WILLIAM MAGAN:BILL MAGAN, who has died at the age of 101, was born near Athlone.
His family, who claimed descent from the McDermott Roes, had owned large estates, though by the time he was born, his father was selling the land to his tenants and was running an estate office with his sister.
Bill Magan, in his book, An Irish Boyhood, gives a picture of the austere regime of his childhood which was very similar to other affluent, Protestant Anglo-Irish families where in winter, fires were considered unnecessary before four and lumpy, often-burnt, porridge, boiled sheep's head and pieces of cod in tough black skin made regular appearances at the table.
While he was still a boy, they went to live at the mill house at Levitstown, near Athy, where his father was executive director. Some years later his father bought back the Magan family home of Killyon Manor in Meath.
Magan was at school at Rossall in Lancashire, England, and then went on to Sandhurst. In 1928, he was commissioned in the British army, and after a year with the 60th rifles, joined an Indian cavalry regiment stationed on the northwest frontier which gave him plenty of opportunities for adventure and to make two treks in the High Himalayas.
Having an ability for languages, he was sent to Shiraz in Persia to learn Farsi where he was called mullah Magan as he never drank alcohol.
While on furlough, he heard that the South Westmeath Hunt was without a master, so he wired his commanding officer who allowed him the extra leave on the grounds that, "a season as a master of foxhounds, managing men, animals and the hunt finances would be good training for a cavalry officer".
At the outbreak of the second World War, he was seconded as liaison officer with British Military Intelligence and returned to Persia to set up a network of spies that would be in place if the Germans invading through the Caucasus.
This involved many arduous journeys. He wrote to his wife: "I am sitting in the middle of the desert with a broken steering gear . . . the roads are so absolutely hellish it is impossible to keep a car together and there are two or three hundred miles between towns.
"We stuck for two hours in the sand until some men dug us out. We have only had snatches of sleep in the last 60 hours so at a small Persian police post, where it is hotter than one can ever imagine, we lay down, but any sleep was broken by flies and the groans of a poor devil who was dying."
After the threat of invasion to Persia receded, Magan hunted out German agents.
He arrested in a doss house, a notorious leader, Franz Myer. Under guard, Myer demanded a glass of water. Magan said to the nervous British soldier, who in a previous life had been a university don, "Give him the glass of water on the chimney piece, only you had better taste it yourself to see if it is poisoned".
Magan also ran the double-agent Silver, an Indian Communist who had worked for the Germans but after the German invasion of Russia was persuaded to change his allegiance. From then on Silver sold, for a lot of money, doctored British secrets to the German embassy in Kabul. In 1946 Magan was sent to Palestine. The British mandate was coming to an end and there were nightly battles between the Arabs and Jews.
The future, as he wrote, "is quite unpredictable but whatever it brings Jerusalem is going to be the most difficult problem to solve".
Moving to Egypt, he took charge of SIME (Security Intelligence Middle East), which meant constant travel though the Middle East and north Africa advising on possible threats to security and suggesting protective measures.
In 1951, Magan was appointed to M15 as director of the overseas department and was engaged in Malaya, Kenya, Nyasaland, Borneo and Aden. He was personally involved in locating the likely hideout of the terrorist leader Col Grivas in Cyprus, but before the Eoka leader could be confronted, a political settlement was reached.
The post-war period was a difficult time for the intelligence services with the defection of Burgess, Maclean and Philby and even the director-general, Hollis, coming under suspicion.
Magan, however, was considered a safe pair of hands who could be entrusted with the most delicate situations and was much respected and liked by his colleagues.
He retired in 1968 and ran a fruit farm in Kent and then helped his wife build up a successful cottage industry making kitchen and other fabric products. He also wrote a well regarded book, Umma-more, the Story of an Irish Familywhich combines the history of Ireland with an account of the Magans from their Celtic past.
It has been republished with the title, The Story of Ireland. He is the author of three other memoirs, An Irish Boyhood, Middle-Eastern Approaches, which describes his war time experiences and Soldier of the Rajabout his time on the northwest frontier. He did not write about his career with MI5.
Though he reluctantly sold Killyon Manor in the 1960s, his son George has returned to the home of his ancestors and has bought and restored the beautiful house, Castletown Cox. George was a governor of the Bank of Ireland but resigned at the onset of the banking crisis.
In 1940, Magan married Maxine Mitchell and she survives with two sons. Two other sons predeceased him.
Brig William Morgan Tilson Magan: born June 13th, 1908; died January 21st, 2010