The dangerous liaisons that led to a teenage showgirl’s infamy
Chris Moncrieff recalls the late Christine Keeler, whose involvement in the Profumo affair led to the downfall of the Tory government in 1964
CHRISTINE KEELER was the girl at the heart of the notorious Profumo affair in 1963 which rocked the Establishment, convulsed Westminster and ultimately contributed to the downfall of the beleaguered Tory government the following year.
She was the central and seductive figure in a searing story of sex, intrigue and espionage which led to the shaming of John Profumo, who was forced to quit his job as War Secretary, and to leave Parliament altogether.
It was a scandal both seedy and sinister, uncovering a hitherto secret world of sex, horse-play, drinking orgies and spying, in high places, in which Ms Keeler shared her favours with Mr Profumo, and Commander Eugene Ivanov, a Russian intelligence officer and the Soviet assistant naval attaché in London.
The security implications – and indeed the security consequences – of a British call girl sleeping with both the War Secretary and a palpable Soviet spy were breathtaking.
Astonishingly, the patrician Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, was initially in disbelief that not only could such things happen, but worse, that the trusted, brilliant John Profumo could have been embroiled in them.
It was only after Mr Profumo was forced to admit that he had lied to the Commons in March 1963 when he denied any impropriety with Ms Keeler, that Mr Macmillan accepted the full enormity of the scandal.
The Conservatives had been in office for nearly 13 years, and this explosion of sleaze and scandal at the top echelons of society was more than enough to help topple them from power.
Christine Margaret Keeler was born in 1942. She left school at the age of 15 and left home, at Wraysbury, Bucks, a few months later. Before she was 16 she was working as a showgirl in a club in Greek Street, in the heart of London’s redlight Soho district. She was said to be earning about £8 a week.
After 1960 there was no obvious employment in her records, almost certainly because she had become what in those days was euphemistically termed a model.
She found herself launched into the unsavoury world of high-society osteopath Stephen Ward, variously described as an artist and a procurer of women, as well as suspected of being a double-agent. This marked the beginning of the biggest political sex scandal of the 20th century.
Christine Keeler was stunning, and was soon moving in Mayfair’s smartest but not necessarily most savoury circles. Mr Ward, who lived in a Thames-side summer house on Viscount Astor’s estate at Cliveden, arranged an unsuccessful screen test for her with Douglas Fairbanks Jr.
But he also introduced her, fatefully, to Mr Ivanov and Mr Profumo. Miss Keeler also had a West Indian lover, John Edgecombe, a petty criminal and film extra, whose actions ironically sparked off the whole Profumo scandal.
Mr Edgecombe was involved in a shooting incident outside a flat – Stephen Ward’s – in Wimpole Mews, Marylebone. It was alleged that he fired shots at her, but was acquitted of charges of shooting at her with intent to murder her or cause grievous bodily harm.
But he was convicted of having a firearm with intent to endanger life. He was sentenced to seven years.
However, Ms Keeler, who was due to give evidence at his trial, had gone missing. By now, March 1963, Westminster, and indeed the whole country, was teeming with rumours about Mr Profumo’s presence at wild parties at Cliveden and his association with Ms Keeler.
Questions were asked in the House about the suspicious and intriguing circumstances surrounding the “missing witness”, who had fled to Madrid, where she was actually tracked down by reporters.
Meanwhile, Mr Profumo was forced to make a statement to the Commons in March that year.
His statement said: “I understand that my name has been connected with the rumours about the disappearance of Miss Keeler.”
Indeed, he said, he and his wife had met her at Cliveden, and he had subsequently seen her “on about six occasions at Mr Ward’s flat”.
“I last saw Miss Keeler in December 1961, and I have not seen her since. Any suggestion that I was in any way connected with or responsible for her absence from the trial is wholly and completely untrue.
“There has been no impropriety between myself and Miss Keeler. I shall not hesitate to issue writs for libel and slander if scandalous statements are made outside this House.”
His assertion of a platonic friendship with Ms Keeler was accepted by the Cabinet. Downing Street described the matter as closed.
But MPs and newspapers remained sceptical. There were thinly veiled suggestions that Ms Keeler had been packed off to her hidingplace in Madrid to avoid an embarrassing cross-examination at the Edgecombe trial, so as to protect those in high places with whom she had cavorted, and also those who might have been guilty of treachery.
Finally, on June 4, 1963, Mr Profumo resigned after confessing that he had lied to the House. It was at the time when Mr Ward was arrested and charged with living on immoral earnings. Mr Ward committed suicide after being found guilty of some, but not all, of the charges.
In 2001, Ms Keeler wrote a book in which she claimed Mr Ward ordered her to sleep with Mr Ivanov and Mr Profumo in the hope she would pass on secrets. She also claimed that Mr Ward threatened to kill her when he thought she was about to expose his part in the spy network.
She also insisted that Sir Roger Hollis, the former head of MI5, was the mysterious “fifth man” in the 1960s spy ring that included Burgess, Maclean, Philby and Blunt.
She made considerable sums from her memoirs, but this money was soon spent. Ms Keeler disappeared from the scene and for years lived either at Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex, or at a dingy flat in Chelsea.