The Spy Who Raised Me Podcast

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In this episode Iain Craigie talks to daughter, Jane Craigie, about his posting to Hong Kong with a secondment to Labuan. It was in the late 1950s, so WWII was still fresh in minds and diplomacy. Iain’s bases were Direction Finding (DF) Stations - rudimentary huts using HF radio. His Hong Kong posting was near the Chinese border. The conversation will take you through the importance of DF stations, how they were connected, the British intelligence interest in, and the secrecy of the Chinese; and the ‘fun’ these young RAF men had aged early 20s. Iain’s lucky still to be with us - one of their pranks was setting light to old WWII munitions’ dumps left behind by the Japanese on Labuan.
*please excuse the slight outages in audio - one of the dual mics I’ve been using has a fault. Must buy some new ones - any recommendations for an iPhone?
Thank you so much for listening, Jane Craigie

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This episode capture the conversation between Jane Craigie and her father, Iain Craigie, about three precious years based in Istanbul in the 1970s. Iain’s time was as a more senior intelligence manager with GCHQ, their ‘target’ was Russia. Iain explains the start of using satellites for intelligence gathering - courtesy of the Americans who owned them. Discussions include how the British diplomatic service viewed British intelligence in postings like Turkey where there was so much of interest and at stake.

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In this episode, Jane Craigie talks to Iain Craigie about the instability of Afghanistan and Pakistan and the coming together of the international intelligence community to create the facility at Pine Gap in Australia to understand and mitigate this threat.

The discussion also covers Iain's views on how power might shift towards countries like China as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. "China is in a very strong position," he said.

Iain talks about the value of diplomats and international intelligence community. terrorism, about truly feeling for a country, its land and its people.

"Terrorists are looking to bring humanity to a standstill."

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In this podcast, accompanied by the snoring of Lily, a 16-year-old Jack Russell, Jane explores the early part of her father, Iain’s, life in the tax office in Buckie, in North East Scotland. The conversation charts the start of his career at Bletchley Park, and his first GCHQ posting, as a young married man to Cyprus, with a new baby (Jane).
The episode discusses how intelligence officers in the 1960s ‘listened’ to gather information with what is now considered very rudimentary technology. It also explores the geographic location of Cyprus, the Greek/Turkish Cypriot conflict, and what intelligence was gathered from this strategically important Mediterranean island.

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My Dad, Iain Craigie was born in Salisbury, Rhodesia where his father had worked as an engineer. In 1939, aged one, the family moved back to their native Morayshire in north east Scotland. Their first home was a rented one bedroom cottage in Urquhart, near Elgin - by then there were five members of the family, my grandfather, Naylor, and grandmother, Susan (nee Junner).
The cottage was on the flight path of German bombers flying back to base from London and Cambridge, so Iain and his brother, Grant and sister, Jean, were evacuated two miles down the road to live with Miss Jackson. She cared for them for three years, times were hard and she was typically versatile, digging up ‘tatties’ from the farmer’s fields and shooting deer to feed herself and the children.
During the war Grandad, Naylor, was posted to Palestine, when he returned, he bought a beautiful family home in Kingston on Spey. The house is Morven on Lein Road.
In this podcast Dad talks about his memories of early life in Morayshire. His schooling in Garmouth, Fochabers and then Marischal College in Aberdeen. It’s a fascinating insight into early, post-war life in rural Aberdeenshire, Scotland.