Rather like the old and snobbish adage that Rugby is a yob’s game played by gentlemen, so White’s Club in St James was the unofficial recruiting centre for the toffs who seemed to form the nucleus of ungentlemanly spy agencies and special forces during World War II.
“It is well known for operating along the intersection between government, the intelligence services, the military and the aristocracy, its connection being so effective that it was sometimes known as Le Reseau Blanc [the White Network],” says, author of the latest and remarkable contribution to the history of the SAS, An Axe and Four Balloons, Tim Spicer.
