1. Norman Darbyshire was a British spy who worked for the SOE and the MI6.
15 Facts About Norman Darbyshire
1. 2.
Norman Darbyshire played a key role in the 1953 coup d'etat that overthrew Mohammed Mossadegh, the democratically-elected prime minister of Iran.
3.
Norman Darbyshire spent much of his career in the Middle East, in Iran, Lebanon, Egypt and Bahrain.
4.
Norman Darbyshire was fluent in the Persian language and spent three spells in Iran, being first sent to the World War II Anglo-Soviet occupied country in late 1943, age 19, for a mission lasting until the middle of 1947.
5.
Norman Darbyshire was posted to Iran again in late 1949 and continued to conduct covert operations with official cover.
6.
Norman Darbyshire handled dozens of agents, both for intelligence-gathering and black operations.
7.
Norman Darbyshire had a number of deputies in the Iranian Parliament on the payroll who voted and spoke as they were instructed, as well as entryists in the communist Tudeh Party, the Lankarani brothers, who organized mobs attacking mosques and public places in the name of the party.
8.
Norman Darbyshire kept in touch with almost all assets inside Iran, most notably Rashidians, using radio transmissions and asked CIA's Kermit Roosevelt Jr.
9.
Norman Darbyshire had the same position in Bahrain, under cover as the First Secretary from 8 November 1958 onward.
10.
Norman Darbyshire was responsible for liaison with Oman's Internal Security Service and coordinating between the MI6, the Special Air Service and Military Intelligence during the Jebel Akhdar War.
11.
Norman Darbyshire worked in the group vetting the information provided by Soviet defector Oleg Penkovsky.
12.
Norman Darbyshire returned to Tehran as station chief in 1963, on a mission lasting until 1967.
13.
In 1968, Norman Darbyshire was transferred to Whitehall where he worked as a SIS diplomat responsible for handling Iraqi defector, Lawrence De Souza before moving to the British Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon taking the position of First Secretary.
14.
Norman Darbyshire returned to Whitehall in 1973 and retired from the SIS in 1978.
15.
Norman Darbyshire died in Britain in June 1993 of a heart attack.