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
Profumo affair husband of a famous film star and was prepared to have "a bit of fun" with him. William Shepherd, an MP trusted by MI5, insisted that over the years he often saw Profumo at louche nightspots, including Murray's Cabaret Club during the time that Keeler had worked there, which made it certain that Profumo knew Keeler before the Cliveden party. Shepherd suggested that Profumo was the original owner of the gun used in the shooting incident (see below). The next afternoon the two parties reconvened at the pool, joined by Ivanov, who had arrived that morning. There followed what Lord