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Ian Lancaster Fleming
was born in London in 1908, the second child of Valentine Fleming,
M.P. and his wife Evelyn St Croix (Rose). Born into
English gentry and all the privilege of the pre-War upper class
Englishman, Fleming lived under the shadows of his highly successful
grandfather, father and older brother for, though the family had
wealth and position, they were also extremely hard working. He was
expelled from Eton College for fighting over a girl, though he had
been Victor Ludorum (Athlete of the Year) for two years
running. He later went to
Sandhurst
Military Academy but soon dropped out. He was the sent to "The
Continent" to study languages and came home speaking quite
decent French and German. He sat the Foreign Office
exams with the hope of becoming a diplomat but failed that too. He
then joined Reuters as a journalist and travelled
throughout Europe as part
of his job. Some say that he was not turned down at the Foreign
Office but was sent undercover to collect intelligence as the clouds
of war gathered over Europe.
Just months before
World War II, he was recruited from the Reserves to serve as
personal assistant to the Director of Naval Intelligence, Rear
Admiral John Godfrey. Through the course of the War he rose to the
rank of Commander, code name not 007 but 17F.
He developed and
worked on many secret operations during WWII including Operation
Goldeneye a plan to maintain communications with Gibraltar,
should the Mediterranean fall to the Nazis. In 1940 he formed the
30AU or
30 Assault Unit, a Commando unit trained in lock-picking,
safe-cracking, unarmed combat, etc for the purpose of gathering
intelligence. Along with
Patrick Dalzel-Job, he planned all the groups raids which were
then carried out by Dalzel-Job and his team.
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Oracabessa located on a map of
Jamaica |
An old photograph of Goldeneye |
After the War Fleming returned to Jamaica, which he had previously visited,
and bought land in Oracabessa, St Mary in 1947. He designed and
built a house with no hot water, air-conditioning nor any creature
comforts. The house was on a hillside overlooking a tiny beach,
which he also bought later on. He called this little plot of land
and his little cottage Goldeneye. He settled into a routine
over the next 6 years, working as a journalist for the London
Times; still in the shadow of his family, as elder brother Peter was
a very successful journalist at the time; for most of the year but
spending winters at Goldeneye writing down ideas based on his
wartime experience.
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Both in London and St
Mary, he drank and smoked to excess, and partied and womanised like
there was no tomorrow. During this time he carried on an affair with
a married woman, Anne Rutherford. When Lady Rutherford became
pregnant with Fleming's child she divorced her husband and pressured
Ian to marry her. While at Goldeneye, waiting for Anne's divorce to
come through, he formulated a secret agent who would carry out
exploits roughly based on some of the missions he had planned during
wartime.
He wanted a name for
his protagonist which was very ordinary
and English. While visiting a neighbour in St Mary, he picked up a
book from their coffee table, The book was Guide to the Birds of
the West Indies by James Bond. The final detail in place,
he could complete his novel.
Near left the
1947 edition, which is likely the one Fleming saw, and far
right, the current edition. |
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In 1952 he married
Anne and son, Caspar, was born. In 1953 Goldeneye was
published. No one could have imagined the success of the book and by
1961, he sold film rights to all past and future James Bond
novels to Harry Saltzman, who along with
Albert Broccoli brought
James Bond to the big screen. Fleming only lived to see two of the movies, Dr No and
From Russia with Love. He also wrote a children's book for his son, Chitty
Chitty Bang Bang, yes you read right. But thinking about it,
only "Q" could have designed this wonderful vehicle.
Fleming no longer lived under
the shadow of more successful relatives and the world beat a path to
his unassuming little cottage in St Mary. By this time he had bought
the beach front and spent his days writing and snorkeling and his
evenings, well, doing what he had always done, overeating, drinking
too much, partying til dawn and womanising. Wonder where Bond got
those habits from?
But the decades of
excess finally caught up with him, in the late 1950s he developed a
heart problem. He was advised by his doctors to give up drinking,
smoking and rich foods and to take it easy. It's not hard to imagine
what he told the doctors! In 1964 he developed a cold which turned
to pleurisy. His mother died in England on 27th July and though very
ill, he insisted on going to her funeral. A short while after, still
in the U.K. and still in poor health, he travelled to
St Georges
to meet with the golf committee. On the 11th August he
suffered a heart attack and internal bleeding. On 12th
August, 1964 at 1:00am GMT
Ian Fleming died. He is buried in a small country churchyard in
Wiltshire, England. His wife Anne (d1981) and son Caspar (d1975) are
buried with him. By the time of his death he most assuredly was no
longer living under the shadow of his father, grandfather or older
brother.
In 1977 music
mogul and St Mary native,
Chris Blackwell bought Goldeneye, which
his mother, Blanche, had "kept an eye on" for Fleming while he was
in England. He renovated the house and beach and it is now
one of
Jamaica's top resorts.
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Sidebar:
I recall as a small child, the great excitement of a movie being
made in Kingston. A year or so later, it was screened here and as
much as I begged, my mother, who was a bookseller and well aware of Ian
Fleming's works, proclaimed an absolute ban on us attending. Then
at about 10 years old I met Sean Connery in
a churchyard in St Ann's Bay. No, he was not on a
movie set but, as incongruous as it sounds, he was
attending Mass!
As an adolescent
I snuck out to see On Her Majesty's Secret
Service but as times changed, I later watched all the Connery
movies on television. After the first few, the movies were no longer
made here but in locations all over the world. In 1985 a little bit of Jamaica
was brought back when the outrageous Jamaican born singer, Grace
Jones, played the most unconventional Bond Girl yet, May Day. |
100 years after Fleming was born and more than 50 years after
he published the first Bond novel, this year there's a new Bond book
out, Devil May Care (James Bond)
by Sebastian Faulks writing as Ian Fleming. There's also a new Bond Movie
freshly released, Quantum of Solace [Theatrical Release] .
It seems that the world will never tire of Fleming's creation, James
Bond, born in Jamaica.
Visit
Goldeneye
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Do you remember the first Bond car?
A Sunbeam Alpine borrowed from a Jamaican
during the shooting of Dr No |
Of course we remember the
Aston Martin DB5,
loaded with Q's gadgetry, which lasted five movies. |
Ian Fleming
was a car enthusiast and even covered the
LeMans Grand
Prix in his time as a journalist.
But what car was parked in front of Goldeneye? A simple
and ordinary Hillman Minx. |
| Books:
NB The Man with the Golden
Gun was published posthumously and Octopussy & the
Living Daylights was compiled and published
posthumously.
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Movies:
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Other Famous Jamaicans:
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