M. E. Clifton James

Meyrick Edward Clifton James (April 1898 – 8 May 1963) was an actor and soldier, with a resemblance to Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery. This was used by British intelligence as part of a deception campaign during the Second World War.

Clifton James was born in Perth, Western Australia, the youngest son of notable Australian public servant John Charles Horsey James and his wife Rebecca Catherine Clifton.

After serving in the Royal Fusiliers during the First World War, and seeing action at the Battle of the Somme, he took up acting, "starting at 15 shillings weekly with Fred Karno, who put Chaplin on the road to fame." At the outbreak of the Second World War he volunteered his services to the British Army as an entertainer. Instead of being assigned to ENSA as he had hoped, on 11 July 1940 James was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Royal Army Pay Corps and eventually posted to Leicester. Here, his acting seemed to be limited to his membership of the Pay Corps Drama and Variety Group. In 1944 his resemblance to Montgomery was spotted, and he was employed to pretend to be the general as part of a campaign designed to deceive the Germans in the lead-up to D-Day.

About seven weeks before D-Day in 1944, Lieutenant-Colonel J V B Jervis-Reid noticed James's resemblance to Montgomery while he was reviewing photographs in a newspaper. James, it seemed, had 'rescued' a failing patriotic show by appearing in it, quite briefly, as 'Monty'. MI5 decided to exploit the resemblance to confuse German intelligence. James was contacted by Lieutenant-Colonel David Niven, who worked for the Army's film unit, and was asked to come to London on the pretext of making a film.

When Niven explained that it was about something different, James supposedly burst into tears because he thought he had been exposed as a bigamist, who was receiving a double marriage allowance. Like many of Niven's anecdotes, this one is viewed with scepticism.

The ruse was part of a wider deception which aimed to divert troops from Northern France, by convincing the Germans that an Allied invasion of Southern France (Operation Dragoon) would precede a northern invasion.

The plan was code-named Operation Copperhead and James was assigned to Montgomery's staff to learn his speech and mannerisms. Despite the problems that he had with alcohol (Montgomery was teetotal), and the differences in personality, the project continued. He also had to give up smoking. Clifton James had lost his right-hand middle finger in the First World War and so a prosthetic finger was made.

On 25 May 1944, James flew from RAF Northolt to Gibraltar on-board Churchill's private aircraft. During a reception at the Governor-General's house, hints were made about "Plan 303", a plan to invade Southern France. German intelligence picked this up and ordered agents to find out what they could about "Plan 303". James then flew to Algiers where over the next few days he made a round of public appearances with General Maitland Wilson, the Allied commander in the Mediterranean theatre. He was then secretly flown to Cairo where he stayed until the invasion in Normandy was well under way. He then returned to his job after an absence of five weeks.

Various reasons were put forward for the speedy conclusion of the operation (including the suggestion that James was seen in Gibraltar smoking and drunk), though the most likely explanation is the one put forward by Dennis Wheatley (who was part of the British deception efforts during the war) in The Deception Planners published in the 1980s. In it, he states that the operation was wound up successfully, its purpose accomplished. The effectiveness of the deception is hard to assess. According to captured enemy generals, German intelligence believed that it was Montgomery, though they still guessed that it was a feint.

After being demobilised in June 1946, he was unable to find theatrical employment and was obliged to apply for unemployment benefits to support his wife and two children in London.

In 1954, James published his exploits in a book entitled I Was Monty's Double (released in the US as The Counterfeit General Montgomery). The book became the basis for the script of the 1958 film starring John Mills and Cecil Parker with James playing himself and Montgomery. The script was 'tweaked' for effect; 'Operation Copperhead' became 'Operation Hambone', and additional elements of comedy, danger and intrigue were added. James also appeared in a short cameo (and non-speaking) appearance as Field Marshal Montgomery in the 1957 film High Flight, starring Ray Milland.

On 20 January 1959, James appeared on an episode of the TV series To Tell the Truth.

Since 2010, the name 'Monty's Double' has been adopted by the actor Colin Brooks-Williams as the identity for his popular Field-Marshal Montgomery lookalike and impersonation act, with which he tours 1940s-themed events nationwide, as a tribute to the Field-Marshal himself and to M. E. Clifton James as the original war-time 'Monty's Double'. Colin has registered the name 'Monty's Double' as his professional stage name with the actor's union 'Equity' and carries the name on his Equity membership card.

James died on 8 May 1963 at his home on Thorn Road in Worthing, Sussex, aged 65.