Desmond Harney

Desmond Edward St Aubyn Harney (14 February 1929 – 10 December 2000) was a British intelligence officer and Conservative Party politician.

A fluent Farsi speaker, Harney was a foreign observer in Iran in the years leading up to the revolution, where he enjoyed intimate access to the inner circle of the Shah, but failed to anticipate his eventual overthrow.

In later life, he entered the world of local politics and served as Mayor of Kensington and Chelsea, though he was thwarted in his ambition to become an MP.

Biography Early life and education Harney was the son of Irish lawyer and politician Edward Harney, who died shortly after his birth. Raised in the North East, he was educated at Corby School in Sunderland and Durham University, where he graduated with a first-class degree in Geography and Geology. After leaving Durham, Harney embarked on postgraduate studies in Geography at St Catharine's College, Cambridge, but ultimately left early without taking a degree.

Career Harney worked at Imperial Chemical Industries from 1954, leaving two years later for the Foreign Office. He undertook Persian language training with Ann Lambton at SOAS.

The rise to power of Ruhollah Khomeini took Harney by surprise, who felt the left-wing National Front was more likely to consolidate control. He regarded the Shah as personally flawed, but nevertheless saw him as an effective administrator, apparently underestimating the degree to which his modernisation policies had alienated more traditional elements of Persian society. Among them was a file belonging to Arthur Callaghan, the former CIA station chief, which mentioned Harney as a trusted contact and described him as a British intelligence officer with a nominal job as a Morgan Grenfell banker.

Personal Harney married Judith Downing in 1954 and had three children.

One of Harney's hobbies was photography. He was known to supplement his salary by selling photographs of "little visited places" to commercial agencies. He was also a member of the Garrick Club.

Publications The Priest and the King: An Eyewitness Account of the Iranian Revolution, I. B. Tauris, 1998