{{Short description|UK chief of intelligence service (1943–2001)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=September 2022}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = Sir | honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|KCMG|CVO|OBE}} | name = David Spedding | awards = KCMG, CVO, OBE | birth_date = 7 March 1943 | birth_place = | death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|2001|6|13|1943|3|7}} | death_place = London, United Kingdom | spouse = Gillian Kinnear | children = Two sons | occupation = Intelligence officer | alma_mater = Hertford College, Oxford | office = Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service | order = 12th | successor = Richard Dearlove | predecessor = Colin McColl | term_start = 1994 | term_end = 1999 | education = Sherborne School }} '''Sir David Rolland Spedding''' {{post-nominals|size=100%|KCMG|CVO|OBE}} (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">{{cite news |last=Woo |first=Elaine |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-jun-16-me-11176-story.html |title=Sir David Spedding; Ex-Chief of British Spy Agency |work=Los Angeles Times |date=2001-06-16 |access-date=2020-11-02}}</ref><ref name="West2014B">{{cite book|author=Nigel West|title=Historical Dictionary of British Intelligence|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HKPmAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA563|date=18 February 2014|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=978-0-8108-7897-6|pages=563–}}</ref> and grew up in the middle class.<ref name="LATimesEWoo2001-06-16B">{{cite news |last=Woo |first=Elaine |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-jun-16-me-11176-story.html |title=Sir David Spedding; Ex-Chief of British Spy Agency |work=Los Angeles Times |date=2001-06-16 |access-date=2020-11-02 |quote="The son of a lieutenant colonel in the British Border Regiment, Spedding grew up in comfortably middle class surroundings. He went to Sherborne, a private school in Dorset remarkable for the fact that le Carre, the spy-thriller master, and Christopher Curwen, another future MI6 chief, also went there. At Oxford, Spedding listed as his chief interests walking, medieval history and golf. But he was a run-of-the-mill duffer, with a handicap, Adams noted, of 20." }}</ref> He was initially educated at Sherborne School, then studied history at Hertford College, Oxford.<ref name="guardian">{{Cite news |last=Norton-Taylor |first=Richard |date=2001-06-14 |title=Sir David Spedding |url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2001/jun/14/guardianobituaries.politics |access-date=2025-06-17 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</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>{{Cite web |date=2001-06-14 |title=Sir David Spedding |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1309010/Sir-David-Spedding.html |access-date=2025-06-17 |website=The Telegraph |language=en}}</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">{{cite book|author=Gordon Thomas|title=Secret Wars: One Hundred Years of British Intelligence Inside MI5 and MI6|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aAqjMjs09P0C|date=16 February 2010|publisher=St. Martin's Publishing Group|isbn=978-1-4299-4576-9}}</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">{{cite book|author=Nigel West|title=The A to Z of British Intelligence|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zYAXAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA514|date=2 September 2009|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=978-0-8108-7028-4|pages=514–}}</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">{{cite book|author=Nigel West|title=At Her Majestys Secret Service: The Chiefs of Britains Intelligence Service, MI6|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VealDAAAQBAJ&pg=PT142|date=30 June 2016|publisher=Pen & Sword Books|isbn=978-1-84832-895-2|pages=142–}}</ref>
Spedding died of lung cancer on 13 June 2001, aged 58.<ref name=guardian/>
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== *[https://web.archive.org/web/20070928141231/http://www.bondmovies.com/images/spedding.jpg Photograph] {{s-start}} {{S-gov}} {{succession box | before=Sir Colin McColl| title=Chief of the SIS | years=1994–1999| after=Sir Richard Dearlove| }} {{s-end}} {{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Spedding, David}} Category:1943 births Category:2001 deaths Category:Alumni of Hertford College, Oxford Category:Commanders of the Royal Victorian Order Category:Knights Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George Category:Chiefs of the Secret Intelligence Service Category:Officers of the Order of the British Empire Category:People educated at Sherborne School Category:Post–Cold War spies Category:20th-century spies
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