Frank Clifton Bossard was a British Secret Intelligence Service officer who provided classified documents to the Soviet Union in the 1960s.
17 Facts About Frank Bossard
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2.
Frank Bossard's mother worked as a housekeeper and general store manager in Gedney, Lincolnshire until 1923, when she married a farmer and moved to the country.
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Frank Bossard dropped out of school when his stepfather could no longer afford it and became a store clerk.
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Frank Bossard served six months hard labour, a fact he suppressed throughout most of his career.
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Frank Bossard married his first wife, Ethel Isobel Brash, on 26 February 1941 at St Simon's Parish Church, Southsea.
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Frank Bossard joined the Royal Air Force in 1939, and fought in the Mediterranean and Middle East Theatre.
7.
Frank Bossard gained an officer's commission with a false CV.
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Frank Bossard taught briefly at the Air Service College before the Ministry of Aviation offered him a post as an assistant signals officer.
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Frank Bossard was eventually promoted to the position of staff telecommunications officer.
10.
In 1951, Frank Bossard accepted a position as senior officer with the Ministry's Scientific and Technical Intelligence Branch in Germany.
11.
In Bonn, Frank Bossard had the duty of interviewing scientists, engineers, and technicians, who had left the Soviet Union.
12.
In 1961, Frank Bossard returned to London to work at the Ministry of Aviation.
13.
Frank Bossard routinely took classified documents, mostly involving missile systems and radar systems, from his office, photographed them in his hotel room during his lunch break, using equipment he left in a briefcase in the left luggage office at London Waterloo station, and returned the documents the next day.
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When Frank Bossard went on spending binges, he caught the attention of MI5.
15.
Frank Bossard was charged with violating the Official Secrets Act and received a trial at the Old Bailey on 10 May 1965, where he confessed and was sentenced to 21 years in prison.
16.
At the time, Frank Bossard's sentence was the third longest resulting from a postwar spy trial.
17.
Frank Bossard Clifton died of natural causes in Hull on 19 June 2001.