christopher-curwen-f8dfc5t9r5m}}</ref> He joined SIS in 1952 and was posted to Thailand in 1954 and Vientiane, Laos in 1956.<ref name=":0" /> He returned to the service's London headquarters in 1958, had another spell in Bangkok from 1961 and then two years in Kuala Lumpur. He was at one time married to a woman from Burma;<ref>{{Cite web |date=2013-12-26 |title=Sir Christopher Curwen |url=https://www.thetimes.com/article/sir-christopher-curwen-f8dfc5t9r5m |access-date=2024-10-09 |website=www.thetimes.com |language=en}}</ref> they were later divorced.<ref name=":1" />

Curwen spent three years as SIS liaison officer in Washington D.C. from 1968 and was then head of station in Geneva.<ref>''MI6 - 50 years of Special Operations'', by Stephen Dorril, Page 753, Harper Collins, 2001, {{ISBN|1-85702-701-9}}</ref> He was deputy to Sir Colin Figures from 1980 and succeeded him as Chief of the Service in 1985.<ref>[http://www.cloakeddagger.com/ Cloaked Dagger]</ref> His tenure was notable for the successful exfiltration from Moscow of the KGB officer and British agent Oleg Gordievsky.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news|date=23 December 2013|title=Sir Christopher Curwen obituary|work=The Daily Telegraph|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/10536155/Sir-Christopher-Curwen-obituary.html}}</ref><ref name=":0" />

His obituary in ''The Times'' noted: "He possessed a romantic patriotism that belied his hard-headed persona."<ref name=":0" />

==References== {{reflist|30em}}

== Notes ==

* Sir Christopher Curwen entry in ''Who's Who'' * Curwen entry in the ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''

{{s-start}} {{S-gov}} {{succession box | before=Sir Colin Figures| title=Chief of the SIS | years=1985–1989| after=Sir Colin McColl| }} {{s-end}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Curwin, Christopher}} Category:1929 births Category:2013 deaths Category:Civil servants in the Cabinet Office Category:Cold War spies Category:Knights Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George Category:People educated at Sherborne School Category:Alumni of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge Category:Chiefs of the Secret Intelligence Service