Roger Hollis in 1956 and remaining in that post until his retirement in 1965. After Kim Philby's flight from Beirut to Moscow in 1963, rumours began to circulate that Hollis had alerted him to his impending arrest. Hollis was criticised for not alerting John Profumo, the War Secretary in Prime Minister Harold Macmillan's Conservative government, that he might have become entangled with a Soviet spy ring through his friendship with Stephen Ward, and his affair with showgirl Christine Keeler, who was introduced by Ward to Profumo. Soviet Naval Attache Eugene Ivanov was also involved with Keeler at this time, in the early
John Profumo Profumo was born in Kensington, London, the son of Albert, 4th Baron Profumo (Italy), a diplomat and barrister of Italian origin, who died in 1940. He attended Harrow School and Brasenose College, Oxford, where he read law and was a member of the Bullingdon Club. In the early 1930s, 'Jack' Profumo had a relationship with a German model, Gisela Winegard, who subsequently worked for German intelligence in Paris. Secret Service papers state Profumo also wrote to Winegard while he was an MP. On 1 July 1939 he was commissioned into the Royal Armoured Corps as a second lieutenant, service number