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    Sex, ska and Malcolm X: MI6’s covert 1960s mission to woo


    West Indians
    Intelligence service secretly funded Flamingo magazine to fight
    communist threat
    Close
    Jamie Doward
    California
    Sat 26 Jan 2019 residents
    08.00 EST have certain rights with regard to the sale of personal information to third
    parties. Guardian News and Media and our partners use information collected through
    cookies or in other forms to improve experience on our site and pages, analyze how it is used
    and show personalized advertising.
    807
    Even byAt
    the demanding
    any standards
    point, you can of the
    opt out of the sale 1960s, Flamingo
    of all of your was
    personal considered
    information a groundbreaking
    by pressing
    magazine. Mixing glamour, sex advice, culture and international politics, it was one of the
    Do not sell my personal information
    first magazines to target Britain’s African-Caribbean community.
    You can find out more in our privacy policy and cookie policy, and manage your choices by
    going to ‘California resident – Do Not Sell’ at the bottom of any page.
    It ran from September 1961 until May 1965 and at its peak sold up to 20,000 copies in the UK
    and 15,000 in the US. It was also distributed in the Caribbean and West Africa, and published
    dedicated editions in Nigeria, Ghana and Liberia. It carried interviews with Malcolm X and
    advertisements for Island Records, which brought Jamaican ska music to Britain.

    But now it has emerged that Flamingo blazed a trail for another extraordinary reason: its
    founder, Peter Hornsby, was an agent for the intelligence service, MI6, which used the
    magazine to push an anti-communist agenda among black and West Indian communities.

    The revelation came to light after Hornsby’s wife, Jennifer, contacted Stephen Dorril, an
    author and senior lecturer in the journalism department at Huddersfield University, and told
    him of her husband’s exploits.

    “After the Notting Hill riots [in 1958] it was thought by my husband and MI6 that something
    had to be done with regard to helping the West Indian community,” she told Dorril, an expert
    on the intelligence services who later received a copy of her private memoirs from her son,
    which contained fascinating details of Hornsby’s life as a spy. Peter died in 2000, Jennifer in
    2014.
    Police search a youth in Talbot Road, Notting Hill during race riots of 1958, which prompted the birth of Flamingo. Photograph: Getty
    Images

    “There were people inside MI6 who saw which way Africa was going in terms of politics and
    nationalism, and were willing to support black students, writers and aspiring politicians who
    were on the left but who could be persuaded to oppose communism,” Dorril told the
    Observer.
    “They had links to centre-left politicians and student leaders in this country who were anti-
    racist and opposed to the white regimes in Africa. Through subtle propaganda activities such
    as Flamingo, support could be given to such social democrat initiatives while at the same time
    providing a pool of potential recruitment both here and in Africa and the Caribbean, where
    the CIA – MI6’s main rival – was a recent interloper.”

    Hornsby, whose early MI6 handler was George Blake, the Soviet agent, had been groomed by
    the intelligence services after being elected national treasurer of the National Union of
    Students in 1955.

    The following year he took up a post with the Coordinating Secretariat of the National Unions
    of Students (Cosec), an international anti-communist organisation based in the Dutch city of
    Leiden, which was also funded by MI6.

    In the mid-1960s, the Soviets leaked an internal MI6 document – which Dorril believes was
    “almost certainly purloined by Blake” – acknowledging that it was “of paramount importance
    to maintain as far as possible the illusion of Cosec’s complete independence”. The document
    continued: “It seems to us that, if once we attempted to sharpen Cosec as a cold war
    instrument, we might find it had ceased to have any point at all. Certainly it would be
    difficult to retain the alliance of member organisations in the uncommitted countries of Asia
    and Africa, if they suspect that Cosec was being ‘run’ by the Americans and ourselves.”
    George Blake, the Soviet agent, who was Flamingo founder, Peter Hornsby’s early MI6 handler. Photograph: Hulton Deutsch

    But Cosec was only one avenue that MI6 was keen to explore with Hornsby. In 1960 another
    one of his handlers, Margaret Bray, who had once been Kim Philby’s secretary, discussed with
    Hornsby the idea of setting up a magazine aimed at Afro-Caribbean readers. In addition to
    pushing an anti-communist agenda, it was a means of monitoring national movements and
    providing access to potential recruits who could be turned into assets.
    “In Peter’s mind, a magazine focusing on immigrants would make them feel welcome and
    ease their integration into British society,” writes Jennifer Hornsby.

    A company, Chalton Publishing, was set up to produce the magazine and Edward Scobie, a
    Dominican who had published Tropic, the first major black journal in Britain, was recruited as
    editor. Chalton also published Feline, a soft porn magazine aimed at the black community.

    David Yellop, Flamingo’s art and production manager, told Dorril that Scobie’s attitude to
    journalism was very “relaxed” and that “attractive young West Indian party girls” were often
    to be found hanging around the monthly magazine’s office.

    Dorril said Flamingo was part of a wider programme by the intelligence services to reach out
    to the black community and dissidents. “In London in the early 60s, community centres were
    funded through CIA-approved foundations. They served as a contact point for musicians,
    authors and other refugees from places such as South Africa. While there is no evidence that
    they knew of the intelligence background, it is fairly obvious that such activity would be of
    great interest to MI6 and the CIA.”

    Shortly before he died in 2001, former senior MI6 officer Montague Woodhouse confirmed to
    Dorril that the service had run a number of joint operations with the CIA, including
    sponsorship of the literary magazine Encounter, founded by American political essayist Irving
    Kristol and English poet Stephen Spender.

    Encounter’s links to both US and British intelligence were exposed in 1967 and led to
    Spender’s resignation. By that stage Flamingo had closed, ostensibly because it had become
    financially unviable but possibly because suspicions about its covert funding were starting to
    emerge.

    When Flamingo closed, Hornsby’s work as an agent with MI6 also seems to have ceased. He
    started an antiques business with his wife and became an acknowledged expert on English
    pewter.

    There were changes in the magazine in 1964 when its political articles dealing with Africa and
    the Caribbean became more serious and often had no byline. They are similar in content and
    style to the material given to media outlets by the Foreign Office’s semi-secret propaganda
    unit, the Information Research Department.

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    Topics
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    MI6 / Ska / news

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