The Real Miss Moneypenny Paddy Ridsdale Dies

[Dr. No]

From the pages of James Bond to parliament
February 5, 2010
http://www.theage.com.au/world/from-the ... -ng59.html
VICTOIRE EVELYN PATRICIA ''PADDY'' RIDSDALE, DBE - SECRETARY
11-10-1921 - 16-12-2009


DAME Paddy Ridsdale, who was an inspiration for Ian Fleming's character of Miss Moneypenny in his James Bond novels, has died, aged 88.

Ridsdale, pictured, left, with Lois Maxwell, the most famous screen Miss Moneypenny, worked as an assistant to Fleming in British naval intelligence in World War II and described him as ''very attractive, but with a great hardness in him''.

She recalled that at their office in Whitehall, Fleming was constantly on the telephone to different women, arranging assignations at the Ritz Hotel. He would return from mysterious missions invariably laden with gifts of silk stockings and scent. ''He had so many girlfriends that I was not tempted to become one,'' she said.

Later, as the wife of British parliamentarian Sir Julian Ridsdale, she was the doyenne of her generation of Conservative consorts. Elegant, sharp-witted and boundlessly energetic, she was a formidable presence during her husband's 38-year career in the House of Commons, and in old age she remained indomitably cheerful.

In January 1997, a mugger wearing a motorcycle helmet experienced something out of a James Bond novel. He had grabbed her wristwatch and was tugging at her wedding ring when she lifted her high-heeled shoe and kicked him squarely in the groin. ''I thought he'd chop my fingers off,'' she said. ''Well, I wasn't having any of that.'' The robber fled in pain and her watch was recovered nearby.

Born in Claridge's Hotel, she finished her education at the Sorbonne in Paris, where she studied architecture. In 1939, in the fabled Room 39 in the directorate of naval intelligence, she was the only woman working for seven officers, among them Ian Fleming. Their commander, Admiral Godfrey, was the model for Fleming's spy-chief ''M''.

In 1942, she left the service to marry Ridsdale, then an army officer whom she had met on a tennis court, but played a continuing part in the famous ''Operation Mincemeat''.

This deception caper involved ''the man who never was'', a corpse dressed as a naval officer that was floated in the ocean off Spain carrying fictitious plans for an Allied invasion of Sardinia and Greece.

Her role had been to write love letters planted on the body, given the name Major William Martin, and to add credence to the story for any observers back in London by sending him telegrams. The Germans found the body and were duly deceived. Allied intelligence gleefully reported: ''Mincemeat swallowed whole.''

After her husband won the seat of Harwich in 1954, she became his constituency secretary and held the position, as well as her strong views on the need to work hard to retain the goodwill of supporters, throughout his parliamentary career.

She became Lady Ridsdale when her husband was knighted in 1981, and in 1991 was appointed a dame in her own right, for political services.

Her husband died in 2004 and she is survived by her daughter, Penny.

TELEGRAPH

[Blowfeld]

Good find Dr

She was one of the greats. The backbone who help make Great Britten Great. May she rest in peace