A number of real life inspirations have been suggested for James Bond, the sophisticated fictional character and British spy, created by Ian Fleming. Although the Bond stories were often fantasy driven, they did incorporate real places, some incidents and occasionally organisations such as SMERSH.

Every year since Fleming’s first Bond novel Casino Royale in 1953 until his death in 1964, Fleming would take a vacation to an estate he owned in Jamaica known as Goldeneye where he would write a James Bond novel.

Many Ian Fleming biographers agree that James Bond is largely based on Fleming himself. The author was known for his glamorous and licentious lifestyle. Fleming has also been said to have been inspired by his contemporaries in British Intelligence during World War II. During the war Fleming was the personal assistant to the Director of Naval Intelligence starting as a Lieutenant then rising to the rank of Commander, the same rank as James Bond throughout Fleming’s series. He was also the instigator of special ops unit 30 Commando Assault Unit (30AU) a unit he called his ‘Red Indians’.

Other incidents in Fleming’s books that aren’t possibly derived from the author’s own life are completely fictional, perhaps owing to various spy novel conventions of the period.

Every year since Fleming’s first Bond novel Casino Royale in 1953 until his death in 1964, Fleming would take a vacation to an estate he owned in Jamaica known as Goldeneye where he would write a James Bond novel. While in Jamaica Fleming was a keen bird watcher and owned a copy of Birds of the West Indies written by an American ornithologist by the name of James Bond. He later explained that the man’s name was “brief, unromantic, Anglo-Saxon, and yet very masculine – just what I needed.”

While Fleming has never claimed there was any other source for the name of Bond besides the ornithologist, there was another real life James Bond who actually attended Fettes College in Edinburgh, Scotland. Fettes is the second school that the fictional James Bond is credited with attending after leaving Eton College due to an incident with a maid. This incident actually parallels Fleming’s life who also left Eton after an incident with a girl. The Fettes alumnus, James Bond, was a frogman with the Special Boat Service, much as the fictional character Bond also has a naval background. The school actually has his Who’s Who entry copied and framed in one of its main corridors.

Also notable is the mid–1920s story The Rajah’s Emerald, by Agatha Christie that is centered on a proper British character named James Bond.

Character inspirations:

Sir Fitzroy Maclean, who was reputed to be a British secret agent in WWII Yugoslavia and friend (and biographer) of Josef Broz Tito is often cited as an inspiration. .

Many real life personalities who were involved in espionage have been cited as models for the character by some news reports. Most notably was William Stephenson who was a Canadian spymaster, best known by his code name, Intrepid. Stephenson was the senior representative of British Intelligence for the entire western hemisphere during World War II. Regarding him, Ian Fleming wrote in The Times, October 21, 1962:

“James Bond is a highly romanticized version of a true spy. The real thing is… William Stephenson”

Although other names have been mentioned by the media, none have ever been confirmed by Fleming, Ian Fleming Publications or any of Ian Fleming’s biographers such as Fleming’s assistant and friend, John Pearson.

• According to the BBC’s obituary, (October 14, 2003), the late Commander Patrick Dalzel-Job was said to have been another inspiration. Dalzel-Job “ran special operations in Norway in World War II… [and] later in the war he joined the future writer, Ian Fleming, as part of a top secret intelligence unit 30 Commando Assault Unit – Ian Fleming’s ‘Red Indians’ in France, Belgium and Germany – often far in advance of Allied lines.” However, Dalzel-Job himself always denied being the model for Bond.
• Sir Fitzroy Maclean, who was reputed to be a British secret agent in WWII Yugoslavia and friend (and biographer) of Josef Broz Tito is often cited as an inspiration. MacLean went to Eton College and like Bond had an Anglo-Scottish background. He was well known for a number of his books such as Eastern Approaches which detailed his adventures. Throughout his life he neither confirmed or denied the rumour that he was the model for James Bond. Biography – Past Forgetting: A Memoir of Heroes, Adventure, Love and Life With Fitzroy Maclean by Veronica Maclean.
• Sidney Reilly, a notorious adventurer and secret agent, originally from Kherson, Russia, who had a brief association with British military intelligence following World War I, and whose exploits were glorified by a 1980s mini-series, Reilly: Ace of Spies. Reilly’s friend, Sir Robert Bruce Lockhart, was a close acquaintance of Sir Ian Fleming for many years and recounted for Fleming many of Reilly’s espionage adventures.
• According to the National Enquirer, Ian Fleming patterned James Bond after Dusko Popov, a Serbian double agent nicknamed Tricycle. Was there ever a real superspy like James Bond, Her Majesty’s secret agent with a licence to kill? A resounding “No” was the answer given by Dusan ‘Dusko’ Popov, himself the real character who inspired writer Ian Fleming to create agent 007.
• Merlin Minshall, who worked for Fleming as member of the Special Branch of British Naval Intelligence during the Second World War. He wrote about his extraordinary life in a book entitled Guilt-Edged.
• Colonel Duane Hudson was claimed by the Sunday Times as being a model for James Bond; however, this is the only source.

See also:

• 007 inspirations