The 秘かに調査する who （機の）カム from the circus: He was a favourite of George VI, a chum of Churchill - and one of Britain's 主要な big 最高の，を越す owners. But what no one 嫌疑者，容疑者／疑うd was that Cyril Mills was also an ありそうもない secret スパイ／執行官 who flew 決定的な 使節団s over Nazi Germany

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Lady Seligman, 年輩の and a snob 納得させるd of her own social 優越, was 乱暴／暴力を加えるd. Born in a grand Victorian mansion in the gated, tree-lined Kensington Palace Gardens, London’s poshest and most expensive street, she was appalled when in 1960 Cyril Mills, whom she disdainfully 解任するd as ‘a circus owner’, took up 住居 at No 17, the house once owned by her fabulously 豊富な merchant 銀行業者 father.

‘Mr Mills,’ she complained 激しく, her 直面する almost certainly twitching with disgust, ‘is not the sort of man to 高く評価する／（相場などが）上がる a 罰金 house like that. It is 悲劇の to see it 落ちる into the wrong 手渡すs.’

Her Ladyship was 権利 that Mills was a circus owner, having 相続するd what was Britain’s biggest and best-known circus from his father, Bertram Mills. But on everything else about him she was spectacularly wrong.

Cyril was no oik. Not only was he Harrow and Cambridge-educated, but he had friends in much higher places than she did. He was a favourite of the 王室の family (特に King George VI and his son-in-法律, Prince Philip) and a buddy of Winston Churchill, who loved circuses and, best of all, troupes of dancing elephants.

What Lady Seligman was also unaware of ― along with the 残り／休憩（する） of the world ― was that Mills was a 愛国者 and a 秘かに調査する who had 危険d his life 暴露するing secrets about Hitler’s Germany in the 1930s and now, with the 冷淡な War hotting up, was 成し遂げるing 類似の 内密の work against the Soviet Union.

Cyril Mills (pictured) was no oik. Not only was he Harrow and Cambridge-educated, but he had friends in 極端に high places

Mills took 住居 in 17 Kensington Gardens (pictured), which sat next to several 大使館s?

Winston Churchill (pictured, 権利) was a の近くに friend of Mills

Mills owned and operated one of the UK's biggest circuses?

MI5 had asked him to take on the 賃貸し（する） of No 17, after the 革新 of its 34 rooms, which were 不正に rundown after years of neglect, and 許す 盗聴 器具／備品 to be 任命する／導入するd in the attics to listen in to whatever was going on in the Soviet 大使館 on the other 味方する of the road.

There was also a 計画（する） to dig a tunnel under the lawn to run 迎撃する cables to other Soviet 所有物／資産／財産s in this 排除的 neighbourhood.

When a 新聞記者／雑誌記者 quizzed him about moving into a house with ロシアのs as 隣人s, Mills kept the same straight 直面する he had perfected in his three １０年間s as an undercover スパイ／執行官 for British 知能. He’d moved there, he explained, 簡単に because he needed a house with a garden for his large family.

‘秘かに調査するs on either 味方する of me!’ he said. ‘Goodness gracious!’

And that was that.

Mills kept much of his secret life to himself until the day he died in 1991, barely alluding to it even when he was 祝日，祝うd on the This Is Your Life television show. But it has now been 明らかにする／漏らすd in 十分な in an intriguing new 調書をとる／予約する, The 秘かに調査する Who （機の）カム In From The Circus, by the 知能 Service historian, Professor Christopher Andrew.

He hints that when John le Carre, a one-time MI5 and MI6 スパイ／執行官, coined the word ‘circus’ for the 知能 services in his Smiley 秘かに調査する novels, he may have been making a secret nod to Mills.

And it would have been appropriate, because the circus was a perfect cover for his 内密の activities. Managing clowns, high-wire walkers and lion tamers also 要求するd some of the same uncommon 技術s as 新採用するing and running spooks and 二塁打-スパイ／執行官s.

Florence Stephenson 成し遂げるing at Bertram Mills Circus, 1948

MI5 had asked him to take on the 賃貸し（する） of No 17, after the 革新 of its 34 rooms, which were 不正に rundown after years of neglect, and 許す 盗聴 器具／備品 to be 任命する／導入するd in the attics

His 秘かに調査するing began in the 中央の-1930s when he was 徹底的に捜すing Europe for performers to 雇う: the likes of Coco the Clown (a ロシアの by the 指名する of Nikolai Poliakoff) and Koringa, ‘the only 女性（の） fakir in the world able to mesmerise crocodiles and 生き残る burial in a snake-infested 炭坑，オーケストラ席’ (in reality a ダンサー from Bordeaux 指名するd Ren?e Bernard).

A 開拓する aviator, he 操縦するd his own 選び出す／独身-seater de Havilland biplane, checking out the circuses in Munich, Hamburg and Dresden and also the 離着陸場s and 爆弾-proof 避難所s where the newly 任命する／導入するd Fuhrer, Adolf Hitler, was 静かに building up his 空気／公表する 軍隊, in 反抗 of the 条約 of Versailles that ended World War I.

支援する in London, he let slip what he had seen to an MI6 officer at the RAF Club in Piccadilly, and on a 地図／計画する of Germany identified 30 aerodromes either new or under construction.

‘I 許すd myself to become a 秘かに調査する,’ he later 記録，記録的な／記録するd, ‘albeit an 未払いの one. I felt it my 義務. From what I had seen I was 納得させるd there would be war before long.’

He continued with his 監視 flights to Germany, on one occasion 飛行機で行くing into a 禁じるd zone and 飛び込み low to 観察する a Messerschmitt factory 近づく Regensburg, knowing 十分な 井戸／弁護士席 that he 危険d 存在 発射 負かす／撃墜する, 逮捕（する）d and guillotined as a 秘かに調査する.

Between 1936 and 1938 he flew 23 trips across Nazi Germany and produced 30 地図／計画するs that showed the growing strength of the Luftwaffe. In the 公式文書，認めるs he brought 支援する, he disguised German 離着陸場s and factories as circus layouts, just in 事例／患者 he was caught and needed to 嘆願d his innocence.

Between 1936 and 1938 he flew 23 trips across Nazi Germany and produced 30 地図／計画するs that showed the growing strength of the Luftwaffe

Sadly, the 警告s Mills 収集するd about Germany’s secret rearmament were ignored by a 政府 意図 on not 直面するing Hitler. Only the out-of-favour Winston Churchill listened and took 公式文書，認める, probably using Mills’s 報告（する）／憶測s to challenge the Chamberlain 政府’s 政策 of appeasement.

Not until Hitler 別館d the Sudetenland area of Czechoslovakia did the appeasers wake up to the fact that Mills (and Churchill) had been 権利 and they had been comprehensively duped.

With the 突発／発生 of war in 1939, Mills’s active 秘かに調査するing career abroad ended. There would be no more flights over Germany for him ― not even in a 爆撃機 after the RAF turned him 負かす／撃墜する as too old at 38 to be a 操縦する.

His friends at MI5, though, were eager to 新採用する him for 反対する-スパイ, and it was の中で their 階級s that he played a 主要な 役割 in what Professor Andrew 述べるs as ‘the best-kept secret of the war ― the 二塁打 Cross System, the most successful 戦略の deception in the history of modern 戦争’.

Deception and illusion were in Mills’s 血, the very essence of circus life, and he now used the mindset he’d developed under his father’s tutelage to help 工夫する a 網状組織 of 二塁打 スパイ／執行官s, German 秘かに調査するs who could be turned and put to work to 誤って導く the enemy with 誤った 知能.

This was an intricate game of smoke and mirrors, of bluff and 反対する-bluff, of 疑惑 and 不確定, in which no one could be 信用d and where one wrong move could bring the whole スパイ edifice 衝突，墜落ing 負かす／撃墜する. Mills needed to be 堅い, 脅すing any スパイ／執行官s who considered betraying him with 天罰 and sending at least one to the gallows.

The two Princesses Elizabeth, (now Queen Elizabeth II), and Margaret at the circus. They are at Bertram Mills Circus watching 成し遂げるing horses

John le Carre (pictured) is said to have 指名するd his 秘かに調査する （犯罪の）一味 in his Smiley 秘かに調査する novels in 言及／関連 to Mill

In the event of Britain 存在 侵略するd, it was his 指定するd 仕事 to shoot any 二塁打 スパイ／執行官 if there was a 危険 of them 落ちるing into German 手渡すs and identifying their MI5 masters to the Gestapo.

Professor Andrew 令状s: ‘Mills thus became, on the direct 指示／教授／教育s of MI5’s Director General, the first of the service’s staff to be given what James 社債 novels and films later called a licence to kill’ ― though he never needed to use it.

His greatest 出資／貢献 to the war 成果／努力, though, was not as 007 but as ‘Mr Grey’, the 事例／患者 officer who 新採用するd Juan Pujol Garcia, a Spanish 国民 who 申し込む／申し出d to 秘かに調査する for the Abwehr, Germany’s 軍の 知能 organisation, while 内密に taking orders from the British.

Mills gave him the codename ‘Garbo’ ― in honour of Greta Garbo, the 星／主役にする he idolised for her 業績／成果 as the stripper/秘かに調査する Mata Hari in the 1931 film.

最初 under Mills’s controlling 手渡す, Garbo 長，率いるd up a 全く 偽の 網状組織 of 27 fictional German スパイ／執行官s mostly based in Britain and sending phoney 報告（する）／憶測s 支援する to the Abwehr.

Over the last three years of the war, he and his 事例／患者 officers composed more than 300 知能 要点説明s, each of about 2,000 words, and 地位，任命するd them to a cover 演説（する）／住所 in Lisbon.

Gary Oldman played George Smiley, the 長，率いる of the circus in Tinker Tailor Solider 秘かに調査する?

の中で their successes was steering the Germans away from realising that the 同盟（する）s were about to 侵略する North Africa in 1942, 許すing 軍隊／機動隊s to land in Morocco and Algeria with 極小の 抵抗.

操作／手術 たいまつ, as it was known, was the long-を待つd 開始 of a second 前線 against Nazi Germany and would 証明する in time to be the beginning of the end for Hitler’s 政権. Mills’s part in this remained secret for １０年間s but was 決定的な. With the 敗北・負かす of Nazi Germany and the 再開するing of Europe, Mills 再開するd his circus activities and once again went looking for 行為／法令／行動するs to bring to Britain.

That 追跡（する） took him to Prague and Budapest, and behind the アイロンをかける Curtain he 設立する a new enemy for him to 秘かに調査する on, one that British 知能 was only just beginning to get to 支配するs with.

‘He was able,’ 令状s Andrew, ‘to 供給する first-手渡す insights into the 役割 of Soviet 知能 in one-party 共産主義者 明言する／公表するs.’

But unlike in Nazi Germany, his presence here did not go undetected. He 解任するd 存在 followed in Prague by three men ‘who went everywhere I went with the infallibility of 影をつくる／尾行するs.

‘At a caf?, I saw them sitting two （米）棚上げする／（英）提議するs away, so told the waiter to take them some beer. When it was served they all raised their glasses to me but, even if it had relieved the 緊張, they did not seem 乱すd that I knew about them. At the circus they took seats at three 戦略の points in 事例／患者 I tried to give them the slip.’

He loathed 共産主義 and its 制限s on human freedoms and was appalled, when he went to see Moscow 明言する／公表する Circus 成し遂げる in Brussels, that 国家保安委員会 minders were policing every one of the artistes for 恐れる they would defect.

When he tried to go backstage for a 雑談（する）, his way was 閉めだした by a 歩哨 and he could only look on as the troupe was marched into a waiting bus and driven away. For a １０年間, he made it his personal 使節団 to 妨げる the Moscow circus 存在 許すd into Britain.

In 1959, he went to East Berlin, supposed ly on circus 商売／仕事 to check out a daring wild animal 行為／法令／行動する but probably at the suggestion of his 知能 Service bosses.

He met the commissar of a 明言する／公表する circus who was 内密に planning to escape to the west and some months later did so, 逃げるing with his troupe of circus animals, elephants の中で them, across the 国境 into West Germany. He also arranged for another artiste, a high-wire walker, to escape to London.

His cat-and-mouse games with the ロシアのs 最高潮に達するd in those secret shenanigans in 17 Kensington Palace Gardens ― a tit-for-tat 操作／手術, 誘発するd by the 発見 of 国家保安委員会 listening 装置s in the British 大使館 in Moscow.

(This was not unusual. An electronic sweep of the U.S. 大使館 in Moscow 暴露するd 120 hidden microphones, one of them 隠すd in a 木造の replica of the 広大な／多数の／重要な 調印（する） of the 部隊d 明言する／公表するs 現在のd by Soviet schoolchildren which hung above the 外交官／大使’s desk.)

John Cairncross, one of the Cambridge 秘かに調査するs

High-最高位の member of British 知能 and 二塁打 スパイ／執行官 Kim Philby (1912 - 1988)

A portrait of Donald McLean, who was 影響（力）d by 共産主義 at Cambridge University

同様に as eavesdropping, from a room in the house MI5 also photographed, with a long-範囲 camera, everyone entering and leaving the Soviet 大使館. たびたび（訪れる） 訪問者s 含むd the 労働 MP Julius Silverman and the 上級の British 共産主義者 Party 公式の／役人, Betty Reid, who was indulged there with cream teas and cake.

The ロシアのs were 井戸／弁護士席 aware they were under 監視. In a 私的な 公式文書，認める to his boss, Mills wrote: ‘When 選挙立会人s were 任命する／導入するd on the 最高の，を越す 床に打ち倒す they sat by an open window, and on more than one occasion we saw ロシアのs look up at the window and give the two finger Harvey Smith [V-調印する] salute.’

Mills’s children, though kept in the dark about what was going on, remember going 一連の会議、交渉／完成する the outside of the house and identifying the windows of rooms ― the 観察 地位，任命するs ― to which they were not 許すd 接近.

When their father 設立する out he gave them a 厳しい talking to and 警告するd them, untruthfully, that they, like him, were 支配する to the 公式の／役人 Secrets 行為／法令／行動する and should never talk about what went on at home.

But high-ups in the 知能 services, such as Sir Roger Hollis, 長，率いる of MI5, and Sir 刑事 White, 長，率いる of MI6, were such たびたび（訪れる） 訪問者s to No 17 that the children called them ‘Uncle Roger’ and ‘Uncle 刑事’ and were brought 負かす／撃墜する from the nursery to say goodnight to them.

All along, though, the 国家保安委員会 was fully aware of Mills’s 関与. He was の中で the MI5 スパイ／執行官s 指名するd to his masters in Moscow by the 反逆者 Anthony Blunt. Mills （機の）カム across all the MI5 and MI6 turncoats ― Burgess, Maclean, Philby, Cairncross, Blunt, Blake ― 内密に working for Moscow, but was never tempted 負かす／撃墜する that 大勝する, so much did he hate 共産主義.

Art historian to the Queen, and 秘かに調査する Anthony Blunt, at a 圧力（をかける） 会議／協議会, soon after he had been 暴露するd as the Fourth Man

Guy Burgess, who died in Moscow in 1963

What did Mills 達成する in his （選挙などの）運動をする against the Soviets? On the surface, very little, Professor Andrew 収容する／認めるs. No major Soviet secrets were discovered by the 盗聴 操作／手術s at 17 Kensington Palace Gardens.

On the other 手渡す, a good 取引，協定 of （警察などへの）密告，告訴（状） was gathered on the behaviour and いつかs extravagant lifestyle of Soviet 外交官s and 知能 officers in London. They liked to lunch in the best restaurants ― the Savoy 取調べ／厳しく尋問する and Mirabelle were favourites.

The main importance of the eavesdropping and 監視 操作／手術s was that they 供給するd proof of the 大規模な growth in Soviet 知能 職員／兵員. This led in 1971 to the 集まり 追放 of 90 officers 駅／配置するd in Britain under of?cial cover. Another 15 on leave in the Soviet Union were banned from returning, making a grand total of 105 追放s.

This 操作／手術 was a turning point in 国家保安委員会 操作／手術s in Britain. It also 示すd the high point of Mills’s 15 years in Kensington Palace Gardens.

The Mills family left No 17 in 1975, bringing an end to Mills’s 40-year career in British 知能. He died in 1991, 老年の 89. It would have pleased him that just a few months later, the Soviet Union, his pet hate, 崩壊するd.

As for the Kensington mansion, in 2009 it was 購入（する）d by the 億万長者 ロシアの oligarch, Roman Abramovich, former owner of Chelsea Football Club and once a の近くに associate of Vladimir Putin. It is now on the market again.

The 秘かに調査する Who （機の）カム In From The Circus by Christopher Andrew is published by Biteback at £25. ?Christopher Andrew 2024. To order a copy for £22.50 (申し込む／申し出 valid to 18/05/24; UK P&P 解放する／自由な on orders over £25) go to mailshop.co.uk/調書をとる／予約するs or call 020 3176 2937.