“Riches are Forever” Says James Bond

Cover via Amazon

Ian Fleming’s grandfather Robert founded the family’s massive fortune back in the 19th Century. His idea was to sell supplies of jute, used to make sandbags, to both sides in the Civil War. It was an opportunistic move by a shrewd operator and a forerunner of the ‘double dealing’ story lines that appear in so many James Bond books.

The bank that Robert Fleming founded with his profits was successful, enduing, and totally controlled by the family. When Robert died in 1933 his second grandson, Ian Fleming, was 25. The future Bond creator was born into  privileged circles, both socially and financially. Grandfather Robert had built the bank into one of the most prestigious independents in the world. Ian’s father Valentine established the family’s social credentials. He was a landowner and Member of Parliament who gave his life for his country, fighting in the First World War. Prime Minister Winston Churchill wrote his obituary in the London Times.

Throughout his early years Ian was in the shadow of his elder brother Peter and it wasn’t until he had finished his education in Europe that he developed his own take on life. He had a gift for the unconventional and unexpected. Banking was not for him and he found a job in journalism where his writing talents took him to a senior role with the London Times.

Fleming had the ability to absorb huge amounts of detail alongside the main thread of a news story.  He would then thread these extra, human interest facts around his theme, building a  vivid, stronger picture. This fluent, journalistic quality runs right through his James Bond stories. If he had a secret of success, this was part of it.

Another was his own lifestyle. Like Bond his tastes were mature and discriminating. He could afford to buy the best and he did. Fleming/Bond knew how a head barman at the Ritz would prepare a drink for a favourite customer because he was that customer. 

When World War II broke out Fleming found a position alongside the UK’s top spymaster and started on a career of counter espionage. It was his job to dream up stunts to that would confuse and demoralise the Nazis.  A typical idea was to smuggle official looking forms into Germany that encouraged civilians to collect bits of shrapnel from Allied bombing raids and send them to the Minister of Arnaments so they could be researched. Just at the time when they were working flat out on the war effort, German civil servants were swamped with envelopes full of shrapnel, sent by a gullible public keen to obey ‘official’ orders. Later of course this ‘only following orders’ claim would be used in a far more sinister and cynical way by Nazi War Criminals like Adolf Eichman. But Fleming also played a key role in the eventual defeat of the Nazis when he worked in the Ultra Network. This was the organisation that cracked the Nazi Enigma Code and changed the course of the war.

In peacetime Fleming visited Jamaica and fell in love with the Caribbean. He designed and built his retreat, Goldeneye, where he was to write his James Bond books. He had all the material in his head, his six years as a spymaster had given him better stories and more inspiration than any other contemporary writer. His book Casino Royal is a classic example. During the war Fleming had visited neutral Portugal where he saw Nazi agents gambling in a casino. His plan was to take them on and seriously reduce the funds they had which had been brought into the country to build a Nazi spy network. Unfortunately he only had a limited amount of cash which he lost! Unlike of course, James Bond in the film Casino Royal.

The Fleming family has an extraordinary story to tell, not quite as spectacular as James Bond but much longer lasting. The Fleming Bank was eventually sold to Chase Manhatten in 2000 for seven billion dollars – but another Fleming finance house has taken its place, again hugely successful and controlled by the family.

Amongst its many interests is a stake in a rich Russian gold mine and an association with the mysterious Russian oligarch,  Roman Abramovich.  Another Goldfinger? But that is a story for another day, watch this space!