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Maxwell Knight became one of Britain's favourite radio and television naturalists as "Uncle Max", and it is said that any visitor "to his home at Camberley might find him nursing a bush-baby, feeding a giant toad, raising young cuckoos, or 'engaging in masculine repartee with a vastly experienced grey parrot.'" He was also considered an excellent jazz musician who loved playing the clarinet, an avid cricketer and someone who had a keen interest in the occult. He is probably most famous for his career as an Agent Controller and anti-Soviet expert during World War II. Having joined SIS (MI6) in April 1925. Knight moved only after the political subversion section he worked for was transferred from SIS to MI5 in 1931. Knight would go on to be one of the most successful, but controversial officers in MI5, running his own department, B5 (b), out a set of rooms in Dolphin Square. Knight's close friend in NID was Ian Fleming, the author of the James Bond novels. In fact when Fleming was designing the character for Bond's boss whom he simply named 'M', he used his friend Maxwell Knight as the model
Like Peter Wright much later in MI5 and Angleton in the CIA, Knight believed that the Soviets were a far greater threat than his superiors were prepared to accept. Eventually he would be forced to retire early on health grounds in 1956. His natural love of animals allowed him to create a full time career as a TV naturalist in the late 1950's. A genuine eccentric, Knight was already broadcasting on the BBC while still in MI5 and it was not unknown for a colleague in the service to be startled when a hamster suddenly poked its head out of Knights pocket in the middle of discussing a Soviet spy network.
The notorious Satanist Aleister Crowly, 'the Great Beast 'is believed to have met Knight through their mutual friend, Tom Driberg MP and a Soviet Spy. However, Knight had a strong interest in the occult and this attracted him to the writings of Aleister Crowley and Maxwell Knight was to meet him several times around 1937. It is known that again Crowley and Knight had another mutual and influential friend, the thriller writer and Wine expert Dennis Wheatley who had a keen interest in both Espionage and Black Magic. Knight would later describe Crowley as "a well-dressed middle-aged eccentric with the manner of an Oxford don." It appears, according to one historian, that both Wheatley and Maxwell Knight "jointly applied to Crowley as novices and he accepted them as pupils." Although Harry Smith, Maxwell Knight's nephew, has been quick to point out, "My uncle stressed that his interest-and also Wheatley's-was purely academic." According to Dennis Wheatley, he was merely studying magic for use in his novels. In fact, Aleister Crowley would later become a model for some of the characters in Wheatley's books. Unfortunately very little survives regarding the facts of Knight and Crowley's relationship.
Some writers have suggested there were more reasons why Maxwell Knight wanted to meet Aleister Crowley than 'occult interest.' For example, it has been hinted that Knight's first wife, Gwladys Poole, apparently knew Aleister Crowley before marrying Maxwell Knight. It is also rumoured that she had a bad personal experience with the Great Beast. What actually transpired between the two is not recorded, though some have gone so far as stating that this experience with Aleister Crowley might be responsible in some way for her suicide on November 17th 1934, but there is absolutely no evidence, which has ever surfaced anyway, to support this claim. It is still a mystery why Knight really wished to meet the notorious Aleister Crowley. We can only speculate. Maybe Knight simply wanted to know the truth regarding his wife's suicide, and he felt that perhaps Crowley held some of the answers. However, most likely Crowley did not. Maxwell's wife's suicide is fairly well documented, and it's probably safe to say that it had little to do with Aleister Crowley. One of the more notorious incidents involving Aleister Crowley and Maxwell Knight centred on the defection of a prominent Nazi Rudolf Hess. This incident also involved the author Ian Fleming who, like Maxwell, had a strong interest in Aleister Crowley. This fascinating story will be covered in more detail at a later date.
On Wednesday January 27, 1968 Maxwell Knight died peaceably of heart failure in a hospital at the age of sixty-eight
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