Ruby Windsor is a character in Ian Fleming’s James Bond novel On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. The character was adapted in 1969 for the film, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service; however, her named was changed to Ruby Bartlett. She was played by Angela Scoular.

Angela Scoular as Ruby Bartlett.

Novel biography: Ruby Windsor was born in Morecambe Bay, Lancashire. Due to her allergy to chickens, she answered an advertisement in the Poultry Farmers Gazette and was subsequently taken on as a patient at Piz Gloria. Headed by Ernst Stavro Blofeld, the former leader of SPECTRE, she and many other women with allergies were brainwashed into taking a bottle of ‘chicken virus’ back to England that was given to them by Blofeld so that it could destroy all the chicken stocks.

While at Piz Gloria she meets James Bond who is secretly staying undercover as Sir Hilary Bray so that he can get close to Blofeld. With Ruby’s help, he is able to learn the names of all the girls and warn the proper authorities. Consequently, as the women return to their home countries, they are caught by customs.

Film biography: In the film, Ruby and eleven other beautiful young women, all of whom suffer from allergies (Ruby herself is allergic to chicken and her father owns a chicken farm), are undergoing allergy “treatment” by Bond’s arch enemy, Ernst Stavro Blofeld.

When Bond travels to Blofeld’s clinic under the guise of Sir Hilary Bray, Ruby is immediately attracted to Bond. When Ruby is told not to mention her room number by Irma Bunt, she proceeds to write it on the inside of Bond’s leg using her lipstick.

Later that evening Bond adventures into Ruby’s room. Bond strips off the kilt that he is wearing, and Ruby is amused. They then make love but are interrupted when Blofeld’s voice turns Ruby into a trance-like state. Bond arranges to meet Ruby the next evening, but when 007 walks over to the bed in Ruby’s room, a waiting Bunt knocks him out.

See also:

• Bond girls