James Bond

Its hard to discuss the history of British intelligence without mentioning James Bond. As the man behind dozens of the most successful spy missions in the Cold War and the War on Terror, James is perhaps the most famous spy in all history.

## **Overview**

The Bond family has served the Crown since the days of Queen Gloriana, the faerie Queen, daughter or King Henry VIII and the Queen of the Fairies. Sir Basildon Bond was an underling of Gloriana's Spymaster Jack Wilton, considered the first M(though that title is considered to go to Mycroft Holmes, who originated the modern form of the role). Gloriana originally assigned the role of "007" to her court magicians "John Dee", who is believed to be an alias for another Magician Prospero, however, Prospero would become stranded on an island, leading to Gloriana to give the position to Basildon Bond in his absence and keep it after Gloriana's death and Prospero's return as her successor, King James, began to purge England of magic, banishing Prospero. The title would be passed on through generations, eventually reaching Campion Bond, a devoted servant of the then current M, Professor James Moriarty, and afterwards Mycroft Holmes upon the death of Moriarty in his latest scheme against London. It is Campion Bond's grandson that is the most well known member of the family.

James Bond attended Eton College, where he got into a fight with a young John Steed. he was according to Steed a bully who made other boys stir his cocoa. Bond seems to have kept this habit and insists on drinking Shaken martinis despite this process watering down the drink.

Fresh out of school, Bond joined the Secret Service around 1936 or 1937. Over the next few decades his missions became as legendary as the foes he faced Le Chiffre, Blofeld, Dr.No, Auric Goldfinger, and Francisco Scaramanga, who wielded the famed Golden Gun said to be magically made to kill with one bullet, among others. His missions took him everywhere from Russia, to Japan, to America, to Space, and finally his many romantic conquests such as Pussy Galore, Vesper Lynd, Octopussy, and Xenia Onatopp among others.

However even these exploits are debatable, for you see, Bond is said to have retired around 1945. Some say he had become too famous, something very bad for a spy, and Bond wasn't exactly subtle, leaving trails of destruction during his missions. He was paradoxically an amazing spy and a terrible spy. Bond tried faking his death while continuing to act in secret but his continued existence was discovered. He would do so again and retire, seemingly for good. Many assumed he only lived twice.

However, the Secret Service wanted to continue using the James Bond legacy and fame he had made for himself. So James Bond became a codename, used by other agents with the permission of the original. The first of these such agents was a man named John Patrick Mason, a scotsman. Mason's success in the role eclipsed even the original and as such it becomes difficult to ascertain which Bond was involved in which adventure, but all things must come to an end. In early 1971, while on a mission in America, John Patrick Mason was captured and imprisoned in Alcatraz by government agents. President Richard Monckton had become paranoid of communist spies and imprisoned Mason without trial, blocking any attempts by the British government to free him. Mason had discovered secrets during his mission(allegedly involving the Cassidy Assassination) that meant several people within the government wanted him kept imprisoned.

The search was on to find a replacement agent that could assume the name Bond. The first attempted replacement, Major Charles Ryker is considered a failure. On his first mission he met a woman and fell in love and married, only to lose her soon after when she was murdered. This cemented the idea to the other Bonds to never get too close to anyone. Ryker then resigned from the role of Bond, though he would still occasionally use that identity.

Rather than taking a "Wet" agent, the choice was instead made to recruit a seasoned veteran. Simon Templar, known as "The Saint", was chosen as the next Bond and was an immense success, even later in life, facing off against Mason following his eventual pardoning and defeating him in combat, proving that the Bond name could live beyond Mason. Templar took his role very seriously, even visiting the grave of Ryker's deceased wife on the anniversary of her death. He is also believed to have killed Blofeld for good by dropping him in a smokestack, that is until another man took the name Blofeld decades later.

Other Bonds followed after Templar stepped down, including Damien Drake and Remington Steele. It was decided to return Bond to his routes, literally, as a member of the Bond family was chosen. the daughter of the original Bond(who was allegedly killed in an explosion at Casino Royale in his last mission) had a brief relationship with Mason that led to a son. Emma Peel, the current M, trained and raised this child to become the next James Bond, ensuring the Bond legacy would continue.

## J0/Original

James Bond was born on November 15th 1920, named after James Moriarty, a close friend and associate of his grandfather Campion Bond. James' parents (Andrew Bond of Scotland and Monique Delacroix Bond of the Canton de Vaud, Switzerland) were tragically killed during a climbing accident in the French Alps when he was eleven. He had acquired a first-class command of the French and German languages during his early education, which he received entirely abroad due to his father's work as a Vickers armaments company representative.

After the death of his parents, Bond went to live with his aunt, Miss Charmian Bond in the small village of Pett Bottom, Canterbury, where he completed his early education. Later, he briefly attends Eton College at "12 or thereabouts", but was removed after two terms because of girl trouble with a maid and for bullying fellow student John Steed. After leaving Eton, Bond was sent to Fettes College in Scotland, his father's school. On his first visit to Paris at the age of sixteen, Bond lost his virginity

After leaving Fettes, Bond studied, briefly attending the University of Geneva, before being taught to ski in Kitzbühel by Hannes Oberhauser. Following his graduation, Bond joined the Ministry of Defence shortly before the outbreak of World War II. Bond applied to M for a position within the "Secret Service", part of the Civil Service, and rose to the rank of principal officer.

By 1953, Bond was already a 00 agent having been given the position after killing two enemy agents, a Japanese spy on the thirty-sixth floor of the RCA Building at Rockefeller Center in New York City and a Norwegian double agent who had betrayed two British agents; it is suggested by Bond scholar John Griswold that these were part of Bond's wartime service with Special Operations Executive (SOE), a British World War II covert military organisation. In 1954, according to the Soviet file on him, Bond was made a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George.

James Bond was 37 in 1955, eight years shy of the retirement age for Agents. As time went on he would get older. However he would become a national treasure and Spies were hired to replace him.

## J1(John Patrick Mason)

The second Bond, a young masculine Scotsman, took the role in 1963. Since then the name of James Bond has been used by at least six different British agents, as different in looks and personality as they were alike in competence and effectiveness. So effective that nearly every other agent in Britain or America has attempted to emulate his style  the American agent Maxwell Smart noted in interviews during his retirement that the Bond brand of suave was a gift that he would have given anything to have had.

The use of the Bond codename was used at its peak during the Cold War, but as the 21st century came about and new threats from alien invaders, cybernetic uprising and a resurgent magic, 007 became less and less used. Still, Bond, James Bond, and his legacy would remain irrevocably tied to British intelligence.