Meet the real 'M': the extraordinary life of Maxwell Knight, MI5's greatest spy-master

Took almost 50 years after Knight's death for the story to come out in a book. His MI5 team infiltrated extremists like British Fascisti. From The Telegraph.

http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/world/loved+jazz+cuckoo+uncovering+spymaster+inspired+james+bond/13331494/story.html

When Maxwell Knight died in the final week of January 1968, most people around the country – including his close friends, family and former colleagues – thought they’d lost a slightly eccentric, avuncular BBC natural history presenter. At his memorial service a few weeks later, however, those same mourners watched as swarms of mysterious men in brown felt hats filled the pews of St James’s Church in Piccadilly, London, silently paying their respects to a person they had known somewhat differently. To them, Knight was “M.”

Rumours and reports over the years that followed revealed Maxwell Knight had, in fact, spent decades as the highest-ranking spymaster in MI5 with his own division, “M Section.” So legendary was he in the intelligence community that many believe he’s the chief inspiration behind James Bond’s po-faced superior.

Knight established a firm second career as a David Attenborough figure after the war, presenting hugely popular radio programmes about natural history for the BBC, and publishing dozens of books on the subject. Indeed, Attenborough, none the wiser to his colleague’s other life, was one of those to call for the foundation of a memorial fund to be set up in Knight’s name.