Cold War Spy Mom Defends Mother Against Allegations

Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton knew his mother lived an amazing life. Yet one chapter remained locked away. She rarely spoke of it.

Sue Lowther-Pinkerton joined MI5 after World War II. She worked in British intelligence throughout the Cold War. But she told her children almost nothing about that time.

Decades ago, a documentary changed everything. They were watching it with their kids one afternoon. The film discussed the Cambridge spy ring. These were Soviet agents who had infiltrated the British system. A great mystery surrounded the fifth man. The narrator suggested Sir Roger Hollis might be him.

Hollis served as director general of MI5 from 1956 to 1965. Later, allegations surfaced that he secretly worked for the Soviet Union. Authorities investigated these claims but never proved them.

Sue did not hesitate to defend her mother's character. She was knitting at the time. Without missing a single stitch, she declared it absolute nonsense. He was a total gentleman and a patriot.

Jamie and his sister looked at her sideways. They thought she was completely mad. Jamie tried to get more out of her. But she refused to talk about it. That generation just did not want to discuss those secrets.

It took until Jamie was in his mid-20s for him and his older sister to learn the truth. MI5 is Britain's domestic intelligence agency. The Security Service traces its origins back to 1909. It started as the Secret Service Bureau. That bureau later split into domestic and foreign sections. Those evolved into MI5 and MI6.

That glimpse stayed with Jamie for decades. Now her life has inspired his novel, Beyond the Edge of Light. It is a wartime love story. The central character, Missie, is a rebellious young woman who joins military intelligence. She was inspired by Sue, who died in 2023 at age 99.

Sue lived a life of adventure long before she entered MI5. During World War II, she worked on NAAFI vans. These vehicles served tea and food to troops. She also painted white lines on roads before she was old enough to enlist. In 1942, she joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service. This was the women's branch of the British Army.

She was later posted to the Royal School of Artillery at Larkhill. There she drove gun limbers. These vehicles transported artillery equipment across firing ranges. The work was considered dangerous. She received an additional four pence a day for this risk.

After the war, her work took her into an even more secret world.

She went into secret service. Jamie said she joined MI5, which was the equivalent. It is a mixture between the FBI and the CIA. She worked there during the Cold War.

Her intelligence career began before she officially joined MI5. The Telegraph's obituary noted she worked in Army intelligence in Singapore after leaving the military in 1948. There she handled secret communications concerning HMS Amethyst. This ship planned a breakout from China's Yangtze River in 1949.

She returned to Britain in 1951. Then Sue joined MI5 and worked at Leconfield House.

Sue kept her past tightly wrapped, refusing to share details about her time in intelligence work even with her son. That boy would later join the Irish Guards and the Special Air Service. He grew up hearing tales of a mother raised in India who eventually got "kicked out of every educational establishment she ever went to." Lowther-Pinkerton called her "incredibly wild," noting that for years on end, she did not see her own parents.

She received 11 marriage proposals before Anthony Hull Lowther-Pinkerton, or "Rumpty," asked her out. He was a "great big Anglo-Irishman" described as "everybody's life and soul of the party." The pair settled in Suffolk where Lowther-Pinkerton spent his childhood.

"[They] had all of us children and went to live in Suffolk, which is where I grew up," he said. "... [My father] could go up and down in moods. And my mother just ... kept the family going absolutely on the straight and narrow through the middle with her calmness really. That was the great thing about her. Nothing fazed her."

"I remember one occasion when my father got really down in the dumps," he recalled. "She made really good roast potatoes for lunch. And she'd obviously had enough. She got this potato, and she flung it down the dining room table with [my sister] Sarah and me on either side thinking, 'My goodness, what's going to happen now?'

"And she hit my father clean between the eyes. My father was literally crying with laughter within about 20 seconds. She just knew. It wasn't always roast potatoes, but she knew how to deal with him."

Sue stayed in MI5 until she left in 1956 to start a family. For nearly five decades, she organized the annual Poppy Appeal to raise funds for veterans, active-duty service members, and their families. She also delivered Meals on Wheels to remote cottages and farmsteads for several years.

Lowther-Pinkerton's path shifted unexpectedly as well. He joined the royal household as an equerry to Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. "She was an absolute joy to be with," he said with a smile. "She was like everybody's favorite granny. She had a bolt of steel running down her spine, so nothing fazed her."

"She was the daughter of a Scottish girl who grew up in Glamis Castle. When she was 15, her favorite brother was killed in the trenches in the First World War. And Glamis Castle was given over, at least a part of it, to being a military hospital for wounded soldiers coming back from the First World War."

"Like my mother, she had an incredibly sharp memory," he continued. "I remember sitting with the Queen Mother at lunch and talking about the war. It was enlightening. And she had a wonderful sense of humor. I absolutely adored her."

The job came with perks. Lowther-Pinkerton laughed when reminded that he mixed martinis for her parties. He previously told People magazine the drinks were seven parts gin with "a whiff of vermouth." According to the outlet, he would top her "decent-sized drink" with ice.

Lowther-Pinkerton served as a private secretary to Prince William, Prince Harry, and later Kate Middleton from 2005 to 2013, People reported. He acted as a mentor for the princes. His son Billy was a page at William and Kate's wedding. The couple later asked Lowther-Pinkerton to be a godfather to their eldest son, Prince George.

Lowther-Pinkerton said the remarkable women in his life have inevitably influenced his writing. "It all seeps in," he said. His mother remains at its heart.

"Somebody of strength, somebody who has their own opinions and is not going to be pushed around," he said of the legacy he hopes Sue leaves with readers.