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{{Infobox spy|honorific_prefix=[[Major]] [[Sir]]|name=John Arnold Wallinger|honorific_suffix=[[Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire|KBE]] [[Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire|CIE]] [[Distinguished Service Order|DSO]] [[King's Police Medal for Gallantry|KPM]]|image=|caption=|allegiance={{flag|United Kingdom}} {{flag|British Raj|name=British India}}|service=[[Indian Imperial Police]] [[Metropolitan Police]] [[Indian Political Intelligence Office]] [[British Army]]|serviceyears=1896–1926|rank=[[Superintendent_(police)|Superintendent]] [[Major (United Kingdom)|Major]] (temporary) [[Deputy Inspector General of Police]]|operation=[[World War I]] [[Hindu-German Conspiracy]]|awards=[[Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire]] [[Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire]] [[Distinguished Service Order]] [[King's Police Medal]]|codename=|birth_name=John Arnold Wallinger|birth_date={{Birth date|1869|10|25|df=yes}}|birth_place=[[Poona]], [[British Raj|British India]]|death_date={{Death date and age|1931|1|7|1859|4|01|df=yes}}|death_place=[[Brighton]], [[England]]<ref>{{Cite ODNB|url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-67772|title=Wallinger, Sir John Arnold|year=2004 |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/67772 }}</ref>|spouse=|occupation=[[Indian Imperial Police|Imperial policeman]] [[Counter-intelligence]] officer}}[[Major (United Kingdom)|Major]] '''Sir John Arnold Wallinger''' {{Post-nominals|country=GBR|KBE|DSO|CIE|KPM}} (25 October 1869 – 7 January 1931) was a British Indian [[intelligence officer]] who led the [[Indian Political Intelligence Office]] from 1909 to 1916. As a [[Indian Imperial Police|colonial policeman]] and [[Counterintelligence|counter-intelligence]] officer he became a specialist in countering those [[Indian independence movement|opposed to British rule in India]], operating both in India and in England.

During the [[World War I|First World War]] he was engaged in combating the [[Hindu–German Conspiracy]]. During this period he employed the novelist [[W. Somerset Maugham]] as an intelligence agent in [[Geneva]]. Wallinger is perhaps best known as the principal inspiration for the character of "R.", the fictional British [[spymaster]] who employs [[Ashenden: Or the British Agent|Ashenden]] in Maugham's stories.

== Early life ==
Wallinger was born on 25 October 1869 at [[Poona]], [[British Raj|British India]]. His father was William H. Arnold Wallinger, a British official in the [[Indian Civil Service]] with the [[Imperial Forestry Service]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite ODNB |title=Wallinger, Sir John Arnold (1869–1931), intelligence officer and literary prototype |url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-67772 |access-date=2022-11-22 |year=2004 |language=en |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/67772|isbn=978-0-19-861412-8 }}</ref> In 1896, he joined the [[Indian Imperial Police]] in [[Ahmadabad, Gujarat|Ahmadabad]] as an [[Inspector|inspector.]]<ref name=":0" />

== Intelligence career ==
In 1902, during a period of concern over the activities of [[Indian nationalist movement|Indian nationalist]] political activists, Wallinger was seconded to the [[Metropolitan Police]] at [[Scotland Yard]]. This was the first of his activities in countering Indian [[anti-colonial]] activists in Europe, before returning to India in 1904.<ref name=":0" /> He gained a reputation in intelligence circles as "a brave officer with a talent for acquiring local native dialects and a flair for undercover criminal intelligence operations when he would ‘[[Blackface|black up]]’".<ref name=":0" />

In 1910 he returned to England with the rank of [[Superintendent (police)|superintendent]] to lead the newly-established [[Indian Political Intelligence Office|Indian Political Intelligence Office.]] This was a substantial organisation and role, reflecting the concerns the British government had regarding anti-colonial political activists, described by historian Richard Popplewell as "not much smaller than the European intelligence operations of the Secret Service Bureau, let alone those of the War Office".{{sfn|Popplewell|1995|p=216|ps=: "with the outbreak of the First World War the Indian intelligence network set up by Superintendent Wallinger ... within the general structure of British intelligence in Europe ... In scale it was not much smaller than the European intelligence operations of the Secret Service Bureau, let alone those of the War Office."}} He was awarded the [[King's Police Medal]] in the 1914 [[New Year Honours|New Year Honours.]]<ref>{{Cite web |title=Page 10 {{!}} Issue 12630, 2 January 1914 {{!}} Edinburgh Gazette {{!}} The Gazette |url=https://www.thegazette.co.uk/Edinburgh/issue/12630/page/10 |access-date=2022-11-22 |website=www.thegazette.co.uk}}</ref>

During the [[World War I|First World War]] he was given the temporary rank of Major in the [[British Army]], his commission listed as "Special List (General Staff Officer)".<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=Page 574 {{!}} Supplement 29438, 11 January 1916 {{!}} London Gazette {{!}} The Gazette |url=https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/29438/supplement/574 |access-date=2022-11-22 |website=www.thegazette.co.uk}}</ref> Wallinger was attached to general headquarters in France, where he operated in a [[Counterintelligence|counter-intelligence]] capacity against the [[Berlin Committee]] and the [[Hindu–German Conspiracy]].<ref name=":0" /> Here he also worked alongside his younger brother Ernest, a major in the [[Intelligence Corps (United Kingdom)|Intelligence Corps]] who had lost his foot at the [[Battle of Le Cateau]] serving in the [[Royal Field Artillery]].<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D5719279 |title=Medal card of Wallinger, Ernest Arnold Corps: Royal Field Artillery Rank: ... |date=1914–1920}}</ref> In August 1916, Wallinger returned to intelligence work in India. After the war in 1919 he was posted to Egypt, and the following year he was appointed [[Deputy inspector general of police|deputy inspector-general]] of the [[Indian Imperial Police]].<ref name=":0" />

He was highly decorated for his intelligence work: on 14 January 1916 he was awarded the [[Distinguished Service Order]], and in the 1918 New Year Honours he was made a [[Order of the Indian Empire|Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire]].<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=Page 89 {{!}} Issue 13187, 2 January 1918 {{!}} Edinburgh Gazette {{!}} The Gazette |url=https://www.thegazette.co.uk/Edinburgh/issue/13187/page/89 |access-date=2022-11-22 |website=www.thegazette.co.uk}}</ref> After the war, on 3 June 1925, he was awarded a [[Knight Commander of the British Empire|KBE]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Page 3778 {{!}} Supplement 33053, 2 June 1925 {{!}} London Gazette {{!}} The Gazette |url=https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/33053/supplement/3778 |access-date=2022-11-22 |website=www.thegazette.co.uk}}</ref> In 1926 he was offered the role of [[Deputy Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis|deputy commissioner]] of the Metropolitan Police, but instead chose to retire to [[Brighton]] on the south coast of England, where he died on 7 January 1931.<ref name=":0" />

== Literary and cultural influence ==
Among Wallinger's more famous agents was [[W. Somerset Maugham|Somerset Maugham]], whom he recruited in London and sent as a secret agent to Switzerland.<ref>{{Harvnb|Popplewell|1995|p=230}}: "Wallinger tried to re-establish his network [in Switzerland], recruiting among others, the writer [[Somerset Maugham]]."</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Morgan |first=Ted |url=https://archive.org/details/somersetmaugham0000morg |title=Somerset Maugham |date=1980 |publisher=Jonathan Cape |isbn=0-224-01813-2 |location=London |page=[https://archive.org/details/somersetmaugham0000morg/page/199 199] |url-access=registration}}</ref> Wallinger was the literary prototype of the [[spymaster]] of a number of Maugham's short stories, and was notably portrayed as the spymaster "R." in the ''[[Ashenden: Or the British Agent|Ashenden]]'' stories Maugham wrote following the war.

Inspired by Maugham's stories, the character of "R." based on Wallinger was played by [[Charles Carson (actor)|Charles Carson]] in the 1936 [[Alfred Hitchcock]] espionage thriller ''[[Secret Agent (1936 film)|Secret Agent]]''.

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==References==
*{{cite ODNB|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/67772|title=The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |year=2004 }}
*[http://www.iias.nl/iiasn/14/Regional/14cbcb07.html International Institute for Asian Studies: Indian Political Intelligence Files Released for Research]
*{{Citation
| surname1 = Popplewell
| given1 = Richard J
| year = 1995
| title = Intelligence and Imperial Defence: British Intelligence and the Defence of the Indian Empire 1904–1924
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=H44J2uDSE2cC&pg=PA230
| publisher = Routledge
| isbn = 0-7146-4580-X
}}.

{{Hindu-German Conspiracy}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wallinger, John}}
[[Category:1869 births]]
[[Category:1931 deaths]]
[[Category:British police officers in India]]
[[Category:Indian Civil Service (British India) officers]]
[[Category:Hindu–German Conspiracy]]
[[Category:English recipients of the Queen's Police Medal]]
[[Category:Revolutionary movement for Indian independence]]
[[Category:World War I espionage]]

{{UK-bio-stub}}

John Wallinger - Revision history

Bot at 18:48, 27 November 2022