I Spy....

A commemorative statue of Sir William Samuel Stephenson (1897-1989) was recently unveiled in Celebration Square at our Whitby Public Library.  For those who may not recognize the name, Sir William wasbest known by his wartime intelligence codename Intrepid; he was a Canadian soldier, airman, business man, inventor, spymaster and head of the BSC for the western hemisphere in WW11.  Many consider him to be one of the real-life inspirations for James Bond. In fact, Ian Fleming once wrote, "James Bond is a highly romanticized version of a true spy. The real thing is William Stephenson."  So, why a statue in Whitby? Because in 1941, Sir William established, in Whitby, Camp X, the unofficial name of the BSC secret spy-training base that operated here from 1941-1945. Graduates of Camp X  worked as secret agents, security personnel, intelligence officers or psychological warfare experts in clandestine operations in Europe, as well as in Africa, India, Australia and the Pacific. Camp X is a piece of history that is honoured here in our town and this statue is a real tribute to the man responsible for it. A welcome addition to Celebration Square and definitely worth a blip! (For a true spy story, a good read would be A Man Called Intrepid, originally published in 1976.)