HN329 'John Graham' joined the Metropolitan Police in the late 1950s and joined Special Branch as a detective constable in the early 1960s. He says he worked in naturalisation enquiries and covered C Squad before joining the SDS on 12 August 1968, according to SDS records. His last report released by the Inquiry was in September 1969.
He spied on the Camden and Kilburn branches and the North West London Ad Hoc Committee of the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign (VSC) and reported on public meetings of the national committee of the VSC. He also spied on the Revolutionary Socialist Students Federation and was at the launch meeting of the Action Committee of the Anti Imperialist Solidarity Movement.
Graham says he cannot remember much about his time in SDS, but that the VSC branches he spied on were peaceful and law-abiding. It is possible that he was tasked to gather information about a prominent but unaffiliated VSC member rather infiltrate a specific branch, which explains his presence at several different branches in north-west London.
His time in the SDS ended abruptly in September 1969 when a disagreement with SDS manager PN1748 Riby Wilson led to his immediate withdrawal from the unit.
Graham gave evidence that during his time in the unit other SDS members HN68 ‘Sean Lynch’, HN331 and, possibly, HN327 Dave Fisher were arrested while undercover, and that Lynch and HN331 may have been convicted under their cover names.
He also admitted that, after his deployment ended, he took a female activist he had met while undercover out to dinner. After leaving the SDS, Graham returned to normal Special Branch work. His retirement date from the Metropolitan Police was not disclosed by the Inquiry but Graham has had a second, unrelated career for the last 30 years.
Unless otherwise indicated, the information in this profile is taken from the first witness statement of HN329 'John Graham' , his oral testimony to the Inquiry and his risk assessment.
Graham joined the Metropolitan Police in the late 1950s. After a standard two-year probationary period he applied to join Special Branch in the early 1960s. Starting as a detective constable, his first post was in naturalisation enquiries and he undertook covert, but not undercover, work on communist groups for C Squad before joining the SDS on 12 August 1968, according to HN325 Conrad Dixon's 'Penetration of Extremist Groups' strategy paper.
Like many other early SDS officers, Graham remembers the unit being much less hierarchical than other Special Branch units. He thought of Dixon as operational head of the unit, and 'commander in the field' but said his manner to fellow police was courteous and 'avuncular'. Graham noted that Dixon and HN332 Cameron Sinclair attended VSC meetings in plain clothes, so took a more active role in the unit than simply office-based managers.
According to Graham, all undercover officers would meet with Dixon and Sinclair, almost daily, at an SDS flat in West London. He thinks each undercover would have had their own key and remembers that HN328 Joan Hillier kept some of her personal belongings there.
At the flat, the undercovers shared information and discussed which events to cover. Graham says Special Branch Commander HN151 Ferguson Smith visited the SDS flat more than once, to see how the undercover officers were getting on.
Graham says he did not work set hours and that sometimes managers or fellow undercover officers would ask him to attend meetings by groups other than his target group. In fact, Graham remembers his deployment was ended abruptly as a result of him refusing to agree to such a request from manager PN1748 Riby Wilson.
Graham gave evidence that, during his time in the SDS, at least two other undercovers, including HN68 ‘Sean Lynch’ , were arrested for fly-posting with their groups. 'I believe that I learned of their arrest the following day when they informed DI [Phil] Saunders. As far as I know, they attended court in their cover names, paid a fine and were told never to do it again.' He also thought undercover HN327 'David Fisher' might have been arrested, although gave no further details.
Recruitment
Graham cannot remember how he joined the SDS, which he knew as 'the Hairies'. Dixon was his Special Branch supervisor and mentor, which probably explains how he came to be selected for the SDS. Unlike most of his fellow SDS recruits, Graham claims that when he first joined SDS he didn't know that Conrad Dixon was in charge of the unit.
Graham says he understood the SDS' goal to be to prevent a repeat of the disorder at the March 1968 Vietnam Solidarity Campaign (VSC) demonstration at the group’s planned event on 27 October 1968.
Tradecraft
Although he understood that his role in SDS involved using an undercover identity, Graham took few measures to create one. He grew a beard and 'usually wore a khaki-coloured anorak-style jacket that had a leopard-print woolly lining, corduroy trousers and Hush Puppy shoes' to change his appearance. He also rented a bedsit in north-west London on the advice of Dixon, and the SDS provided him with a fake rent book for it.
Otherwise, Graham did little else. He did not set up a cover job, though he planned to tell people he had a casual job driving cars between showrooms if asked. He never stayed at his cover address, and used his own car and driving licence. He did not create a background story and said he did not believe he ever had to use his cover surname. For more information about such issues see the page on tradecraft.
In a statement prepared for the Metropolitan Police, Graham said that while taking part in the 27 October 1968 VSC anti-Vietnam war march he was recognised by someone he knew who saw him handing out anti-war flyers, but that the person did not approach him at the time and told him only later that had been spotted. For more information see the page on Compromise of Cover Identities.
Training
Graham was deployed straight away and received no training, relying on his existing knowledge of Special Branch intelligence-gathering techniques. He says his work on the SDS was not very different to his Special Branch tasking, except he had an undercover identity and was not allowed to reveal he was a police officer to trusted contacts.
Married with young children when he joined the SDS, he does not remember being given any guidance on ethical issues around reporting and behaviour while undercover, apart from during a visit from the head of Special Branch, HN1253 Deputy Assistant Commissioner Ferguson Smith , 'who reiterated that we were not expected to carry out any illegal activity, but this was something we knew in any event.'
Although Graham cannot remember who did the initial tasking – other early undercovers say it was HN325 Conrad Dixon – he says once he started attending meetings he was given 'great latitude' to choose which groups to target for infiltration. '[W]e used our initiative rather than awaiting specific directions as to what to do and where to go. I do not recall my reporting ever being questioned.'
He says he remembers relatively little about his deployment into the Camden , Kilburn and Willesden, and Hampstead branches of the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign (VSC). Although the Camden branch was his main target, he says that because the groups 'were fluid in structure and "membership"', it was not unusual to attend meetings of different branches of the organisation.
Graham says he has no recollection of the Maoist Revolutionary Socialist Students Federation (RSSF) , whose meetings he is recorded to have attended and the Inquiry has not released any reports written by him on the group.
The only violence or public disorder Graham witnessed during his deployment was when a security guard at the Australian High Commission surreptitiously punched him while removing him from a VSC protest in January 1969. He took the standard SDS approach to report-writing, which was to record, 'anything that took place at [a] meeting and the identities of anyone that attended, as far as I was able to ascertain them'.
His reports include information on several groups he had not been asked to infiltrate, activists' ethnicities and the 12-year-old son of a member of the Camden VSC. For more information on this see the page: Spying on Children. On one occasion he travelled outside the Metropolitan Police jurisdiction to attend a VSC conference in Sheffield, where he stayed overnight with members of the Camden VSC, 'all... in the same place sleeping on the floor in sleeping bags'.
Graham says he did not develop any personal relationships with members of his group – possibly not for lack of trying. He did take a female activist out for dinner even though his deployment had ended, for more information see this profile's Relationships page.
His written evidence reveals he appraised the appearances of women he was spying on, comparing them unflatteringly to his colleague HN328 Joan Hillier: 'I remember that at one meeting at which we were both in attendance I was struck by her appearance as it made her stand out', he wrote, 'she was well put together in contrast with many of the other women who attended these meetings.' For more examples of undercover misogyny see: Sexism in SDS Reporting.
He infiltrated the VSC simply by starting to attend meetings, the times of which he assumes were gleaned from leaflets. As the meetings were open, he says he didn't have to become a member to attend. However, various documents released by the Inquiry show that Graham and Dixon attended private meetings of the Camden VSC, which suggests they were regarded as more than just casual attendees.
North West London Ad Hoc Committee
Graham attended meetings of the North West London Ad Hoc Committee of the VSC between 5 September and 17 October 1968. These meetings were a mixture of public events which were attended by up to 80 people and more often private gatherings at Friends House on Heath Street, Hampstead, London attended by around 35 people.
He explained that the Ad Hoc Committee meetings were open to activists from any VSC branch in north-west London. Different branches would come along to put forward their views on strategy, which often differed significantly which, Graham said, led to heated debates.
He was one of usually three SDS officers whose names appear on the reports of these meetings. The others were SDS founder Conrad Dixon, who had infiltrated the Camden VSC, and managers HN1251 Phil Saunders and HN332 Cameron Sinclair.
The presence of several experienced SDS officers in this VSC group is perhaps explained by the fact that Dr Geoff Richman, who sat on the VSC national executive committee, took a leading part in the meetings. Alternatively, they may have been attending as representatives from the various north-west London VSC branches they attended.
The names of two non-SDS Special Branch officers are mentioned in one report – Graham thinks this was because other squads must have sent plain-clothes officers to the meeting, not knowing that the SDS was already covering it.
Reports on Ad Hoc Committee meetings released by the Inquiry note Graham's presence but were more often authored by Saunders, Dixon and Sinclair. One report was submitted by Graham on some anti-war street theatre performed by members of the Ad Hoc Committee on 21 September 1968. Graham thinks he may have taken part in the performance, lying on the pavement pretending to be a dead body.
National VSC committees
Graham was present at several large public meetings of the national VSC Ad Hoc Committee, which was responsible for organising large national demonstrations, such as the one in London on 27 October 1968. Conrad Dixon wrote reports on meetings held on 17 September 1968 , attended by nine SDS undercover officers, and 11 November 1968 , conducting a post-mortem of the 27 October march.
Graham sent a telegram to the chief superintendent of Special Branch alerting him to VSC plans for the imminent 27 October march after a meeting on 22 October 1968. After a meeting on 20 December 1968, he sent another telegram about plans for public protests later that night, following up with a written report noting the attendees and content of the meeting.
Graham reported on two meetings of the VSC working committee on 24 July and 6 September 1969 that discussed plans for another mass demonstration. The first of these was in the home of national secretary Upali Kooray.
Organisations attending the first meeting included the RSSF, which may explain the suggestion that Graham infiltrated that group. The fact that Graham attended these meetings also suggests that he took a position of influence as a member of the working committee, something SDS founder Conrad Dixon claimed, at least on paper, that SDS officers should never do.
Asked during his oral testimony how he avoided influencing decisions while attending small, private meetings of VSC groups Graham claimed he always just voted with the majority.
Camden VSC
Graham said he only remembers infiltrating the Camden VSC and would have attended meetings of the NW London Ad Hoc Committee and the various iterations of the national VSC Ad Hoc Committee as a member of the Camden branch. The 17 SDS reports on Camden VSC meetings released by the Inquiry that mention Graham span 12 February 1969 to 20 August 1969. It is not possible to confirm whether he infiltrated the group from the start of his deployment in August 1968.
Around 20 people usually attended the weekly meetings of the Camden VSC, held in the Laurel Tree pub. Graham says the Camden branch made no attempt to hide its activities and mainly constituted middle-class intellectuals, most prominently VSC executive committee members Geoff and Marie Richman.
Judging from Graham’s reports, he was usually the only SDS officer spying on the branch. Although reports from 12 February, 19 and 26 March and 9 April, were signed by SDS back-office staff Joan Hillier or HN3095 Bill Furner , this is likely to be because they typed up Graham’s notes and not because they accompanied him to meetings.
Conrad Dixon – who had also infiltrated the group from its formation, and was, Graham says, popular among members – joined him when the branch held closed meetings. These closed meetings included one on 2 April, where Conrad included information on a member’s 12-year-old son and noted that another member 'appeared to be a homosexual'.
For more examples of reporting on sexuality, see the page: Homophobia in SDS Reporting.
Graham reported on the presence of the 12-year-old again, writing up meetings on 9 April and 16 May, when he noted that the child would be taking on the role of treasurer in the group.
Graham’s report of 19 May 1969 detailed the trip on 10 and 11 May by members of Camden VSC to Sheffield, to attend a conference of local VSC branches. It mentioned that a delegate from the Edinburgh VSC said its branch members could not sell the VSC newsletter 'because of police interference' and that Sheffield VSC said it spent most of its time raising funds to pay fines for members arrested and fined after taking part in demonstrations.
The 18 June 1969 report contains an issue of Red Camden, the bulletin of the Camden VSC, that appears to include two contributions by Graham; a section called ‘John's Titbits’ and a report on a VSC working committee meeting attributed to 'John Grahame'.
Questioned about the article during his oral testimony, Graham said he had no memory of the article but thought its real author was probably Conrad Dixon, as it was too well written to have been his own work. He did not see any ethical problems with contributing an article to the newsletter and denied the purpose of writing the article was to influence the group's direction.
Later undercovers, including HN304 Graham Coates and HN85 Roger Pearce 'Roger Thorley' also wrote articles in their fake identities.
Graham also submitted reports on a number of Vietnam Solidarity Campaign (VSC) branches and other groups that he had not directly infiltrated.
Durham VSC
Two reports on the Durham branch of the VSC, dated 14 and 21 October 1968, were written up and signed by Graham but were not, he says, based on intelligence he had personally gathered. Both reports concerned the Durham VSC's plans to travel to London to attend the 27 October march. Graham explained this in his witness statement, writing that, 'it was common practice that local Special Branch from other forces would share relevant intelligence with the MPS' Special Branch'.
Willesden and Kilburn VSC
HN325 Conrad Dixon submitted a report on a fractious meeting of the Hampstead branch on 30 October, at which Graham was present, noting that the Willesden and Kilburn VSC branch was being re-formed as a factional split from the Hampstead branch.
Graham reported on three public meetings of this branch, held on 5 and 17 December 1968 and 2 January 1969. Attendance was poor, ranging from five to 17 people, and discussions were mainly about plans for local demonstrations. Graham was the only SDS undercover at the meetings.
Revolutionary Socialist Students Federation
Graham was listed as an undercover who had infiltrated the Revolutionary Socialist Students Federation (RSSF) in Conrad Dixon's November 1968 strategy paper, 'Penetration of Extremist Groups'. Graham he says he has no recollection of the group, although if it had attended VSC meetings he might have reported on it.
He did report on a meeting of the VSC working committee on 24 July 1969 at which the RSSF was present. A lot of the description in Dixon's paper of how the SDS did, or should, operate did not reflect the experience of the early SDS undercovers who gave evidence to the Inquiry. It is possible that Dixon listing Graham having infiltrated the RSSF was an aspiration or future plan, rather than a record of something that had happened.
Although married with small children while in the SDS, Graham's witness statement includes comments on the appearances of a female colleague and of the women he was spying on. While undercover, he arranged to have dinner in a restaurant with a female activist but was withdrawn from the SDS before the meal took place. Graham nonetheless went ahead with what he claims was a 'purely social' dinner date, surprising the activist by arriving with a clean-shaven face.
He does not remember whether he told managers about what he says was an 'inconsequential' arrangement. Graham says he had no sexual intentions towards the activist and did not cancel the meal, ‘simply to avoid being "impolite"'.
Other undercovers who took activists out to dinner include HN345 ‘Peter Fredericks’, who further attempted to visit a female activist after his deployment had ended. HN11 Mike Chitty 'Mike Blake' , HN26 ‘Christine Green’ and EN12 Mark Kennedy 'Mark Stone' had extensive contact after their deployments ended with people they had spied on. See the page on Undercover Officers' Relationships for more information.
Graham says he had no interaction with MI5 while in the SDS but understood that part of Special Branch's role was to provide information on threats to the security of the state. Questioned about his understanding of the meaning of subversion, Graham said he was never given a definition while in the SDS but thought it meant challenging the status quo and the government of the day.
While giving oral evidence, the Counsel to the Inquiry (CTI) also asked Graham about his understanding of the word 'revolutionary'. His answer indicates how broadly the SDS defined subversive behaviour. Asked in what sense he understood the Camden VSC to be revolutionary, given his evidence that they were non-violent, Graham gave his answer in the following exchange:
Graham: Well, they – they wanted to change the government.
CTI: And if they were not going to use violence, how were they going to seek a change of government?
Graham: To try and persuade people to their point of view.
For more information, see the pages on the relationship between MI5 and the SDS and SDS officers' understanding of subversion.
The manner of Graham's departure from the SDS undermines his claim that his time in the unit was characterised by consensual decision-making and self-led tasking: he says his deployment ended suddenly as a result of his refusal to follow an order from manager Riby Wilson.
Wilson tasked Graham to report on a meeting he did not think was a good idea to attend. 'DI Wilson issued me with an ultimatum: either I attended the meeting or I was thrown off the SDS', Graham recalls. 'I explained my reasons to HN2857 Chief Superintendent [Arthur] Cunningham in person at Scotland Yard but the end result was the same. He backed up DI Wilson's decision.'
Graham says he did not have an exit story to support his exfiltration; he just stopped going to meetings. He did, however, go out for dinner with a female activist from his target group even though his deployment had ended. For more information, see the page in this profile on Relationships.
After being removed from the SDS in September 1969, Graham went straight to another squad. He worked in Special Branch, including in C Squad, until the late 1980s. He does not feel his welfare was impacted by working on the SDS and says he enjoyed all his work for Special Branch. He was not given any guidance on the ethics of using his Special Branch training in the private sector and says he did not do so.
After retiring from the Metropolitan Police, Graham had a second career and was still working when he provided his first witness statements to the Inquiry. During his risk assessment he said his real name and address were available on the internet and that he had appeared on television a few times.
You can find all the documents relating to this section in the Procedural section of the Documents page of this profile.
The MPS applied to have Graham's real name restricted on 29 March 2017, supplying a risk assessment from 23 February 2017 and completing an impact statement on 30 March 2017.
The cover name 'John Graham' and details about his deployment were released by the Inquiry on 3 August 2017
Inquiry chair John Mitting heard arguments on whether to restrict Graham's real name on 21 November 2017 and ruled to do so on 5 December 2017, publishing his order on 8 December 2017.
Graham made his first witness statement on 17 September 2018 and added supplementary information on 11 April 2019. He gave a second witness statement, identifying SDS officers in photographs supplied by the Inquiry, on 27 August 2019. He appeared before the Inquiry to give oral evidence on 12 November 2020.