Dick Franks

Educated at Rugby School and Queen's College, Oxford, Franks was commissioned into the Royal Corps of Signals in 1940.[1] He became an Intelligence officer in the Western Desert and then joined the Special Operations Executive.[1]

After the War he briefly worked for the Daily Mirror before joining the Secret Intelligence Service in 1946.[1] He became involved in Operation Boot, a plan to overthrow Mohammad Mosaddegh, the nationalistic Iranian Prime Minister in 1953.[1] He was posted to Bonn in 1962 and was promoted to Deputy Chief in 1977.[1] He was appointed Chief of the Service in 1978,[1] in place of Brian Stewart, the Director of Support Services.[2]

As Chief, Franks was forced to contend with budget cuts, which he accepted for fear that SIS would otherwise be merged with the Security Service.[3] One of the consequences of these cuts was the virtual closure of the MI6 station in Tehran – and the sole remaining officer was forbidden from operating out of the British Embassy by Ambassador Anthony Parsons – forcing him to instead rent a flat and depend on briefs delivered by SAVAK.[3]

He lived at Aldeburgh in Suffolk.[4] Franks was a member of the Travellers Club and still made regular visits into the last years of his life, often reminiscing with old colleagues from the intelligence world.[3]

• Daily Telegraph obituary
• Financial Times obituary