Roger Hollis
| Sir Roger Hollis | |
|---|---|
| Allegiance | United Kingdom 
|
| Service | MI5 |
| Active | 1938-1965 |
| Rank | Director-General of MI5 |
| Award(s) | KBE, CB |
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|
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| Born | 2 December 1905 Wells, Somerset |
| Died | 26 October 1973 (aged 67) Catcott, Somerset |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation | Intelligence officer |
| Alma mater | Worcester College, Oxford |
Sir Roger Henry Hollis, KBE, CB (2 December 1905 – 26 October 1973) was a British journalist, and an intelligence officer who served with MI5 from 1938 to 1965. He was Director General of MI5 from 1956-65.
Hollis' father, the Right Reverend George Hollis, was Bishop of Taunton. His mother was a daughter of a Canon of Wells Cathedral. Hollis was educated at Clifton College, Bristol. From 1924 to the spring of 1926, he attended Worcester College, Oxford, where he read English, but left without completing his degree.
From the spring of 1926 into 1927, he was a clerk for the Standard Chartered Bank in London.;
In early 1927, he went to Hong Kong and got a job as a freelance journalist, then moved to Shanghai. From 1 April 1928, he worked for British American Tobacco. In 1930, he transferred to Beijing.
While in China, he developed tuberculosis, and returned to England in 1936 for a brief spell with the Ardath Tobacco Company, an associate of BAT.
Hollis married Evelyn Swayne on 17 July 1937 at Wells Cathedral, with his father performing the ceremony. She was the daughter of a prosperous solicitor from Burnham-on-Sea in Somerset. The couple had one son, Adrian Swayne Hollis. Hollis divorced his first wife in 1968 and married his MI5 secretary, with whom he had carried on a long-standing affair.
In June 1938, he joined MI5 F Division (Countersubversion). Many departments of MI5, including F Division, moved from London to Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire, during World War II, due to threat of bombing.
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