Sir Dick Goldsmith White, (20 December 1906 – 21 February 1993) was a British intelligence officer. He was Director General (DG) of MI5 from 1953 to 1956, and Head of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) from 1956 to 1968.
Early life
White was born in Tonbridge, Kent, the son of an ironmonger Percy Hall White and Gertrude Farthing and went to school at Bishop's Stortford College. He was athletic in his youth and obtained a blue in running at Oxford.
He would qualify for a Commonwealth Fellowship in 1928 which saw him seek further education in the United States at the Universities of Michigan and California. Philby was cleared a few years later by Harold Macmillan. During his tenure at MI6, he rebuilt the organisation's relationship with Whitehall and the CIA. When he found out that Philby had been employed as freelance MI6 agent in Beirut, he sent Nicholas Elliott to interrogate Philby and encourage him to return to London. Other honours included a Legion of Merit and a Croix de Guerre.
Death
After a long illness he died from intestinal cancer at his home, "The Leat" in Burpham, near Arundel in Sussex, on 21 February 1993; his wife, Kathleen, survived him.