Norman Darbyshire

children = 6; 3 daughters and 3 sons

Espionage career Darbyshire was recruited into the Special Operations Executive and then joined the Secret Intelligence Service following its dissolution. He spent much of his career in the Middle East, in Iran, Lebanon, Egypt and Bahrain. Darbyshire and Zaehner traveled to Jerusalem, Palestine in 1947 and set up a radio aimed at Iranian audience using the Near East Broadcasting Station facilities.

He was posted to Iran again in late 1949 and continued to conduct covert operations with official cover. On 11 June 1950, he became the vice-consul in Mashhad Aside from controlling the Rashidian network through Samuel Falle as intermediary, during the second spell in Iran he was directly in touch with Mohammad Reza Shah, "more on a social basis", and influencing him indirectly via figures like Ernest Perron. Darbyshire handled dozens of agents, both for intelligence-gathering and black operations. He had a number of deputies in the Iranian Parliament on the payroll who voted and spoke as they were instructed, as well as entryists in the communist Tudeh Party, the Lankarani brothers, who organized mobs attacking mosques and public places in the name of the party.

In October 1952, the Iranian government closed down the British embassy and evicted all its staff, including Darbyshire. As a result, he was formally transferred to the British Middle East Office in Cairo on 26 October 1952, and asked CIA's Kermit Roosevelt Jr. to join their coup d'état plan. Among other things, he was involved in the kidnapping, torture, and assassination of General Mahmoud Afshartous, Mossadegh's chief of police, and bribed the Shah's twin sister Princess Ashraf Pahlavi to play a key role in the coup and to eventually become a power behind his resulting dictatorship. Darbyshire, on behalf of Prime Minister Winston Churchill, along with his American counterpart Stephen Meade who spoke for Secretary of State Foster Dulles, met with Princess Ashraf and persuaded her to return to Tehran and convince her brother to cooperate with their plan. Therefore he directed the British side of the coup by radio contact from Cyprus, controlling the street mobs, thugs, prostitutes and military officers who were paid off by the Rashidians. under cover as the consul since 20 April 1956. In that capacity, he also worked closely with Mossad and SAVAK against influence of the Nasserite movement. In July 1960, he was called back to London.

Darbyshire returned to Tehran as station chief in 1963, on a mission lasting until 1967. before moving to the British Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon taking the position of First Secretary. Darbyshire returned to Whitehall in 1973 and retired from the SIS in 1978. He died in Britain in June 1993 of a heart attack.

Portrayal in film and television In the 2019 documentary Coup 53 by Taghi Amirani, actor Ralph Fiennes plays the part of Darbyshire. Awards Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (1953) Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (1961)