Who's John Steed?

Davies combines information about Patrick Macnee's life with Tim Heald's Steed biography and information about Steed from the series.

Content:

Information from text of

JOHN STEED: 1922-19!! A fictionalised biography by Roger Davies

Text courtesy of Roger Davies

appeared in the Fanzine On Target Volume 2, Issue 4, pages 3 - 9

The original text contains several photos and drawings and an attached
appendix

Stedd was the youngest of a family of eight, he had seven sisters.

He was born on 6th February 1922, in Berkshire, England and christened John Wickham Gascoyne Berresford Steed.

Childhood school: Preparatory school in Oxfordshire, there he won a School House Trophy First (Victor Ludorem)

Went to Eton in 1937, where he rebelled against 'antiquated' rules had an encounter with the school bully, a certain James Bond.

He became a cadet in the school's Officer Training Corps.

In 1941 Steed enlisted as a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy where he commanded a 25m Motor Torpedo Boat

On an off-shore raiding party behind enemy lines, Steed single-handedly captured an enemy machine gun post and was awarded with the Military Cross.

In 1946 he attended a tribunal in German against Staff-Sergeant Daniel Edmund.

Officially He decommitioned in 1947

„in reality, he was approached by the War Ministry and accepted a commission as Major in the S.F.E. (Special Forces Excutive - a highly secret division of the Allied Forces Command, which allowed its members carte blanche to operate in all divisions of the service), and he spent the next eight years based at R.A.F. Camp 472 Hamelin.“

In the early 50s he accepted a post as Naval Attache at the War Office, but „found the position unsuited to his taste“ and after some incidents, Steed „dismissed (with loss of pension rights) for "conduct unbecoming a serving member of H.M.Service."

„Steed spent the next eighteen months leap-frogging from one occupation to another including - though this was never proven, a series of shady deals with an ill-assorted crowd of London underworld characters“

In Summer of 1958 he met his old school friend Mark Crayford and by this he seek the „position of personal economics adviser to Sheikh Akbar Ben Sidi Ben Becula, the oil rich ruler of a Middle Eastern State.“

Steed returned to England, „purchased the lease of a large Westminster Mews London apartment, and settled down into a lifestyle which he would later recall as being one of "high-living, wenches, booze .. and boredom!"

Undercover 1960-19!!

Due to a friend he made contact with the Ministry Of Intelligence and his later superior One-Ten who „offered him a post as a departmental investigator Class A - a position Steed readily accepted, and one that would influence his career throughout the rest of his working life!“

Within less than a year he was re-arded by promotion to „Security Class Al-Plus (Pass number 379905) - Code Red). Now in over-all charge of his own department, and hand-ling cases infinitly better suited to his training ( and in-creasing interest in the unusual and biz-arre), Steed soon found himself working in a mainly solo capacity and frequently forging an alliance with other equally-dedicated (though often 'amateur') colleagues.“

He worked in the following years with several amateurs, including Dr Keel, Venus Smith, Dr King, Dr Cathy Gale and Emma Peel. After Mrs Peel's husban was found alive in the Amazonian jungle he started to work with Miss Tara King, a young ministry recruit.
In 1969 Steed was engaged in a section of Government security „so delicate, that the media were given a 'cover' story that Steed and his colleague Tara King had given their lives while testing a highly- classified new British space capsule!“

Roger Davies continues:

„Commander' Steed: A New Brief.

Having spent the intervening years engaged in work of a highly-classified nature (Ministry records for this period are classified 'EYES ONLY' ad reqdres top -Government clearance), Steed reappeared in 1976.
Now upgraded to C (Commander) status - Mother had long since retired and retreated to his Somerset retreat, and without the companionship of Miss King (rumour has it that she became too personally involved with her colleague and was withdrawn from active service), Steed was acting in a mainly authoritive position and delegated most of the 'leg work' to the two young agents under his direct command: Purdey, an ex-ballerina turned spy-catcher, and Mike Gambit, the Department's 'blue-eyed' boy. (Incidentally, though extensive enquiries were made, I have been unable to asscertain Purdey's surname(?) However, not content to remain desk-bound for long periods, Steed continued to make occasional sortie's into the field and, backed up by the talented (and exuber-ant) duo, he continued his unending crusade against coercion and all forms of criminal activity in defence of the Crown. REPORTS ENDS
..********** Is this the way it happened? Is it fact or fiction? The decision is yours!

PERSONNEL FILE: Al Plus (Code Red) File number* 379905.
SUBJECT: Steed, J.W.G.B.
CLASS: Active (Ongoing)
SERVICE DETAILS: Joined the Department in 19!! (See 'EYES ONLY' file ZB397/XXY905) - Length of Service: Ongoing. (Agent still operable/field operations:- Dossier : Y905/ U.N.C.L.E./J.B..
Appendix attached: (EYES ONLY clearance!)
Personnel: 'M'. 'C'. 'Code Red +'. „