John Rennie (MI6 officer)

Sir
John Rennie
KCMG
Born(1914-01-13)13 January 1914
Marylebone, England
Died30 September 1981(1981-09-30) (aged 67)
Lambeth, England
Alma materBalliol College, Oxford
OccupationIntelligence officer
SpouseJennifer Margaret Wainwright
ChildrenDavid Rennie, Charles Rennie
AwardsKCMG
Espionage activity
AllegianceUnited Kingdom
Service branchSecret Intelligence Service (SIS/MI6)
Service years1968–1973
RankChief of the Secret Intelligence Service

Sir John Ogilvy Rennie, KCMG (13 January 1914 – 30 September 1981)[1] was the 6th Director of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) from 1968 to 1973. He was once the head of the Information Research Department (IRD), a secret branch of the UK Foreign Office dedicated to pro-colonial and anti-communist propaganda during the Cold War.

Career

Educated at Wellington College and Balliol College, Oxford, Rennie joined an advertising agency in New York City in 1935.[2][3] During World War II he worked at an organisation in Baltimore combating German propaganda.[2]

In 1946 he joined the Foreign Office and was posted to Washington, D.C., and then to Warsaw.[2][3] In 1953 he was appointed Head of the Information Research Department, a controversial body established to disseminate information about the dangers of Soviet-style communism.[2] During the Suez Crisis he chaired a committee established to disseminate British propaganda in the Middle East.[3][2] He was posted to Buenos Aires in 1958 and Washington, D.C., in 1960.[2] He served on the Civil Service Commission in 1966;[2] in 1968 he was appointed Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service.[3][2]

On 15 January 1973, Rennie's son Charles Tatham Ogilvy Rennie, and his daughter-in-law were arrested for an alleged involvement in the importation of large quantities of heroin from Hong Kong.[2] Rennie resigned not long afterwards.[2]

He was made a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George in 1967.[2][3]

References

  1. ^ "Rennie, Sir John (Ogilvy), (13 Jan. 1914–30 Sept. 1981), Deputy Under-Secretary of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, 1967–74". Who's Who & Who Was Who. 2007. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u168478. ISBN 978-0-19-954089-1. Retrieved 5 August 2021.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k John Rennie at Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
  3. ^ a b c d e "Sir John Rennie obituary". The Times. No. 61045. 2 October 1981. p. 14.
Government offices
Preceded by Chief of the SIS
1968–1973 		Succeeded by