Ian Fleming, the man who created the famous British spy James Bond, led a secret life of his own. From first to last during World War II he gathered intelligence and hatched secret plots to bring down the evil Nazis.
Fleming was born on May 28, 1908 in London of a wealthy banking family. His father Valentine Fleming was a Scottish moneyman who had inherited a fortune from his own father Robert, the chairman of a firm that bore his name. Ian's mother was the stunning Evelyn St. Croix Rose, noted for her forthright and vociferous stands on many issues.
Ian had three brothers—Peter, Richard, and Michael. Peter and Ian were sent to a boarding school called Dumford in 1915, one year after their father was appointed a major in the British Army where he saw action in France during World War I. At Dumford, Ian began his lifelong interest in reading, especially action novels and stories of far-off places. Ian's young life was violently shaken when, on May 20, 1917, Valentine Fleming was killed in action in France (Winston Churchill wrote a tribute). Ian was only a week short of his ninth birthday when his father died, and he felt the loss badly. He now looked to his brother Peter as his new father figure.
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