Weekly Meeting - Mike Stratford (On Her Majesty's Secret Service)

Mike Stratford - On Her Majesty's Secret Service

Mike, who subtitled his informative and eye-opening talk ‘Some Stories, 38 Years in the Making, from a Retired Civil Servant.’ is an Uptonian well known to many in the Club.  He told us that he would be divulging certain facts that used to be secret but aren’t any more as, with time, they are no longer sensitive.  He is still, and always will be, subject to the Official Secrets Act so there is probably still a fair amount of information he must keep to himself.

He was at pains to say that he wasn’t a spy in the mode of James Bond.  Ian Fleming’s character was a member of MI6, the oldest organisation of its type in the world, and Bond would have been classed as a ‘Field Spy’.  Mike informed us he was concerned with protecting communications.

He talked about GCHQ, aka ‘the Doughnut’, costing £330million to build and the same to equip, opening in 2004.  It was already out of date then thanks to 9/11 and the extra security needed meant that a building next door to Sainsbury’s in Barnwood is now used to look after the added requirements.  Structurally the Royal Albert Hall could be fitted into the centre of the Doughnut and the number of floors below ground is the same as above.

Vladimir Putin, whose grandfather was the chef for Lenin, was mentioned.  Putin had to retake his exams for the KGB, having failed on first sitting.  However, after this setback he quickly learned his trade in East Germany and seemingly was involved in drug running.  Mike added chillingly that Putin never forgets, especially timely in view of the recent incidents in Salisbury!  Mike informed us that the Russian Embassy in London has an offshoot, the Russian Trade Commission, with a huge number of personnel working there, certainly more than seems necessary for straightforward embassy work, and Mike wondered how many of these could be spies.

He said that the Prime Minister and members of the Royal Family are the number one targets for assassination and showed slides of the various buildings along Downing Street and the problems involved protecting the different structures, the IRA having made an attempt on Margaret Thatcher’s life there.  In addition, he advised when a special room was built for Tony Blair’s communications with George W Bush during the second Iraq war.

Latterly Mike was made a part time Queen’s Messenger, a position created by Charles II, and had to take classified documents from one diplomatic office to another anywhere in the world before retiring in 2006.

After a professional lifetime of experience dealing with dodgy characters his parting advice to us was: ‘If you go online be careful who you are talking to or who is listening’. Wise advice! 

Peter Harris