Quick Facts
Biography
Sir Dick Goldsmith White, KCMG, KBE (20 December 1906 – 21 February 1993) was a British intelligence officer. He was Director-General (DG) of MI5 from 1953 to 1956, and Head of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) from 1956 to 1968.
Career
White was born in Tonbridge, Kent and went to school at Bishop's Stortford College. He was athletic in his youth. He was described by Peter Wright as resembling David Niven: "the same perfect English manners, easy charm, and immaculate dress sense." He was, said Wright, "tall with lean, healthy features and a sharp eye". Only recently transferred from MI5, White had suspected Kim Philby of being the "third man".
Much as Wright liked White, he felt his move to MI6 was a mistake for both MI5 and MI6: "Just as his work [at MI5] was beginning, he was moved on a politician's whim to an organization he knew little about, and which was profoundly hostile to his arrival. He was never to be as successful there as he had been in MI5." He was appointed Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service in 1956 in the wake of the "Crabb Affair", the exposure of which had damaged Soviet-British relations and embarrassed MI6.
He died after a long illness at his home, "The Leat" in Burpham, near Arundel in Sussex, on 21 February 1993; his wife, Kate, survived him.