William Stephenson: Spymaster

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Hello and welcome to another episode of Biographics! I’m your host, KY Smallwood. If you don’t believe me, that’s my real name, and you can see it on social media at the links below. Today, we’re talking about William Stevenson, the intrepid spymaster who inspired James Bond. As with all the videos on our channel, this one is based on an original article submitted by our team of writers, this one being Radu Alexander. If you like the sound of that name, you can follow them on social media if they provided the links below.

Let’s get to it! When people ask what you do for a living, there are a few answers that sound more impressive than “spymaster.” YouTube host doesn’t really have the same gravitas, does it? But that was essentially what William Stevenson did during World War II. He was absolutely instrumental in establishing the UK’s intelligence network in North America and creating a tight-knit relationship between numerous different agencies from both sides of the Atlantic. And as if that wasn’t enough, he also had a cool code name: Intrepid.

Stevenson was crucial to Britain’s success in the war, but it’s the interesting title and nickname that we want to talk about today, in addition to all the other things he did. Stevenson is known as one of the people who inspired the most famous fictional spy in the world, 007. One of the many agents who worked alongside him was none other than Ian Fleming, who once wrote that James Bond is a highly romanticized version of a true spy, the real thing being William Stevenson.

William Samuel Stevenson was actually born William Samuel Clon Stanger in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, on January 11th or 23rd, 1897. Quite fitting for a spy, we don’t know the exact day he was born; the records were a bit hazy around this time period. So forgive us for any details we get wrong, but just think of it as a bit of extra world-building for a guy who would become known as the spymaster of World War II.

He was the second of four children to William and Sarah Stanger, a Scottish and Icelandic immigrant respectively. Although their eldest died in infancy, William’s time with his birth parents was brief. In 1901, his father died of a condition exacerbated by a lifetime of hard labor. His mother was left to raise three children on a meager income as a cleaner. She turned to help from a friend, another Icelandic immigrant named Kristen Stevenson, who offered to take in William and raise him as one of her own.

It’s unclear what became of Sarah Stanger and the other children from that point on, but young William was adopted by Kristen and became known as William Stevenson. Life with the Stevensons was pleasant but not easy. All of William’s adoptive siblings had to find jobs to support the family, and eventually, so did he. He left school after finishing the sixth grade and began working at a lumberyard, later switching to a position as a telegram delivery boy.

William was still with the Great Northwest Telegraph Company in 1914 when World War I started. Two years later, he enlisted with the 101st Battalion Winnipeg Light Infantry and was sent to a training camp. A few months later, he was headed for Britain aboard the SS Olympic and then on to France. Unfortunately for Stevenson, his time in the trenches was short-lived, and he was wounded and gassed in combat. He survived but had to be sent back to England for recovery.

Stevenson took that time to good use, taking courses in wireless communications, aeronautics, navigation, and internal combustion engines. He got back into shape by canoeing and boxing. Stevenson had been passionate about boxing for several years and had the opportunity to practice competitively in the featherweight class, even winning a championship in the Inter-Allied Games. He also became good friends with another boxer, Jean Tony, who would go on to become the world heavyweight champion.

Wanting to become a pilot, Stevenson joined the cadet wing of the Royal Flying Corps. By 1918, he was ready to return to France, this time as part of the RAF. Stevenson excelled as a pilot, becoming a flying ace and earning several medals for downing anywhere between 12 and 26 enemy aircraft, depending on who you ask.

In July 1919, his plane was hit and went down in enemy territory. He survived the crash but was captured and sent to a prisoner of war camp. His time as a prisoner is poorly documented, but he managed to escape the camp in October 1918, shortly before the war ended.

After the war, Stevenson needed to find a way to make a living. His first venture was to open a hardware business called Franco British Supplies alongside a friend. Unfortunately, they picked a bad time to start a new company in Winnipeg, and the company filed for bankruptcy a year later.

In 1922, he packed his bags and moved to England.

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Stevenson’s first company was a flop, but it did not deter him. He arrived in England looking to invest. Having developed an interest in radio and wireless technology, he invested in the General Radio Company and Cox Cavendish Electrical Company Limited. Despite having no formal education in electronics, he patented a wireless photography system that was a precursor to the modern fax machine.

By October 1923, Stevenson was the managing director at a radio company and even returned to Canada to showcase their products at various electronics exhibitions. On the return ship, he met Mary French Simmons, and they fell in love and got married on July 22, 1924.

Assuming his claims are true, his patent turned Stevenson into a multi-millionaire by the time he turned 30. Over the following decade, he kept expanding and diversifying his business interests, founding a holding company called British Pacific Trust that invested in various industries such as aircraft manufacturing, steel production, cement, and real estate.

Stevenson even got into the movie business at one point, helping form Sound City Films, later known as Shepperton Studios. His business took him all over the globe, including Canada, where he made connections with top industrialists, inventors, engineers, politicians, and financiers.

It is unclear when exactly Stevenson first met Winston Churchill, but the British statesman would rely heavily on Stevenson’s skills and expertise in the tough years that followed. During his frequent trips to Europe, Stevenson became acquainted with the rise of Nazism. As a prominent businessman, he had access to sensitive information, making him an enticing target for British intelligence.

That’s how William Stevenson became a spy. The exact year is a bit of a mystery, but it could have been as early as 1936. By 1938, Stevenson had already become an invaluable asset, gathering intelligence and doing research into German rearmament on a large scale.

Stevenson believed that Britain was woefully unprepared for a war with Germany, and so did Churchill, although the latter had trouble convincing Parliament of this fact. There is a poorly documented story from around this time about Stevenson allegedly volunteering to assassinate Hitler. He believed that a lone English sniper should take out Hitler during a rally and even offered to be the one to do it, but the foreign secretary at the time vetoed the idea.

Once World War II was underway, Churchill became the new prime minister and began working closely with America. In the spring of 1940, Stevenson returned to New York City. His first contact was the director of the FBI at the time, J. Edgar Hoover. Stevenson’s main objective in America was to settle the British Security Coordination, a covert organization looking after British interests in the United States.

Hoover wanted to get on board but refused to do so without a direct order from the White House. Eventually, the BSC opened its office at Rockefeller Center in Manhattan. At its height, the BSC had just shy of a thousand members, including journalists and radio workers who tried to minimize Nazi sympathies and support isolationism.

Stevenson’s first major score as the head of the BSC was helping to engineer the so-called destroyers-for-bases deal, allowing Britain to receive 50 destroyers from the United States without breaking neutrality laws.

When he wasn’t securing military assets, Stevenson was looking after Britain’s image in America. He had BSC agents infiltrate isolationist groups and made powerful allies in the media. At one point, the BSC even subsidized a radio station in New York to turn it into a nonstop propaganda channel.

Once the United States officially joined the war in December 1941, Stevenson could redirect his attention elsewhere and started opening a spy school in Canada, unofficially known as Camp X. This was where American and Canadian agents trained in espionage, sabotage, unarmed combat, and weapons training.

After the war, Stevenson received public recognition for his efforts and was awarded the Medal of Merit by the Americans, making him one of the first foreigners to receive this honor. Following the war, he stepped away for some much-needed rest and relaxation, buying a place in Jamaica.

In 1951, Stevenson moved to New York City, where he returned to the corporate world. However, after suffering a stroke in the early 60s, he decided to retire and moved to Bermuda. He lived there in relative solitude until his death on January 31, 1989, at the age of 92.

Thank you for tuning into this episode of Biographics. I’ve been your host, KY Smallwood. You can find links to my social media and the author of this piece, Radu Alexander, below. If you enjoyed the video, please leave a like and any comments you may have. Your feedback is appreciated as we continue to improve. Thank you for watching, and I wish everyone a great day!

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