British Army World War II General, Politician, Author. He is linked to the creation of, and said to be the prototype for, James Bond 007, the hero in novels by his close friend Ian Fleming. Sir Maclean was born to the famous Scottish Maclean family while his father Charles, a British army major, was serving in Cairo, Egypt. He graduated from Eton and then Cambridge University receiving Royal honors when Queen Elizabeth II made him a baronet in 1957. Maclean was a diplomat in Stalin's Soviet Union in the 1930's, a longtime Conservative member of Parliament, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for War in the 1950s, and the author of a score of books the best known is "Escape to Adventure" and then re-published as "Eastern Approaches," chronicling his escapades after parachuting into Yugoslavia and joining up with Marshal Tito and his Partisans during World War II. He fought beside Tito during the liberation of Belgrade. He is credited with persuading Winston Churchill to side with Tito's forces over the rival Chetniks which marked the end of the Monarchy and eventual establishment of Yugoslavia as an independent Communist state. He spent the last years of his life writing, making television documentaries and operating a hotel located on the family's estate. While he was visiting friends in the English village of Hertford having just completed a swim, he was stricken by a heart attack and died instantly at the age of 85. He was returned to the location of the family home in the village of Strachur, Argyll County Scotland and was interred in the cemetery of historic Strachur Parish Church.
British Army World War II General, Politician, Author. He is linked to the creation of, and said to be the prototype for, James Bond 007, the hero in novels by his close friend Ian Fleming. Sir Maclean was born to the famous Scottish Maclean family while his father Charles, a British army major, was serving in Cairo, Egypt. He graduated from Eton and then Cambridge University receiving Royal honors when Queen Elizabeth II made him a baronet in 1957. Maclean was a diplomat in Stalin's Soviet Union in the 1930's, a longtime Conservative member of Parliament, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for War in the 1950s, and the author of a score of books the best known is "Escape to Adventure" and then re-published as "Eastern Approaches," chronicling his escapades after parachuting into Yugoslavia and joining up with Marshal Tito and his Partisans during World War II. He fought beside Tito during the liberation of Belgrade. He is credited with persuading Winston Churchill to side with Tito's forces over the rival Chetniks which marked the end of the Monarchy and eventual establishment of Yugoslavia as an independent Communist state. He spent the last years of his life writing, making television documentaries and operating a hotel located on the family's estate. While he was visiting friends in the English village of Hertford having just completed a swim, he was stricken by a heart attack and died instantly at the age of 85. He was returned to the location of the family home in the village of Strachur, Argyll County Scotland and was interred in the cemetery of historic Strachur Parish Church.
Bio by: Paul S.
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