Peter Smithers

Sir Peter Henry Berry Otway Smithers VRD (9 December 1913 – 8 June 2006) was a United Kingdom Conservative Party politician.

[1] Smithers became an officer in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve in 1937 and by 1958 he retired as a lieutenant commander.

[2] During the Second World War he was associated with intelligence work, being a friend and colleague of Ian Fleming, who arranged for Smithers' diplomatic career.

[2] Smithers' Financial Times obituary suggests he was the model for Fleming's most famous character, Commander James Bond.

He received a number of diplomatic postings, being Assistant Naval Attaché at Washington, D.C., and Acting Naval Attaché at Mexico City (also covering part of Central America).