Haydon was born around 1917; no specific year is given but he is known to have been an undergraduate at Oxford University in 1937. He comes from an eminent family with connections throughout British high society; his father is a high court judge, and two of his several sisters married into the aristocracy. He is a cousin of Ann Smiley. A polymath of sorts with a brilliant and charming personality, he excels as a student, takes up remote languages with ease, and proves a gifted painter while at Oxford. He is identified for recruitment in the Circus (John le Carré's lightly fictionalised version of MI6/SIS) by his tutor and acts in turn as a talent-spotter among his classmates, most notably Jim Prideaux, who also becomes his lover. In World War II, Haydon builds a superb record in Nazi-occupied Europe and the Middle East, such that he elicits comparisons with Lawrence of Arabia. Unbeknown to the British, Haydon is also recruited as a Soviet agent around that time by Karla, Moscow Centre's crafty and legendary spymaster.