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Former royal aide reveals mother's secret MI5 career after decades of silence
ReFormer royal aide reveals mother's secret MI5 career after decades of silence
Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton, former equerry to Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother and mentor to Princes William and Harry, has revealed that his mother, Sue Lowther-Pinkerton, worked for MI5 during the Cold War. Her secret past, which she rarely discussed, inspired his new novel.
Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton, who served as a royal aide and mentor to Princes William and Harry, has revealed that his mother, Sue Lowther-Pinkerton, worked for MI5 during the Cold War—a secret she kept from her children for decades. The disclosure came after years of silence, shedding light on a life that inspired his new novel, "Beyond the Edge of Light."
Lowther-Pinkerton, who grew up knowing his mother had led an "amazing life," said she rarely spoke about her intelligence work. The truth emerged unexpectedly while watching a documentary about the Cambridge spy ring, a group of Soviet agents who infiltrated the British establishment. When the program suggested that Sir Roger Hollis, MI5's director general from 1956 to 1965, might have been the so-called "fifth man," Sue responded without hesitation: "Absolute nonsense. He was a total gentleman and a patriot."
Her children were stunned. "We both looked at her sideways as if she was completely mad," Lowther-Pinkerton recalled. He tried to learn more, but she belonged to a generation that "quite rightly just didn't want to talk about it." It was not until he was in his mid-20s that he and his older sister discovered their mother's intelligence career.
Sue Lowther-Pinkerton's path to MI5 began during World War II. Before she was old enough to enlist, she worked on NAAFI vans serving tea and food to troops and painted white lines on roads. In 1942, she joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service, the women's branch of the British Army, and was later posted to the Royal School of Artillery at Larkhill, where she drove gun limbers across firing ranges—a dangerous job that earned her an extra four pence a day.
After the war, she moved into secret service. According to her obituary in The Telegraph, she worked in Army intelligence in Singapore after leaving the military in 1948, handling secret communications related to HMS Amethyst's planned breakout from China's Yangtze River in 1949. She returned to Britain in 1951 and joined MI5, working at Leconfield House, but remained fiercely guarded about her duties there.
Lowther-Pinkerton, who later served in the Irish Guards and the Special Air Service (SAS), described his mother as "incredibly wild," raised in India and "kicked out of every educational establishment she ever went to." She received 11 marriage proposals before his father, Anthony Hull Lowther-Pinkerton, nicknamed "Rumpty," won her over. The couple settled in Suffolk, where she kept the family steady through her calmness. "Nothing fazed her," he said, recalling a moment when she threw a roast potato at his father during a low mood, hitting him "clean between the eyes" and leaving him "crying with laughter."
Sue remained in MI5 until 1956, when she left to start a family. For nearly 50 years afterward, she organized the annual Poppy Appeal, a fundraising campaign for veterans and service members, and delivered Meals on Wheels to remote cottages. She died in 2023 at age 99.
Lowther-Pinkerton's novel, "Beyond the Edge of Light," is a wartime love story whose central character, Missie, a rebellious young woman who joins military intelligence, was inspired by his mother. The book draws on her extraordinary life, from her adventurous youth to her secret work in the shadows of the Cold War.
