Page 98 Intelligencer: Journal of U.S. Intelligence Studies Winter 2012 The Special Forces Club, London, now available to Current AFIO Members AFIO Members planning visits to London should be aware of a new benefit being offered all of our current members: club reciprocity with The Special Forces Club. Hidden in a quiet London side street with no nameplate on the door, “The Club” is one of Britain’s most exclusive and shadowy private clubs. Membership of the Knightsbridge-based Special Forces Club is strictly limited to Britain’s current and former military and intelligence elite, but recently the club extends visitor access to certain related for- eign groups, of which AFIO is one. Founded by the Second World War resistance organizers, the Special Operations Executive (SOE), in 1946, the club - motto ‘Spirit Of Resistance’ - is a second home for ageing secret agents, veterans of the SAS, other special forces, and MI5, MI6, and CIA officers. Located in a Victorian terrace in Herbert Crescent, behind Harrods department store, the club’s fine dining room and bar are where the conspirators behind the alleged plot to overthrow Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson met to plan the putsch. It was here, too, that Britain’s most important wartime agent ‘Garbo’ - who helped mislead the Germans about the location of the D-Day landing - came in from the cold, calling in for tea with his British handlers. Among the portraits lining the stairs is one of the beautiful Madeleine, SOE spy Noor Inayat Khan, who was sent to Dachau concentration camp and shot. AFIO members who have a current membership (you will need your card to register with them during your visit) are invited to avail themselves of the club for weekend, only, stays — which includes sleeping rooms at reasonable rates — at this con- venient location in downtown London. You will be accorded all the services and access given to their local members, and pay only a small extra non- member fee. More about the club which is located at 8 Herbert Crescent, Westminster, London SW1X 0EZ, can be explored at www.sfclub.org. To make reservations for Friday/Saturday/Sunday night stays, contact them at Telephone 020 7589 9483. H

The Special Forces Club, London, now available to Current ...€¦ · The Special Forces Club, London, now available to Current AFIO Members ... with no nameplate on the door,

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Page 98 Intelligencer: Journal of U.S. Intelligence Studies Winter 2012

The Special Forces Club, London, now available to Current AFIO Members

AFIO Members planning visits to London should be aware of a new benefit being offered all of our

current members: club reciprocity with The Special Forces Club. Hidden in a quiet London side street with no nameplate on the door, “The Club” is one of Britain’s most exclusive and shadowy private clubs. Membership of the Knightsbridge-based Special Forces Club is strictly limited to Britain’s current and former military and intelligence elite, but recently the club extends visitor access to certain related for-eign groups, of which AFIO is one. Founded by the Second World War resistance organizers, the Special Operations Executive (SOE), in 1946, the club - motto ‘Spirit Of Resistance’ - is a second home for ageing secret agents, veterans of the SAS, other special forces, and MI5, MI6, and CIA officers. Located in a

Victorian terrace in Herbert Crescent, behind Harrods department store, the club’s fine dining room and bar are where the conspirators behind the alleged plot to overthrow Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson

met to plan the putsch. It was here, too, that Britain’s most important wartime agent ‘Garbo’ - who helped mislead the Germans about the location of the D-Day

landing - came in from the cold, calling in for tea with his British handlers. Among the portraits lining the stairs is one of the beautiful Madeleine, SOE spy Noor

Inayat Khan, who was sent to Dachau concentration camp and shot.

AFIO members who have a current member-ship (you will need your card to register with them during your visit) are invited to avail themselves of the club for weekend, only, stays — which includes sleeping rooms at reasonable rates — at this con-venient location in downtown London. You will be accorded all the services and access given to their local members, and pay only a small extra non-member fee. More about the club which is located at

8 Herbert Crescent, Westminster, London SW1X 0EZ, can be explored at www.sfclub.org. To make reservations for Friday/Saturday/Sunday night stays, contact them at Telephone 020 7589 9483. H