Alastair Rellie
Energetic and imaginative director in MI6 who helped to remove the service’s ban on gay people
ALASTAIR RELLIE, who has died aged 83, was a director in the Secret Intelligence Service, or MI6. He played an important part in the early stages of the process leading to official acknowledgement of the Service and was instrumental in removing the ban on gay people.
From its formation in 1909 until it was “avowed” in Parliament by the Prime Minister, John Major, in 1992, the existence of SIS was not officially admitted. With the move towards more open government, however, this position became increasingly difficult to maintain.
There were also commitments under international human rights law to place intelligence and security services on a statutory footing. The result was the Intelligence Services Act of 1994, beginning: “There shall continue to be a Secret Intelligence Service …”
Rellie was Director of Counter Intelligence and Security, a post which, paradoxically, included preparations for greater openness. He approached this side of his portfolio with energy and imagination, initiating with the Chief of SIS, Sir Colin Mccoll, a programme of briefings for journalists.
These usually took place over lunch, during which Rellie sought to dispel myths about SIS, such as that its staff paid no taxes and were licensed to kill.
The ban on homosexuals was essentially a vetting issue. Since the institution of positive vetting after the Second World War for all civil servants with access to secret material, gay people could not be vetted because they were thought to be vulnerable to blackmail. Moreover, so far as the Foreign Office and SIS were concerned, there were concerns about posting staff to countries where homosexuality was illegal.
Rellie had headed SIS’S personnel department before becoming a director, as a result of which he became aware of the difficulties arising from a policy that seemed increasingly out of kilter with wider society. By the time he was promoted to director there was a Whitehall-wide movement towards a change in vetting rules, and he was determined to support it, so SIS adapted easily to the new system.
Alastair James Carl Euan Rellie was born in Buckinghamshire in 1935. His father William, a naval officer, died in 1943 and after the war his mother Lucy moved with Rellie and his three siblings to South Africa.
He was educated at Michaelhouse, the Anglican boarding school in Natal, spent a year working for Burroughs Wellcome in New York, then four years studying at Harvard, after which he returned to Britain for National Service in the Rifle Brigade.
He spent a year as a stockjobber in the City, but was bored and so applied for the Foreign Office, which led to his recruitment by SIS in 1963. This was the year of Kim Philby’s defection, which itself followed revelations of the treachery of George Blake, and he found a wounded and demoralised service. However, his cheerful optimism and desire for good intelligence chimed with the requirements of the time. And he showed early promise.
His first posting was to Geneva, after which he returned for a brief and not very happy stint in SIS’S training department, then in the throes of post-war modernisation. This was followed by a posting to Cairo, where under President Nasser’s rule Britain was deeply unpopular and embassy staff were under constant surveillance.
Next came Kinshasa, where Rellie found himself both co-operating and competing with the local CIA station. This proved to be useful preparation for his next posting, New York, where for five years he enjoyed a productive relationship with the FBI and a stimulating diplomatic role at the UN defending Britain against Third World criticism for the problems of former colonies, particularly Rhodesia.
In 1961 Rellie married Annalisa Modin, a drama student at the Guildhall who turned out to be his second cousin. Annalisa, a natural entertainer, played a full part in Rellie’s career. During their New York posting their participation in the local jazz scene, particularly at Eddie Condon’s club, was such that they were considered honorary members of the Musicians’ Union.
Back in London, Rellie was put in charge of SIS’S technical services, which involved everything from filing systems, to keeping abreast of burgeoning IT, to sophisticated bugging operations.
He threw himself into this with his customary vigour and was subsequently promoted to Controller Western Hemisphere, which meant he was responsible for the Americas, North and South. This was in the immediate aftermath of the Falklands War, and the intelligence structures he put in place to ensure that there could be no future unpleasant surprises were supported by Margaret Thatcher. He was also able to made good use of his connections with the FBI and the CIA.
After retiring from SIS in 1992 (having been appointed CMG in 1987), Rellie worked for British Aerospace as an international affairs adviser and later for the corporate investigators Kroll. Although a devout Anglican, he could never persuade Annalisa to forego her atheism, but their marriage was close. She died in 2014 and he is survived by two daughters and a son.
Alastair Rellie, born April 5 1935, died April 10 2018