R. D. Smith

Reginald Donald "Reggie" Smith (31 July 1914 – 3 May 1985) was a teacher and lecturer, BBC radio producer, possible communist spy and model for the character of Guy Pringle in the novel sequence Fortunes of War written by his wife, Olivia Manning.

Smith was born and brought up in the working-class neighbourhood of Aston Manor, Birmingham, the son of a toolmaker, William Smith and his wife Annie Griffiths, who supplemented the family income by charring. Reggie, as he was generally known, attended King Edward VI Grammar School, Aston; the family were frequently short of money since his father was often ill; in order to save expense, Smith never told his parents that he needed glasses for his very short sight. Having read David Copperfield at the age of 12 he determined that he wanted to become "a teacher to share the wonder of such books with others." Smith went on to Birmingham University, from which he graduated in 1937 with a BA degree with honours in English literature. Smith had a great love of poetry and a phenomenal memory for poems, prose and plays. While at university he founded the Birmingham Socialist Society and met poet Louis MacNeice, at the time an assistant lecturer in classics. He became a lifelong friend.

According to MI5 files, Smith was recruited as a Soviet spy by the art historian Anthony Blunt during a visit to Cambridge in 1938. He commented later, "I think I presented Anthony Blunt with a conundrum: was I rough trade or was I a gent slumming? I think that it went though his mind that I might make good spy material." Smith was unusual material for a spy; ebullient and friendly, he made no secret of his communist beliefs, and friends reported him unable to keep secrets. His flamboyant character and lifestyle was to cause some concern among other spies, who according to MI5 critiqued his behaviour as not showing "the stability or competence that should distinguish a party member".

...
Wikipedia